“Life isn’t always fair.” Remember that when you watch The Breadwinner. On the long Emirates flight to India, there were a lot of movies to choose from, but this one caught my attention. Emirates even recommends the movie! The Breadwinner is a 2017 animated drama about a poor family under Taliban rule. After her father mistakenly gets captured, Parvana, an 11-year old girl (and the story’s main character!) cuts off her hair to look like a boy. Why? Because even today, in many parts of the world, girls don’t have the same rights as boys. As a boy, she is able to go freely to the market and buy groceries to support her family. At times, the movie is very exciting and fun, but there are also some very scary scenes that show her family members as well as random people getting beaten and whipped. Even though this is an animated story, it’s not like the Disney movies. I felt very sad and mad after watching it – sad to see the suffering of kids and adults… and mad that today, people can treat each other like that. This movie has a lot of great themes, like teamwork, bravery, kindness, and grit. It really shows that even in the darkest of times, we can still look for hope and light. Most adults and even us kids will face difficult problems in our lives. But we can always figure out how to solve them. I’ve faced many hard challenges (but not as bad as Parvana’s!). However, this movie has a downside, and that is the way the story ends. It wasn’t really surprising and shocking, and not as creative and satisfying as I had hoped. I don’t want to be a spoiler, so go see the movie for yourself to learn more! Regardless, The Breadwinner is extremely good, and I’m not the only one who thinks so. This movie was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Featured Film. I recommend all tweens (10-13 years old) to watch this movie. The Breadwinner (2017) was based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Deborah Ellis (published in 2014). The animated film was made by Cartoon Saloon. Director: Nora Twomey. Executive producers Mimi Polk Gitlin and Angelina Jolie.
Young Bloggers
Little Stories
A set of drawings by Annalise Braddock, age 7 – with a link to audio where she talks about the origin of her ‘Little Stories’.
Summer Journal 2018: Abhimanyu Sukhdial’s family visit to India
Stone Soup book reviewer and artist Abhi Sukhdial, age 10, has sent us the first two pages of his summer journal. He is on a family visit to northern India for two-and-a-half months, visiting family outside of Delhi. Click through to read both pages of the journal Abhimanyu Sukhdial’s Summer Journal 2018, page 1 Abhimanyu Sukhdial’s Summer Journal 2018, page 2 Transcript Page 1: Summer Journal 2018 Portrait Our summer vacation was to go to India, and it was just what I expected. I’ve been going to India since I was two months old and everything is the same. My thoughts about going there were “Is anything different?” The main reason we go to India is to meet my grandmother. She lives alone with her dog (Toffee), and a maid that helps her out. Most of the time in India, I play games and do all my work, My favourite thing though is spending time with my brother and dad. In India everything is different compared to America (Including the taste of food)! Life is hard in India. People can’t find jobs, can’t make any money which is a little sad. But on the bright side my grandmother has a huge garden in her frontward! She mainly has a LOT Page 2: of mango trees. Sleeping at a good time is a rare occurrence for me here because I usually sleep at 11:00 P.M. But THAT doesn’t ruin my vacation. What does is the AIR-CONDITIONING. It sometimes goes on and off which is really annoying. Regardless, that even doesn’t make me hate my vacation. The thing is, nothing ruins my summer vacation! There are three bedrooms in this house, 1 for my grandmother, 1 for me and my dad, and 1 for my mom and brother. The maid sleeps on the floor. There are 2 bathrooms, a dining room, and a kitchen. So to be honest, my grandmother’s house is big on the outside and big on the inside. We never travel ANYWHERE once we reach my grandmother’s house. For the whole vacation, our family and I relax in my grandmother’s house. Which I’m a BIG fan of. The travel on the plane is long. We have to ride 14 hrs on the first plane, and 3 hours on the second plane. But I got to watch A LOT of movies. Here are some pictures from the garden [3 drawings]: mangoes hanging on a tree fish statue prickly plant About the author: Abhimanyu Sukhdial, age 10Stillwater, OK
