Ellis, Deborah 1960-

views updated

Ellis, Deborah 1960-

PERSONAL:

Born August 8, 1960, in Cochrane, Ontario, Canada; daughter of Keith (an office manager) and Betty (a nurse) Ellis. Politics: "Feminist, anti-war." Hobbies and other interests: Bicycling, exploring the woods.

CAREER:

Writer, mental health counselor, and civil rights activist. Margaret Frazer House, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, mental health worker, 1988—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Book of the Year for Children shortlist, Canadian Library Association, 1999, Governor General's Award, 2000, and Silver Birch Reading Award shortlist, 2001, all for Looking for X; Ruth Schwartz Children's Book Award for young adult/middle reader category, Rose Avenue Public School, 2003, for Parvana's Journey; Book of the Year Children Award, 2003, Honour Book, for Parvana's Journey and Company of Fools.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

Women of the Afghan War, Praeger Books (Westport, CT), 2000.

Three Wishes: Israeli and Palestinian Children Speak, Groundwood Books (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2004.

Our Stories, Our Songs: African Children Talk about AIDS, Fitzhenry & Whiteside (Markham, Ontario, Canada), 2005.

I Am a Taxi, Groundwood Books (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2006.

Jackal in the Garden: An Encounter with Bihzad, Watson-Guptill Publications (New York, NY), 2006.

NOVELS; FOR YOUNG ADULTS

Haley and Scotia, Frog-in-the-Well (San Francisco, CA), 1995.

Looking for X, Groundwood Books (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1999.

A Company of Fools, Fitzhenry & Whiteside Ltd. (Markham, Ontario, Canada), 2002.

The Heaven Shop, Fitzhenry & Whiteside (Markham, Ontario, Canada), 2004.

"BREADWINNER" TRILOGY

The Breadwinner, Groundwood Books (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2000.

Parvana's Journey, Groundwood Books (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2002.

Mud City, Groundwood Books (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Canadian writer Deborah Ellis's political activism has inspired her writings for young adults. In Looking for X, an eleven-year-old girl who calls herself Khyber, after the famous mountain pass in Afghanistan, lives with her single mother and five-year-old autistic twin brothers in a poor section of Toronto. Khyber struggles through the challenges of her days essentially friendless until she meets a mysterious homeless woman named X, whom she befriends. One day, a group of skinheads harasses X and Khyber in the park, and when the school is vandalized at the same time, Khyber is blamed. So the girl goes in search of X, to corroborate her story, and this starts an odyssey through the world of the homeless in Toronto. Anita L. Burkam, writing in the Horn Book, noted that while a reader may expect Khyber's life to be bleak, given all her problems, Ellis instead strives to show the joy in the poor girl's life, mainly provided by her love for her mother and brothers. "What you wouldn't expect are the marvelous characterizations and fiercely close family ties Deborah Ellis has created here," Burkam remarked. For Leslie Ann Lacika, writing in School Library Journal, Khyber's "quirky" life is not quite believable, but Ellis's rich characterizations make up for the lack. "Khyber is a likable protagonist and readers will appreciate how she copes with her issues," Lacika continued.

Ellis's interest in Afghanistan takes a front-and-center role in her next young adult novel, The Breadwinner. Published in early 2001, before the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center and the ensuing war on terrorism conducted by the United States mainly in Afghanistan, The Breadwinner provides a child's-eye view of life under the Taliban regime. Ellis's protagonist is Parvana, an eleven-year-old girl whose scholarly father is imprisoned by the Taliban, leaving the family to starve, since women are not allowed to work or even to leave their homes unattended by a male relative. So Parvana decides to disguise herself as a boy and go out into the streets to earn money to feed her mother and small brothers. "The Breadwinner is a potent portrait of life in contemporary Afghanistan," John Green wrote in Booklist. A contributor to Publishers Weekly commented that "the topical issues introduced, coupled with this strong heroine, will make this novel of interest to many conscientious teens."

Ellis donated all profits from the sale of The Breadwinner to a charitable organization that funds schools for Afghan girls living in Pakistani refugee camps. The author visited these refugee camps in order to collect stories of the war in Afghanistan as fought by the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. The resulting book, Women of the Afghan War, also contains first-person narratives of Soviet women soldiers, which Ellis traveled to Moscow in order to obtain. It was while she was recording stories among the Afghans that she heard of a young girl who cut off her hair and donned boys' clothing in order to go out onto the streets of Kabul and earn her family's living. "Something just went click in my head and I knew that I had to do a book about that person," Ellis told Debra Huron in Herizons.

The Breadwinner is the first book in Ellis's "Breadwinner" trilogy, which includes Parvana's Journey and Mud City. In the sequel Parvana's Journey, Parvana, who is now thirteen, is wandering through Afghanistan following the death of her father. As she is searching for her mother and siblings, who have disappeared in the chaos of war following the Taliban takeover, she teams up with other abandoned children in an effort to survive. In a review in Skipping Stones, George Ayres noted the "vivid descriptions of hunger, bombing and mine fields." Kathleen T. Isaacs, writing in the School Library Journal, called the novel "an unforgettable read."

Mud City switches its focus to Parvana's friend Shauzia, a fourteen year old who decides to leave the refugee camp where the children have found safety. Shauzia's decision to leave is based partly on her dislike of the demanding camp leader. Wandering the streets of Peshawar disguised as a boy, Shauzia does whatever she can to survive, only to ultimately return to the refugee camp with a new appreciation for the camp's leader Mrs. Weera. "The story is strong on message," wrote Hazel Rochman in Booklist Referring to the novel as "poignant" in a review in Resource Links, Anne Hatcher noted: "Ellis creates a compelling and heart wrenching depiction of life in the refugee camps." School Library Journal contributor Kathleen Isaacs noted that "this novel conveys a distinctive sense of place."

Ellis turns to the distant past for her novel A Company of Fools. In 1349 France, choirboy Henri keeps a journal of the Plague Year and details his friendship with another orphan at the Abbey of St. Luc named Micah. Full of life, it is Micah who turns Henri's life around. Eventually, the two friends join with the monks in establishing a performing troupe called the Company of Fools with the purpose of providing some relief for the suffering people around them. In the process, Micah proves to be an angelic singer whose singing, according to some, can cure the plague. Micah at first becomes enamored with his own singing and supposed powers only to have Henri bring him back to earth again. Burkham, writing again in Horn Book noted that "the friendship between the two boys [is] a universal theme particularly well placed in Ellis's lively and historically plausible tale."

The Heaven Shop tells the story of Binti, a southern African child who is relatively well off in that she attends a private school and has a weekly radio show. Nevertheless, Binti's mother and father die of AIDS, and Binti winds up living with uncaring relatives. After running away, she eventually reunites with her prostitute sister and her brother, who was in prison. Hazel Rochman, writing in Booklist, noted that the author "creates a vivid sense of the place and characters that are angry, kind, brave, and real." Kliatt contributor Claire Rosser wrote: "By reading this gripping story, students will understand how the epidemic of AIDS in Africa has changed individuals and whole societies."

In her nonfiction book, Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak, Ellis relays the words and messages of twenty children caught up in decades long conflict between Palestine and Israel. They talk of bombs and checkpoints and how the crisis around them has affected their lives. "The specifics and the passionate immediacy of the voices will spark discussion," wrote Hazel Rochman in Booklist. School Library Journal contributor Alison Follos referred to Three Wishes as "an excellent presentation of a confusing historic struggle, told within a palpable, perceptive and empathetic format."

Ellis continues with children's views of a difficult life with Our Stories, Our Songs: African Children Talk about AIDS. For the book, Ellis, interviews more than fifty children from sub-Saharan Africa and, through their stories and thoughts, provides a look at the extreme poverty that pervades this land and its economic and emotional impact on the children and others who live there. Melissa Christy Buron, writing in the School Library Journal, called Our Stories, Our Songs "an impressive offering whose chilling accounts remain with readers long after the book is finished." Hazel Rochman wrote in Booklist, that "the [children's] short, simple sentences and the small photographs capture a wide variety of individual experience."

Ellis once commented: "I'm fascinated by the capacity of children to cope in a dangerous world, to live in it with joy and dignity. That is the general theme running through my books for young readers.

"Sometimes I enjoy writing, sometimes I hate it because it takes me away from more pleasurable activities, but always I am compelled to do it. There is nothing so satisfying as completing another manuscript, knowing I've gotten through it one more time. Maybe it will sell, maybe it won't—that's up to the gods—but at least I didn't quit, and that feels great."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Libraries, April, 2006, "Three Wishes: Israeli and Palestinian Children Speak Denied in Ontario," p. 15.

Booklist, May 15, 2000, Anne O'Malley, review of Looking for X, p. 1739; March 1, 2001, John Green, review of The Breadwinner, p. 1275; November 15, 2003, Hazel Rochman, review of Mud City, p. 597; September 1, 2004, Hazel Rochman, review of The Heaven Shop, p. 120; September 1, 2004, Hazel Rochman, review of Three Wishes, p. 122; October 1, 2005, Hazel Rochman, review of Our Stories, Our Songs: African Children Talk about AIDS, p. 52.

Bookseller, February 18, 2005, review of The Heaven Shop, p. 38.

Chicago Tribune, December 4, 2001, Patrick D. Reardon, "Books Find Ways to Speak to Children about War," includes discussion of The Breadwinner.

Christian Century, December 14, 2004, review of The Heaven Shop, p. 24.

Financial Times, May 14, 2005, review of The Heaven Shop, p. 33.

Herizons, summer, 2001, Debra Huron, "Transcending Borders," p. 36.

Horn Book, July, 2000, Anita L. Burkam, review of Looking for X, p. 456; January-February, 2003, Anita L. Burkam, review of A Company of Fools, p. 70; November-December, 2005, Betty Carter, review of Our Stories, Our Songs, p. 733.

Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2004, review of The Heaven Shop, p. 740.

Kliatt, September, 2003, Claire Rosser, review of Mud City, p. 7; September, 2004, Claire Rosser, review of The Heaven Shop, p. 8; March, 2005, Claire Rosser, review of Mud City, p. 18.

Maclean's, November 12, 2001, Brian Bethune, "Kabul for Kids: A Canadian Scores with a Tale of Taliban Oppression," p. 56.

Publishers Weekly, March 19, 2001, review of The Breadwinner, p. 100; November 17, 2003, Nathalie Atkinson, "A Timely Trilogy: Canadian Author Deborah Ellis Finds International Success Detailing the Struggles of Afghan Refuges," p. 22; December 20, 2004, review of The Heaven Shop, p. 60.

Resource Links, December, 2003, Anne Hatcher, review of Mud City, p. 14; October, 2004, Victoria Pennell, review of The Heaven Shop, p. 28; December, 2005, Joan Marshall, review of Our Stories, Our Songs, p. 41.

School Library Journal, July, 2000, Leslie Ann Lacika, review of Looking for X, p. 104; July, 2001, Kathleen Isaacs, review of The Breadwinner, p. 106; October, 2003, review of Parvana's Journey, p. S43; November, 2003, Kathleen Issacs, review of Mud City, p. 138; October, 2004, Kathleen Isaacs, review of The Heaven Shop, p. 161, and Alison Follos, review of Three Wishes, p. 190; March, 2005, Kathleen T. Isaacs, review of Parvana's Journey, p. 68; April, 2005, review of Three Wishes, p. S45; November, 2005, Melissa Christy Buron, review of Our Stories, Our Songs, p. 156; December, 2005, Rick Margolis, "When Children Suffer: Canadian Writer and Activist Deborah Ellis Talks about the AIDS epidemic," p. 40.

Skipping Stones, May-August, 2003, George Ayres, review of Parvana's Journey, p. 30.

Time International, November 26, 2001, Bryan Walsh, "Veil of Tears: A Children's Book Details Life under the Taliban," p. 66.