I Am Malala. A Book Review.

I just finished reading Malala Yousafzai’s autobiography, I Am Malala.  I wanted to know more about her – about her life before she became the girl that we know as Malala – the girl who was shot for wanting to go to school. This book is her words and as I read it, I got to know her a little bit more.  What I found is that even though she lived in very different environment from me, we liked a lot of the same things. She grew up loving to hang out with her friends and play with her brothers. She loved music and television. She liked to go to museums and her favourite snack is popcorn. She loved reading, writing and school and more than anything, she loved her family.

I learned so much from reading Malala’s book. One thing that really stands out to me is that it is important – and sometimes difficult and sometimes dangerous – to stand up for what you believe in.  It is not always easy to spread awareness for something that you are passionate about and to be courageous about it. Use your talent to share your passion, like Malala did when she was blogging. It was the best way to share her story to the world.

Malala, after she was shot in the head and was recovered she had to make a choice –  to have a low profile to stay safe in case the Taliban tried to hurt her again or keep fighting for education and become a role model to so many people. There is something really important to remember about Malala – she did not set out to be the young woman that she is know for today. She wanted to go to school. She wanted to be a doctor. She wanted to help people. She might not become the doctor that she dreamed of becoming, but she is living her dream of helping people.

I think what surprised me how open she was in the book. I did not think she would share so much about her school, her hobbies and really herself. I also did not think it would be as descriptive as it was. More than half of the book is about her life before she was shot. She explained the days before she got shot so precise and interesting. She was so emotional when she was talking about how she felt when she woke up in the hospital and when she learned that she could not go back home to Pakistan.

One of my favorite parts of the book was when she talked about when she blogged for the BBC using her pseudonym name, Gul Makai. She did this for safety. The BBC was looking for females in the Swat Valley (where she lived) that could talk about their life under the Taliban rule. She talked about her first ‘ diary ‘ entry and how she felt when she saw her posts on the internet. I can also relate to her because we both blog and we write about things that we are passionate about. We both care about other people in the world and want to make the world a better and safer place.  She spoke about how she smiled when people talked to her about Gul Makai and how amazing this girl was that she was blogging for the BBC. Like me, when Malala first started she was a bit scared about what people would think about her blog and what kind of opinions they would about what she was saying. But then after the first few posts, she saw that people loved what she was writing about and what she was standing up for and this gave her confidence to keep writing because it was making a difference in other people’s lives.

I recommend this book for anyone who has been following Malala’s story. I recommend this book for teenagers because now she is a teenager and this has scary parts that teenagers can maybe handle. There are many words that I did not understand, but there is a really helpful glossary in the back of the book so that you can learn about her culture and country. I do not think young kids should read this because it is really challenging and has lots of hard words. There are also some parts that are very disturbing and scary. There were some chapters that I could not read before I went to sleep. This book is great for history too. It explains about 9/11, US and Pakistan history. Malala is a great role model for anyone and for anything – for finding your spark or for believing in yourself or a cause.

I have spent the last 6 months sharing Malala’s story and inspiration at We Day. In the book, this line really stood out to me. She explains how she wants the world to think of her like this:

I don’t want to be thought of as the girl who go shot by the Taliban, but the girl who fought for education.

That is how I see Malala.