Malala Yousafzai

Adjective Web ( (Hannah Rajotte))

I am reading a wonderful and inspiring book. It is called I Am Malala. Many people have heard of Malala, but don't know much about her real story. I was one of those people. I mean before I read this book about the obstacles she overcame in her life. All the way down to how she fought with her younger brothers. Malala wrote this book, making it an autobiography, with the help of Patricia McCormick.The book was published on August 5th 2014. It is about 197 pages long, not including the photos, glossary, and timeline. When it came to first picking a book, I was a bit stumped. I don't usually read biographies or really like to, but I still wanted to pick a book that I would enjoy. I thought of many courageous and brave people in the world, when I stumbled upon the idea of reading about Malala. So I chose this book, because really not many people have the special ability Malala does to bounce back after something like what happened to her. When Malala was younger, she and her brothers loved to watch a show called the "Magic Pencil." The boy in the show had a magic pencil that could fix everything. In Malala's times of despair she used to pray for a magic pencil to appear on her bedside table, so she could fix all that was wrong in the world. She used to want to be a doctor until she figured out that she had a special passion for public speaking. When she was shot, a part of her skull had been removed and stored just under the skin of her abdomen for safekeeping, odd huh? The span of time that this book covers starts in 1997, when Malala was born, all the way to 2013 when Malala spoke on her 16th birthday.

Malala Yousafzai portrait ( (Hannah Rajotte))

Malala grew up in a city called Mingora with her parents Ziauddin and Tor Pekai Yousafzai, and her younger brothers Kushal and Atal Yousafzai. Malala's father started the Khushal school before she was born and she was there almost every day. Many people would say that she almost grew up in the school. Her father told her that when she was younger she would stand in front of an empty classroom and lecture it in her little baby language. She had many friends in this school, including her best friend Moniba who she had a very on and off friendship with. When she was not at school she loved to watch her favorite show The Magic Pencil and Betty lost in New York. Her love for learning spread through the family, encouraging her mother to learn to read and her brothers to pay more attention in school. Malala and her family often went to visit their relatives who lived in a small town not too far away from Mingora. She had been threatened many times by the Taliban when she had been traveling for speaking purposes, but never let them scare her because she wasn't doing anything wrong, just fighting for what was right. Malala and her other friend Sabina always used to play school on the roof of their houses. She usually played the doctor or nurse at the school because she had always wanted be one, but when she had started standing up for education she had gained a love for it and she wanted to speak up for those who couldn't. She started campaigning for girls' rights when she was only 10 years old. I couldn't even begin to imagine being in that sort of danger at such a young age. She has received Pakistan's first Youth National Peace Prize, and a Nobel peace prize which was rewarded to her on her 16th birthday. Families in Malala's religion usually have daughters married off at a young age, about 12-16, and sons are much more important to them. Malala's father wrote her name in bright pink ink on the family tree, making her the first girl to be on the tree. She was very lucky to be in a family that appreciated her; she has experienced many girls in her school being married off when they are only 11 or 12.

Malala action photo ( (Hannah Rajotte))

Malala has overcome many challenges in her life, The Taliban targeting her, attacking her home town, and even getting shot by the Taliban. But she overcame each and every one of those challenges in many different ways. There was a time in Mingora when the Taliban had ordered every girl to stop going to school after January 11th. Malala and her friends did not agree with this in any way so they kept going to school dreading the date ahead. When the day finally arrived they had no other choice but to leave, and they did, but only for a while. Malala's father decided that he would keep teaching and any girls that wanted to continue going to school could go in secret. They never got caught but could have and would have been very badly punished. Malala's father and family were the most important things in her life. She always tried to show them how much she cared and they tried to do the same. Her father was always pushing her through and helping her along. Malala is very courageous in the way she stands up for others and was always helping everyone around her in any way that she could. She is intelligent in every way and usually won the class award every year. Almost everyone in the world thought of her as strong because of the giant circumstance she overcame and kept going. When she was younger she had a friend and neighbour named Sabina. They always used to play house together, one day Malala's father came home with a plastic toy phone, Malala brought it over to play with Sabina but happened to lose it at her house. The next day Sabina came to Malala's house with the same toy phone claiming it was hers. They had a huge fight over it and Malala never got her plastic phone back even though it was hers. Malala has accepted many awards in her life, including a Nobel peace prize, National Malala peace prize, Sakharov and multiple Mother Teresa awards.

So throughout reading this book all in all I learned many things about Malala that I didn't know before. I have thought about what I would ask her if I were to meet her and I have decided that I would ask her these three questions 1: Were you scared at any point when you were speaking up for others? 2: Do you ever wish that you were back in Mingora? 3: Are you ever worried about your safety in Birmingham? I would ask her those because I thought they might be something that would be maybe a little bit different or would make her think about it. Personally i loved reading this book, I already knew sort of what was going to happen but that wasn't the point. I learnt many new things about her and continue to do so, and it's quite fun to. One of the things I learnt from her is to stand up for what I believe in, voice my opinion and never give up no matter the circumstances. I know many people don't like to read biographies but I strongly recommend reading this one just because of how inspiring and a great hero she is. I was surprised to learn that she had been directly targeted many times before she was shot. Thank You for reading my book report and I hope you learned a thing or two about Malala Yousafzai.