parvana's journey chapter 12 summary

The Breadwinner #2

Parvana's journey, deborah ellis.

199 pages, Paperback

First published July 23, 2002

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Parvana's Journey

79 pages • 2 hours read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-2

Chapters 3-6

Chapters 7-10

Chapters 11-14

Chapters 15-18

Chapters 19-21

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Chapters 19-21 Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 19 summary.

The children immediately take Hassan to the camp clinic, and a kind nurse lets them stay on the floor next to Hassan’s crib. She brings them tea, bread, and a blanket to share. After a few days, the clinic has grown so crowded that they must leave, so they create a small tent just outside the clinic. Each day, Parvana waits in line for bread for hours, and many times the bakery runs out before she reaches the front of the line. As the days pass, the camp grows increasingly crowded, loud, and smelly. The nights become colder, and Asif and Leila’s coughing worsens. However, Hassan is growing stronger in the clinic, and Parvana knows that, although the conditions are miserable, they will be safest if they stay in the camp for the winter. 

Chapter 20 Summary

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“Tanks were normal. Bombs were normal. Why couldn’t eating be normal?”

Parvana’s Journey by Deborah Ellis

July 13, 2020 by ElCicco Leave a Comment

Parvana’s Journey is the second book in Ellis’ The Breadwinner series and picks up shortly after Parvana and her father have left Kabul, Afghanistan, circa 2000, in search of the rest of their family. Ellis continues to focus on matters of war and violence from the perspective of Afghanistan’s refugee children. Like The Breadwinner , this is a short YA novel, appropriate for children age 10 or so and older. It shows the horrors of war and family separation through the eyes of Parvana and other children she meets on her journey to find her mother, sisters and brother.

The Breadwinner ended with Parvana being reunited with her father, who had been jailed by the Taliban. He had lost a limb in a past bombing, and the brutality of imprisonment had further weakened him. As Parvana’s Journey opens, Parvana — still disguised as a boy due to Taliban restrictions on women and girls — has just had to bury her father and now must make her way on her own to find her mother. Parvana and her father had been traveling for months, going without food, medicine and basic amenities while traveling through refugee camps and evading warring armies. Parvana, only about 12 years old, now must go it on her own. Bombings are common, villages are shattered, and refugees abound. Parvana knows she must avoid the Taliban at all costs since she is getting to an age where she can no longer hide her sex, and for a woman or girl to be out on her own, uncovered, will lead to capture, beating and perhaps death.

On her lonely and dangerous journey, Parvana comes upon a bombed out village where she finds some food and also a baby — the sole survivor of whatever violence happened there. She decides to call him Hassan and brings him along, even though this will make her life more difficult. He must be fed, changed, carried, while Parvana herself hasn’t much to eat and is exhausted, but she cannot imagine leaving him to die. When Parvana finds a small cave near a stream, she also discovers another child, a boy near her age named Alif. Alif is missing a leg and shows signs of beatings, and he is an angry and bossy child. Alif and Parvana have a somewhat testy relationship, but Alif needs Parvana and she sees that Alif is actually a good caretaker for Hassan, and so the unlikely trio journey on together.  

Among Parvana’s few possessions are a book that had been her father’s and a journal that she keeps along the way. Before leaving Kabul, Parvana had had a friend, Shauzia, who, like her was pretending to be a boy in order to work and support her family. Shauzia’s dream was to move to Paris, a seemingly idyllic place full of beauty and far from war. The two girls agree that in 20 years, they will meet again in Paris. In her journal, Parvana writes to Shauzia about her life — the trials, the fears, the terror and exhaustion. One day, when things seem to be at their worst, when Alif, Hassan and Parvana are starving, unwell and exhausted, Parvana writes of an imaginary world — a place of beauty and plenty that only children can see. It’s not long after this that Parvana and Alif make a startling discovery — that they are in a mine field and that a little girl named Leila has seen them and can save them.

The four children become a kind of family and manage to put together a decent sort of life in Leila’s mud hut, but eventually the war catches up to them, forcing them to flee. The children find their way to a refugee camp, where the novel ends with a combination of sadness and hope.

Ellis’ overall message is about the horror of war and its impact on children. Parvana’s Journey is graphic in its description of this, but it is appropriate for kids. I think it could lead to worthwhile discussions about war, about the plight of refugees around the world, and about Afghanistan — a place that has been the site of fighting for thousands of years but about which many of us know very little. This series continues to impress me.

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The Breadwinner

Life was wearing on parvana and shauzia. explain why. chapter 12.

In Chapter Twelve, Parvana stays home for a few days, wanting not to see anything ugly for a little while. Mother and Mrs. Weera heard about the stadium event: it goes on every Friday. Parvana wonders if her father will be taken there. Shauzia says she missed Parvana when Parvana returns to the market. Shauzia complains how her family is full of grumpy people; she is happy to be out of the house. Shauzia confesses that she is saving money with plans to take a boat to France, where the sun shines and flowers bloom and people smile. Parvana couldn’t imagine taking such a journey on her own. Shauzia says she’s starting to grow: her shape is changing, and she doesn’t want her woman’s body to emerge before she’s saved up enough money to escape. Shauzia says she knows she’s a bad person for wanting to leave her family behind, but she thinks she’ll die if she has to stay.

Parvana just wants a normal, boring life. Shauzia asks if Parvana wants to go with her, but Parvana says she couldn’t imagine leaving her family. Parvana reveals her own secret: the gifts the woman threw out the window. They joke about the woman being a princess they must rescue. They return to work, selling dried nuts and fruit. Parvana longs to be back in a classroom, bored by

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Parvana's Journey Literature Guide

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SuperSummary’s Literature Guide for Parvana's Journey by Deborah Ellis provides text-specific content for close reading, engagement, and the development of thought-provoking assignments. Review and plan more easily with plot and character or key figures and events analyses, important quotes, essay topics, and more.

Note: This rich text-study resource for teacher and student support does not contain activities, quizzes, or discussion questions. For ready-to-use classroom materials, please consider one of our Teaching Units , which feature writing and discussion prompts, comprehension and analysis questions, and creative pre-built activities.

Interested in activities and assessment materials on this title? We also offer a bundled Parvana's Journey Novel Unit & Literature Guide .

LITERATURE GUIDE

Delve into the easy-to-navigate 38-page guide with table of contents for chapter-by-chapter summaries and analyses on Parvana's Journey . Build rich lessons using our comprehensive analyses of the book’s multiple themes, symbols, and motifs such as "The Effects of War on Children" and "The Senseless Nature of War".

Featured content also includes:

• Commentary on major characters
• 25 important quotes with accompanying analysis
• 10 thoughtful essay topics for writing or discussion

✏️ How to use:

Created to provide a thorough review and to support students’ deep understanding of Parvana's Journey , our literature guide quickly refreshes teachers on important plot points or events throughout the book as well as essential themes, symbols and motifs. The contents of the guide provide a strong framework for helping students understand the underlying meaning of a work of literature.

Extra! Our free Realistic Fiction (Middle Grade) Book List features Parvana's Journey along with 28 other titles. Check it out for great curriculum, text pairing, and independent reading list ideas!

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Title availability.

• Toronto : Groundwood Books, 2002.

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