Background/Life

Deborah Ellis was born on the 7th of August 1960 in Cochrane, Ontario. She decided to start writing when she was 11 or 12 years old. Deborah had to move several times due to her parents work. When Deborah grew up, her work and writing was mainly done by travelling and talking to others that have problems and documentering down the main things.

Deborah Ellis is an active anti-war activist and feminist, and has written many children books which reflect this.

She traveled to Afghanistan in 1997 to interview women in refugee camps; from these interviews she wrote the four part series which includes The Breadwinner, a book about a girl named Parvana; Parvana's Journey, its sequel; Mud City, about a girl named Shauzia, Parvana's best friend; and an adult book, Women of the Afghan War. While The Breadwinner was inspired by an interview with a mother in a refugee camp, the subsequent books in the trilogy were more imaginative explorations of how children would survive.

In 1999, her young adult novel "Looking for X", which follows a young girl in her day to day life in a poor area of Toronto, Ontario, was published, and received the Governor General's Literary Award.

She also wrote a book with Eric Walters about the plotted terrorist attacks in Canada. The book is called Bifocal, highlighting two boys and their sides to the story about what happened. Bifocal is a book about racism and rooting terrorists in Canada.One of her best known works is The Heaven Shop which tells of a family of orphans in Malawi, who are struggling with sudden displacement as a result of HIV/AIDS impact. The novel was written to dispel myths about HIV/AIDS and celebrate the courage of child sufferers.

In 2008, Deborah published Lunch with Lenin and other stories a collection of short stories that explores the lives of children who have been affected directly, or indirectly, by drugs. The stories are set against backdrops as diverse as the remote north and small town America to Moscow's Red Square and an opium farm in Afghanistan.

Deborah is the recipient of the Governor General’s Award, the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, the Vicky Metcalf Award for a body of work, an ALA Notable, and the Children’s Africana Book Award Honor Book for Older Readers.

In 2006 Deborah was named to the Order of Ontario.

Considered one of the most popular YA writers today, Deborah Ellis is also a philanthropist, donating almost all of her royalties on her books to such causes as "Women for Women in Afghanistan" and UNICEF.

Later on, her bestseller "I am a Taxi" talks about a boy named Diego whose family was framed unfairly for making cocaine. An accident caused Diego's family to owe the prison so much money, that the boy was so guilty he ran to get a job. He ended up in a coca pit, and the story follows his adventure from there.The sequel to "I am a Taxi", "Sacred Leaf", talks about Diego's time with the Ricardo's (a family who helped Diego) and a giant coca leaf protest. by alina sadek

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Deborah Ellis", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0