Parent reviews for I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World

A great adolescent read - inspirational account of the importance of an education and freedom. Survival and overcoming obstacles are exemplified through her struggles.

Malala is a global citizen and she stood up for education, however what happened to her is bad and kids lower than 10 y/o shouldn't read it.

Malala through out the story have faced lots of things happen to her. Stand up for what you think, that's the theme of this book. Malala know that the right thing was to have all girls to be educated. After what had happen to Malala she was payed for standing up. With all the money that she revised she pay some to go to her and her family. The rest of it all went to help girls get a good and safe education . The reason why i chose great messages is because Malala shows a good message and how she stud up for all the girls. I also chose great role models because to me you have to have a lot of courage to stand up.

Please note, there are two versions of this book. My review is based on the Young Reader's edition, which I find more appropriate for students. The Young Reader's edition mainly has the same content as the other version, but is written in a more direct manner, which means less specificity and detail for some of the more challenging (content-wise) reading portions. This edition still contains violence, although not graphically depicted, including mention of suicide bombers, death threats, bombing of schools, killings, and whippings. Some of the books (I believe mainly the hardbacks) contain full-color images. One image in particular may be hard for some students (a person held down for lashings). I had 8th grade students read this text. Nearly all of the students had positive things to say about the book and its messages, but some also said it was hard to read at times because of the serious nature of the content. This book is a great introduction to Malala's story, some of the conflict within the Middle East, and the international struggle for women's rights and education. I could go on about the countless positive aspects of the book, but my review would be too long! The fact that the story is written about a modern young girl makes it even more appealing and relatable to readers. I recommend this book for 7th grade and up (may be suitable for a 6th grade student based on maturity and sensitivity level).

I respectfully disagree with CommonSenseMedia that this book is a must-read for under 12. Although a good book and an inspiring story, I think it's for older teenagers rather than young kids. Even though--or perhaps because--it is a real-life story, the reality of what happened to Malala is quite disturbing. (It was very disturbing to me as an adult who is quite aware of real-world brutality.) I think it would be particularly shocking and disturbing to some young girls. This is one of those realities that many parents want to expose their kids to gradually, and maybe not until later--for the same reason some may not want their kids to know the full scale of violence and depravity or violence against women in the real world until they are a little better equipped to handle it.

I read this out loud to my 8 year old and found my 12 year old listening in. It was fascinating to my children just to hear the voice of another child through a book, to hear her opinions and concerns rather than an adult expressing what they thought a child should think. It gave them a whole new appreciation for school and learning when they realised that a lot of kids don't have the opportunity to go to school. Also I found it also seemed to encourage them to express their own opinions more (E.g. we started discussing how schools should be run, what rules and methods they thought were important to help with learning at the school they went to and what rules they thought were just there for the teachers or even parents ).