Common Sense Media Review
By Mary Eisenhart
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Engaging bio of teen education activist/Nobel prize winner.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 6+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
What's the Story?
I AM MALALA YOUSAFZAI begins in the narrator's hometown in Pakistan, where unlike most men, her father is a teacher and a strong advocate for educating girls -- all the more so as his own wife was never taught to read because only boys went to school. Young Malala grows up with a strong love of learning and a deep respect for the opportunities that come with education -- especially when she encounters poor kids who can't go to school and face a bleak future. When the Taliban take over her town and shut down her father's school, preteen Malala fights back with an account of her experiences that's soon the talk of the BBC (British radio). As she and her message become more visible and popular around the world, the Taliban are determined to silence her. At 15, she's riding the bus home from school with friends when an assassin shoots her in the face at point-blank range. She comes back even stronger, addressing the United Nations General Assembly about the importance of education at 16, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for her work at 17, and founding the Malala Fund to help kids worldwide -- especially refugees and girls who lack resources where they are -- to get an education.
Is It Any Good?
This stellar addition to the Ordinary People Change the World series features the youthful activist whose advocacy for girls' education made her a target of the Taliban and Nobel Prize winner at 17. I Am Malala Yousafzai finds its narrator as a little kid successfully arm-wrestling her brothers and soaking up all the learning she could get in her father's school. As she comes to fight for her own education, she also becomes a voice for those who often miss out to get the same opportunity. Surviving an assassination attempt is just the beginning, and readers will cheer her unbeatable spirit along the way.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how I Am Malala Yousafzai shows someone standing up for herself and others, even though powerful forces see her as a threat and try to silence her. Do you know anyone like this, or have you heard about them in stories? What cause is so important to them that they put themselves in danger for it? How does it turn out?
Do you like school? Is there something special you really like learning about?
Have you ever been kept from something you wanted to do because somebody else didn't think you were good enough to be allowed to do it? If this happened to you, did you figure out a way to solve the problem?
Book Details
- Author :
- Illustrator : Christopher Eliopoulos
- Genre : Biography
- Topics : Activism , History
- Character Strengths : Courage , Perseverance
- Book type : Non-Fiction
- Publisher : Dial
- Publication date : February 8, 2022
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 5 - 9
- Number of pages : 40
- Available on : Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, Apple Books, Kindle
- Award : Common Sense Selection
- Last updated : September 29, 2025
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