I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World
by Malala Yousafzai
Non-Fiction, Biography, Memoir, Feminism, Autobiography, Middle-Grade, Biography-Memoir
When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive. Instead, Malala’s miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize. I Am Malala is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls’ education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons. I Am Malala will make you believe in the power of one person’s voice to inspire change in the world.
Recommendations from Common Sense Media
Age Recommendation: 10+
What Parents Need to Know:
Parents need to know that I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up For Education and Changed the World is a memoir by Malala Yousafzai, co-written with Patricia McCormick. Malala was born in Pakistan in 1997 and became a household word in 2012, when she was shot at point-blank range by a member of the Taliban on her way home from school for advocating education for girls. She later was a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and now lives in England with her family because it’s not safe for them to return to Pakistan. Malala tells of being inspired at a young age to stand up for what was right, encouraged by her schoolteacher father; of the scary realities of life under the Taliban; and of squabbles with her brothers and tiffs with her friends as she becomes a symbol for the right of girls (and all kids) to get an education. She doesn’t remember anything about being shot, and there’s little gory detail. The underlying violence of life in Pakistan, particularly against people the Taliban don’t approve of, looms throughout and may be too much for sensitive kids. It’s an inspiring first-person story of what one teen can accomplish — and what it costs her and her loved ones.
Educational Value: 5/5
Readers will glean lots of information about daily life in Pakistan and the politics of the area, as well as other global hot spots, as Malala tells her story (there’s also an appendix with a glossary and a time line of Pakistani history). The career and ultimate assassination of Benazir Bhutto are a big influence on Malala. Along the way, readers will learn some Pashtun words and get an all-too-rare-in-the-West window into the lives of religious Muslims victimized by terrorists.
Positive Messages: 5/5
Strong messages about faith, courage, education, refusing to give up, having a deep love of family and home, and standing up for what you believe. In one scene, Malala meets President Obama and takes him to task for U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan. “If God has given you a voice, I decided, you must use it even if it is to disagree with the president of the United States,” she writes. When a younger Malala’s fight with a friend causes her to do something she realizes is shameful (especially after she gets caught), she’s wracked with guilt, especially at disappointing her father. But “he consoled me by telling me about the mistakes great heroes had made when they were children — heroes like Mohandas Gandhi, the great pacifist, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. He relayed a saying from a story his father used to tell him: “A child is a child when he’s a child, even if he’s a prophet.'”
Positive Role Models: 5/5
Malala has a strong sense of mission from an early age and is determined to fix things that are wrong with the world, rather than go along to get along. At the same time, she’s a normal young girl who squabbles with her brothers, gets into tiffs with her friends, loves Bollywood and American TV, and admits to being very competitive in school. Her father not only operates a school but instills a strong love of learning in his daughter; he shares and encourages her sense of mission — and is very conflicted when she’s nearly killed. Her mother is the family rock; kind, compassionate, and devout, she also has plenty of common sense.
Violence & Scariness: 3/5
Malala remembers nothing about being shot; she discusses it and her long stay in the hospital with an almost detached matter-of-factness. There’s very little gory description. In one scene Malala is shocked to discover a pile of goat heads but quickly realizes it’s the leftovers from a meal. The whole underlying reality, from being kept awake by the sound of gunfire to being threatened with death for going to school, is far darker than most kids’ daily reality and may be too intense for sensitive readers. Malala speaks of people being beaten or killed by the Taliban for wearing the wrong clothes, being in a “Western” line of work, or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Sex, Romance & Nudity: n/a
As observant Muslims, Malala and her friends and family dress conservatively by Western standards. When she first watches Ugly Betty on TV, she wonders if the characters’ clothing is so skimpy because there’s a clothing shortage in New York. Later, in England, she and her mother see scantily clad women outside in winter and marvel that they don’t seem to feel the cold.
Language: n/a
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Products & Purchases: 1/5
The book includes a message from Malala about the Malala Fund and its work and encourages readers to donate; it also mentions the adult version of I Am Malala as a source. Some mentions of commercial products and media, mostly to establish character and setting. Malala mentions being inspired by Ugly Betty and later meeting its star America Ferrera. As she becomes world-famous and celebrities send their support, she wonders, “How did Angelina Jolie even know who I was?” One of the things her younger brother likes best about life in the West is Nutella.
Drinking, Drugs & Smoking: n/a
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