Excerpt:
It is still dark in Kabul, Afghanistan, when the library bus rumbles out of the city. There are no bus seats—instead, there are chairs and tables and shelves of books. And there are no passengers—instead, there is Pari, who is nervously starting her first day as Mama’s library helper. Pari stands tall to hand out notebooks and pencils at the villages and the refugee camp, but she feels intimidated. The girls they visit are learning to write English from Mama. Pari can’t even read or write in Farsi yet. But next year, she will go to school and learn all there is to know. And she is so lucky. Not long ago, Mama tells her, girls were not allowed to read at all.
