April 2016 Host:  Colleen

I Am Malala:  The Girl Who Stood Up For Education and Was

Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb

Summary

     This is a tragic yet remarkable biography of Malala set in Pakistan in the Swat Valley which has turned from a peaceful valley to a Taliban occupied war zone.  Bombs drop on schools and valleys and there are bodies in the town square. The Taliban believes women should not be educated, yet Malala bravely attends a school built by her father.  The book gives us insight into her childhood and her father’s determination to build schools and educate boys and girls.  Malala describes her deep love for her childhood friends, family, and her home in the Swat Valley…”high snow topped mountains; green waving fields and fresh blue rivers.” On October 9^th, 2012, Malala is shot point blank in the head by the Taliban for attending school.  What follows is a miracle.  Malala survives and now has a platform and a voice in front of the world for promoting girls’ rights to an education.  She becomes the youngest person ever to receive a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.  Malala is a true role model for young women and we highly recommend this book.

Malala’s father kept a famous poem written by Martin Niemoller who lived in Nazi Germany in his pocket:

First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak out because I was not a Catholic.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me. 

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