From the Bookshelf of Diversity in All Forms!…

I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban

Malala Yousafzai

Start date: December 1, 2016

Finish date: December 31, 2016

Discussion: Monthly Group Reads

Why we're reading this: December's theme/topic is Historical Event…more
[close] December's theme/topic is Historical Event

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 74 topics — 1,387 comments total

Monthly Group Reads

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (June 2021)
By Mariah Roze · 7 posts · 65 views

last updated Feb 12, 2024 09:45AM

The Help (March 2023)
By Mariah Roze · 4 posts · 22 views

last updated Mar 06, 2023 09:46AM

showing 6 of 6 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Apr 25, 2018 Matthew rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, non-fiction, 2018, biography

These days it seems like our world is a giant game of telephone. Any news story or online gossip you hear is hard to believe because it has been skewed so much since it left the source. It is refreshing and enlightening to hear a story straight from the source - especially on the topic of life in the Middle East which is always quickly demonized in America. By experiencing Malala's story, it gives a true face to the people of Pakistan who are mostly wanting peace and prosperity, not oppression a ...more

239 likes · Like · see review

Oct 16, 2017 Ashley Jacobson rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-biography

Wow. I have been waiting to write a review because I don’t know how to do this book justice. Every teen and adult needs to read this. It teaches empathy and shows how lucky those of us are who live in free, modern countries. It shows the suffering others go through while not being too graphic. I would feel fine handing this book to an older child or teen as soon as they are old enough to be confronted with the idea that Malala and others live in a country rules by violence and terror and that sh ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

May 26, 2015 Martha rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2016, non-fiction, read-the-world, feminism, 2016-yorwoc, read-women-world, bipoc-authors-south-asian

I went into this book with quite high expectations, having seen a few interviews with Malala and also having seen the film/documentary that was partly based on this book. It's possible that this caused an issue because I knew all the highlights, so I found the rest of it a little slow, and not what I'd anticipated.

Firstly, if this was a rating just about Malala and the key points of her life, it would clearly be five stars. Here is a girl who shows absolute fearlessness in the face of terrorism I went into this book with quite high expectations, having seen a few interviews with Malala and also having seen the film/documentary that was partly based on this book. It's possible that this caused an issue because I knew all the highlights, so I found the rest of it a little slow, and not what I'd anticipated.

Firstly, if this was a rating just about Malala and the key points of her life, it would clearly be five stars. Here is a girl who shows absolute fearlessness in the face of terrorism and oppression, unwavering commitment to education as a basic human right and who rights very eloquently - before we even consider her young age. Add to that her father being a feminist in a culture that does not encourage it, as well as her mother's support despite fearing the danger it presented to her child.

What pulled the rating down for me was the emphasis on the history and politics of Pakistan. It was certainly interesting, and long overdue to be reading something other than media sensation about terrorism and the Taliban we tend to get in the West. When you have a teenager telling you how much she wants to go home, despite having been shot in the head for standing up to an extremist organisation over her basic right to get an education, it forces the reader to take stock about what we're told about this region. The same applies to her religion - here is an account of what it's like for everyday Muslims to live under the terror of the Taliban, claiming to enforce rules in their religion which simply do not exist. Here is yet more evidence against Islamophobia, and the ugly misrepresentation of an otherwise peaceful religion.

However, I think I expected to read more about her beliefs in education and her work to promote that around the world, because she has become one of many feminist icons for me, and that's what has drawn me to her. I appreciate that she needed to give background in order to illustrate how she came to the moment of being shot, but I hadn't expected a history book. I found it quite challenging in places as I'm unfamiliar with a lot of the names and the different tribes, so I wasn't always completely clear what was being talked about. Perhaps if I'd realised that before reading it, I might have been less bothered by it, and so able to just appreciate it.

Overall, it is an amazing story and Malala is worthy of huge amounts of respect and admiration, but as a memoir, it is not an easy read. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Mar 30, 2021 Jan rated it really liked it

Shelves: women, feminism, memoir-biography, nonfiction, audible-books, historical, muslim, middle-east, politics, clean-sweep-2019

Inspiring and educational memoir of Malala Yousafzai, the activist for girl's education who was shot and gravely wounded by the Taliban on October 9, 2011. ...more

1 like · Like · see review