I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World

by Malala Yousafzai and Patricia McCormick

The young reader’s edition of Malala Yousafzai’s memoir is more focused... read more

The young reader’s edition of Malala Yousafzai’s memoir is more focused on her own life and work than the adult volume, which talks more about her father, who ran the school Malala attended in her home in Pakistan’s SWAT Valley. Malala’s voice is both wise and authentically young as she describes her childhood in a family where girls and education both were valued; and where her two younger brothers sometimes annoyed her as siblings do. Her growing passion for speaking out in support of girls’ education was in part a direct response to the growing threat presented by conservative voices in Pakistan, including the Taliban, and both her parents were sources of inspiration — her father for his passion and commitment, her mother for her courage. Malala had been speaking out for five years before she was shot by the Taliban at age fifteen. She talks about the immediate aftermath of the shooting and what happened in the weeks and months that followed as her story became a source of both outrage and inspiration. She and her family now live in Birmingham, England, where she was taken for care following the shooting, because it is unsafe for them to return home. (This volume was published before Malala was named co-winner of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.) (Age 12 and older)

© Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2015

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