I am Malala
2012
- young women
- education
- biography
- crimes against
- children's rights
- women, education
- pakistan, social conditions
- taliban
- girls, biography
- education, pakistan
The story
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. This 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. This story will make you believe in the power of one person's voice to inspire change in the world. -- Publisher's description.
What it’s like
Plain, reportorial prose carries this memoir: a clear first-person voice that moves between the green, terraced hills of the Swat Valley and the crowded, fluorescent-lit rooms of later diplomacy, with family kitchens, school benches and bus seats rendered in unfussy detail. Its sound is the spoken voice of a teenager telling it straight, not lyrical but warmly direct, with pockets of quiet humour about siblings and schoolwork. The mood is steady and hopeful, with dread running underneath in the sections about the Taliban's rule and the shooting, which are told plainly and briefly rather than in gruelling detail; the violence is real and sudden but not graphic, and the hospital and recovery passages stay focused on endurance and family. Pacing is chronological and even, so it reads easily in short sittings, on a long flight or as a late-evening read. Its arc follows a father who believes in his daughter's schooling and a girl who grows from local student to international voice, and the emotional register is earnest, grateful and resolute. It suits readers who want a true story of courage and education, and anyone who wants inspiration without a heavy load of violence.
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