Who is the narrator, can she or he read minds, and, more importantly, can we trust her or him?
Third Person (Limited Omniscient)
While the person telling us this story is definitely outside the book (as is always the case with third-person narration), they only have access to Parvana's thoughts and feelings and, as such, we do too. We travel with Parvana wherever she goes, so when she's at market so are we—which means we have no idea what's going on, say, back at the apartment. We also never know what anyone else is thinking or feeling unless they let Parvana in on it.
The effect this creates on our experience as readers is twofold. First, by staying close to the eleven-year-old character, we are never unclear about who the bad guys are. Parvana is just a kid after all, and we never doubt whether she's to blame for what happens to her or her family—this keeps the whole good versus evil debate pretty black and white for us as readers.
The second thing this third person narration does, though, is it gives us a reliable source of information. Though Parvana's totally bright, she's still pretty young, so she wouldn't necessarily be the most reliable narrator—just think about what a nasty picture she might paint of Nooria, for instance. And since this book is historical fiction—and there are a whole lot of facts included in it—having a narrator who is a little bit better informed (and unbiased) than the main character makes sure we understand that the scene they're painting for us is one we can trust (even if we really don't like it).