Mud City A book about a girl with a dream that is almost impossible to achieve in her position.

Deborah Ellis On August 7th, 1960 as a true Canadian author, Deborah Ellis was born. She decided to be an author when between the young age of eleven and 12. In 1997, she decided to travel to Afghanistan to interview people at refugee camps. After she got that information, she was able to write her first well known novel, Parvana’s Journey. Then the sequel, Mud City. But that’s not all! She wrote an adults ook called Women of the Afghan War and The Breadwinner which was inspired while she was in Afghanistan interviewing a mother at a refugee camp. Another book she wrote with Eric Walters called Bifical about all of the planned terrorists attacks in Canada. She won the Governor General’s Award for English language children’s literature. She is truly an amazing author.

About Mud City Mud City is about a girl with a dream that is almost impossible in her position. Shuzia’s life begins in Afghanistan and stays there with her being left with no family. She was hopeless. No parents, no cousins, no nothing. Just her and her dog Jasper. She comes to the refugee camp and gets used by doing Miss Werra’s “little jobs.” She is so annoyed with her that she decides to do something about it. Maybey leave. Shuzia’s dream is that she will get out of Afghanistan and move to Paris to live in a field of purple flowers, a magazine clipping that she had been holding onto for as long as she can remember. The only thing she knows is that is peaceful, quiet, and the best thing of all is that there is no Miss Werra. Her journey begins with her and her dog, Jasper going out of the camp and finding a job so that she can go to the sea to get to Paris. She ends up finding a job at the butcher shop, but it doesn’t work out the way she planned. Luckily, she had enough money to feed herself and her dog. She meets loving families who are willing to give her rupees especially one who she comes close to while in the mean time, her dream being crushed. Will she live with them forever… or get kicked out. Only you can answer that.

Other Literary Elements Characters: The characters in Mud City are Shuzia, the girl with an amazing dream that she never wants to let go. In the mean time, she is in a refugee camp in Afghanistan. Jasper is her dog who helps her when she comes across jobs and people that she fears. Miss Weera is the manager of the women's refugee camp. She uses Shuzia for her “little jobs.” Parvana, who is not in the story is her long lost best friend who left the camp and promised that she would meet Shuzia in Paris. There are many more, but these are the most important to the story. Conflict: Shuzia has a dream that she is not willing to let go of, but might have to because of what she goes through. Setting: Afghanistan (towns, prisons, streets, a refugee camp) Themes: Never let go of a dream. Even if you are to small to achieve it.

Refugee Camps in Afghanistan Refugee camps are for women and men who fled to Afghanistan after the Soviet Invasion in 1979. There, they were safe. Roofs over their heads and the sound of bombs and gunshots ringing in their ears was gone. Women: They come if their sons, daughters, or husbands have been imprisoned or killed or if the women and their child have no where to go. Without a husband in Afghanistan an many other countries you are considered worthless. So you have no where to go. Usually, women try to get employed, but in the mean time they have no money which means no food and no roof over your head. Some women end up suffering and dyeing or being terribly sick. The lucky ones find a refugee camp that is willing to take them in.

Taliban The Taliban is an organization trying to govern Afghanistan. It is a political movement. They don’t believe in human rights and try to inforce their beliefs and take over the country. They kill people for things they didn’t do. Innocent people who have to feed their families. In the war right now we are trying to defeat them so everybody can be equal and have rights that they don’t have now. Afghans know the Taliban as the “alternative government.

My Sources http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_refugees http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliban http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Ellis