Author: Bahram Rahman
Illustrator: Gabrielle Grimard
Publisher: Pajama Press
Ages: 5-8
Can you imagine not being permitted to go to school or get an education? The Library Bus tells the story of young Afghan girls banned from attending school.
As a teacher, it is hard to imagine telling a group of children that they cannot attend school. However, this is a story that is true for so many young girls across the world. This book tells the story of these girls and the teachers who defy the orders and do everything they can to help them.
Bahram Rahman tells the story of a woman and her daughter who travel around Afghanistan on a bus filled with books, not seats, to teach young girls English. They allow them to borrow books, and give them English lessons once per week. It is often not enough, but it is what they can do to make a difference in the lives of these girls.
In contrast to other girls in Afghanistan, Pari, our protagonist, will go to school. Because she lives in a city, she has access to schooling. This makes Pari realize how unfair the differences within Afghanistan are.
We also see in the illustrations and the coloring of the illustrations the different landscapes of Afghanistan. We see villages, cities, and even a refugee camp. Often when we think of a place we have one picture in our mind, but each place is so much more than one picture.
This book would be a great book to use in classrooms to give students a different perspective of school. It can help children recognize that going to school is a privilege and something that we should not take for granted.
The Library Bus (Amazon)*
The Library Bus (Support an Independent Bookstore)*
My thanks to Pajama Press for providing a Review Copy of this book. All opinions provided herein are my own.
More books for this Age Group can be found here.
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