September 2014 Non-Fiction Book of the Month The amazing story of Malala’s courage and her fight for the education of girls is well known. Here, in her own voice, she tells of her journey from her early days as a clever school girl to her exceptional life as an international speaker on the rights of girls to get an education. Growing up in a village in the Swat valley in Pakistan Malala and her friends faced persecution from Islamic fundamentalists who believed women should not be educated. In 2012, Malala and her two school friends were targeted and shot when travelling home from school one day. Fortunately, Malala and her friends survived. From that day on, Malala campaigned for the rights of all girls to get an education. Hearing her tell her story is inspirational. ~ Julia Eccleshare
Malala The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Changed the World Synopsis
Written in collaboration with critically acclaimed National Book Award finalist Patricia McCormick, Malala tells her story - from her childhood in the Swat Valley to the shooting, her recovery and new life in England. She's a girl who loves cricket, gossips with her best friends, and, on the day of the shooting, nearly overslept and missed an exam. A girl who saw women suddenly banned from public, schools blown up, the Taliban seize control, and her homeland descend into a state of fear and repression.
This is the story of her life, and also of her passionate belief in every child's right to education, her determination to make that a reality throughout the world, and her hope to inspire others.
Malala Yousafzai was born in 1997 in the Swat Valley of Pakistan which she saw transformed from a beautiful and peaceful land to a place of fear and repression under the control of the Taliban. Malala now lives in Birmingham, England, and says she has been given a second life, which she intends to devote to her belief that children everywhere deserve an education. The fund she started can be found at malalafund.org.
Patricia McCormick is a two-time National BOook Award finalist and the author of several critically acclaimed books for young adults, including Sold, an account of human trafficking based on her research in the brothels of Calcutta, and Never Fall Down, the story of a boy who survived the Killing Fields of Cambodia by playing music. McCormick was named a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow in 2004 and a MacDowell Fellow in 2009. She is also the winner of the 2009 German Peace Prize For Youth Literature. She lives in New York with her husband. For more information, go to patriciamccormick.com or follow Patricia on Twitter @McCormickWrites.
