• Age: 10 to 14
• Grade: 5 to 9
• Reading age: 10 to 14

The third book in the internationally-bestselling series that includes The Breadwinner, Parvana's Journey and My Name Is Parvana

Parvana's best friend, fourteen-year-old Shauzia, has escaped the misery of her life in Kabul, only to end up in a refugee camp in Pakistan. Shauzia finally decides to leave the camp and try her luck on the streets. She is determined to earn money to buy her passage out of the country. An incident with a dishonest man lands her in jail, where she spends the night, terrified and despairing, before well-meaning Americans she met when she was begging rescue her. They take her to their home in a residential part of Peshawar, and for a time she has a taste of a life where children have food to eat and warm beds and toys to play with, and she feels safe for the first time. But just when she thinks the family will ask her to stay with them, disaster ensues, and Shauzia finds herself driven back to the refugee camp, where she discovers the old choices are not so easy any more.

This is a powerful and very human story of a feisty, driven girl who tries to take control of her own life.

A map, glossary and author's note provide young readers with background and context. Royalties from the sale of this book will go to Street Kids International.

Deborah Ellis is the internationally acclaimed author of more than twenty books for children, including The Breadwinner Trilogy; The Heaven Shop; Lunch With Lenin; Children of War: Voices of Iraqi Refugees; and Our Stories, Our Songs: African Children Talk About AIDS. She has won many national and international awards for her books, including the Governor General’s Award, the Vicky Metcalf Award, Sweden’s Peter Pan Prize, the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, and the Children’s Africana Book Award Honor Book for Older Readers.Deborah knew she wanted to be a writer at the age of 11 or 12. Growing up in Paris, Ontario, she loved reading about big cities like New York. In high school, Deborah joined the Peace Movement, playing anti-Nuclear War movies at her school. Since then Deborah has become a peace activist, humanitarian and philanthropist, donating almost all of the royalties from her books to communities in need in Asia and Africa. Heavily involved with Women for Women in Afghanistan, Deborah has helped build women’s centers and schools, giving children education and finding work for women.In 2006, Deborah was named to the Order of Ontario. She now lives in Simcoe, Ontario.

Deborah Ellis' profile page

• Commended, Lamplighter Award
• Winner, Hackmatack Award
• Long-listed, Red Cedar Book Award
• Short-listed, Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Award
• Commended, CCBC Our Choice
• Commended, Cooperative Children's Book Center Choice
• Commended, NYPL Books for the Teenage List

[The books in the Breadwinner trilogy] are terrifying indictments of what war can bring to children and a powerful testaments to the ingenuity and strength of young people in times of terror.

Book Links

Mud City is a gripping novel.

Canadian Children's Literature - CBRA

...a stunning portrait of a totally devastated world where children are forced to fend for themselves...

Quill & Quire, STARRED REVIEW