One More Mountain: A Parvana Story

Description

In Kabul, 15-year-old Damsa runs away to avoid being forced into marriage by her family. She is helped by Shauzia who takes her to her friend Parvana's Green Valley school. It has been twenty years since Parvana and Shauzia had to disguise themselves as boys to support their families. And when the Taliban were defeated in 2001, they began to rebuild their lives. But everything changed in 2021 when the Taliban rose to power again and the restrictions they imposed had a devastating impact on women and girls and their hard-won freedoms. With little warning, Kabul airport is shut down and danger is everywhere. And when the Taliban comes to Green Valley, Parvana and Shauzia's community face new dangers from an old enemy as Afghanistan is once again under siege. A hauntingly compelling story of courage, heartbreak and resilience.

Deborah Ellis has achieved international acclaim with her courageous and dramatic books that give Western readers a glimpse into the plight of children in developing countries. She has won the Governor General's Award, Sweden's Peter Pan Prize, the Ruth Schwartz Award, the University of California's Middle East Book Award, the Jane Addams Children's Book Award and the Vicky Metcalf Award. A long-time feminist and anti-war activist, she is best known for the Parvana series, which has been published around the world in twenty-nine languages, with more than two million dollars in royalties donated to organisations such as Women for Women in Afghanistan, Mental Health Without Borders, the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, the Leprosy Mission, Children in Crisis fund of IBBY and the UNHCR. In 2017 Parvana was adapted into an award-winning animated film called The Breadwinner. Deborah will be donating 100% of her royalties from One More Mountain to Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan, an organisation working on the ground to provide urgent food supplies and emergency aid to those in need across Afghanistan. In 2006, Deb was named to the Order of Ontario and in 2016 she was named to the Order of Canada.