Chapter 1-11 Summary

The Breadwinner is about an eleven year old girl named Parvana who lives in Afghanistan while the Taliban is in control. She has moved into a run down apartment in Kabul. One day while she is at home with her family, 4 Taliban soldiers come in and take Parvana's father away. This is awful because there are rules about going outside. You are not aloud to go outside without a man or a note from a man. Women must wear a chador when they go outside and they are not aloud to work. Now they are running out of food and money and there mother won't do anything but sleep. A couple days later,

Mrs. Weera comes over and turns everything around. She gets mama up and dressed and she gets everyone organized. Mrs. Weera is one of mama's friends and she used to be a gym teacher.That night mama and Mrs. Weera decide to dress Parvana up like a boy, that way they can get food and money. She is their only hope becuase she is the only one old enough and that can look like a boy. This is the beggining of her many adventures.

First of all as a boy she takes over her Dad's job. She enjoys being outside and doing her Dad's job. It gives her a whole new understanding about what it is boys have to do. One day she runs into Shauzia, a girl from school, who was also dressed as a boy. From then on they hang out with each other and become great friends.

Then Shauzia and Parvana come up with an idea to join together and sell things, but they don't have enough money. Shauzia suggests to Parvana to go bone digging. Parvana knows her mom will not like this, but she goes along with it. When she goes bone digging she digs up a lot of bones and makes a lot more money then she ever has.