Caleb J Recommends I Am Malala

Malala Yousafzai on the cover

 of her new book, I Am Malala

           "We realize the importance of our voice when we are silenced." - Malala Yousafzai

         Do you remember what you did on Tuesday, October 12th, 2012? Maybe you were in Social Studies learning about the five themes of geography. Or maybe you were eating a really good sandwich at lunch.  Maybe you didn't go to school because you were sick with the stomach flu. Well, while you were learning, eating, or vomiting, Malala Yousafzai, a sixteen year old girl from Pakistan, was being rushed to a hospital after being shot point blank in the head by the Taliban.

               
                         Recently, I read I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai with Christina Lamb. This story tells about the gripping tale of Malala, a sixteen year old activist, who fought for the right for all girls to be able to get education in Pakistan. The  dedication reads "To all the girls who have faced injustice and have been silenced. Together we will be heard." The book is told in the first person by Malala. Living as a girl in her home village Mingora, Pakistan, Malala knew that she did not have many rights due to the Taliban acts. One of these rights that most girls in Pakistan did not have was the right to go to school. Even if a girl were to get an education, she would rarely grow up to be anything and instead were to cook, clean, and give birth to kids. Instead of just dealing with the fact that some girls couldn't go to school, she decided to do something about it. Malala went out and fought against what the Taliban said and spread word about about her cause in letting girls go to school. 

              The story starts out with Malala  on the bus (a Toyota TownAce truck with three parallel benches) to school as a man stops the bus, comes inside and yells "Who is Malala?" The man takes three shots with a Colt 45. The first bullet went through Malala's left eye socket and out under her left shoulder, another went through a girls hand and the third went through the girls left shoulder and into the upper right arm of another person.,  One What happens after that is astonishing. Malala survives. The chances of surviving a bullet to the head is very slim. Some people said it was a miracle. What happens after that is even more astonishing. She was brave enough to step out and share her story with the rest of the world. 

                    The reason why I have chosen this book was because CNN, the newspapers, online blog posts, like this one, were all talking about how some Pakistani girl got shot by the Taliban for what she believed in and survived. A year ago, nobody knew who Malala Yousafzai was. Now she has become an icon.  What was really important about it though, she was brave enough to step out to tell her story and even wrote this book that I'm reviewing. She has become a huge inspiration to people in Pakistan, in America, and the rest of the world. Malala became a global symbol of bravery, determination and courage. She seemed like an interesting and intriguing person who has an amazing story. I would definitely recommend this book to people who like to read autobiographies and books about activists and are about political economics. There is an important lesson that can be learned from this. You should stand up for what you believe in and believe in yourself. Malala has proved this lesson to be true.

                         I would compare this book to by  another book I have read called Strength to Love by Martin Luther King Jr. In this book, King tells about his beliefs against segregation and injustice towards African-Americans. If you would like to learn more about Malala Yousafzai, click here. Or if you would like to contact her, Malala's email address is contact.malala@gmail.com. But if you would like reach her in a more modern way, which many of us probably do, you can visit her Facebook page by clicking here.