Compare and contrast Parvana and Asif. Consider their family backgrounds and behavior. They have a complex relationship throughout the novel, seeming to be at odds with one another for the majority of their time together, yet also experiencing a few moments of bonding. Explain their relationship and how Ellis’s choice to create tension between them is significant. 

Along Parvana’s journey, she mostly meets children, and the few adults she does meet seem more helpless than the children. Why does Ellis focus on children throughout the novel? How does her depiction of children and adults show how the war affects children in a different way than adults?

When her load of supplies gets heavy to carry, Parvana buries some of her father’s books. Later, the children chew on a few pages from a book. How do these events surrounding books contribute to the novel’s education motif? What point is Ellis making about education during war?