Deborah Ellis is a writer, women's rights activist and mental health counselor
in Toronto. Her latest children's book is 'The Breadwinner', published this month
by Oxford University Press. The novel follows a young Afghan girl living in
poverty under the Taliban who is forced to masquerade as a boy to earn food for
her family. Billed as the only children's book available on current life in
Afghanistan, interest in The Breadwinner has surged as parents struggle to
explain the events of recent months to their children.