Malala is such a raw and powerful young girl, and hearing her discuss her hometown of SWAT made me want to go. It made me want to jump into her novel and see the water falls and mountains, It made me want to reread The Kite Runner because it gave me such an interesting parallel. I would think about how the boys in the kite runners time was right before Malala, and when the protagonist was in America that was then Malala's time. That gap that I had always wanted to see from that area was now given, but this time from a female protagonists whose rights were taken even more. Now I NEED to read A Thousand Splendid Suns. Because I am Malala is a nonfiction novel there wasn't great character development. That though cannot fault the book in anyway. It is based on true events so adding those literary elements would take away from the story overall and take away its passion that we read from her words. She is such a powerful writer and speaker that her best literary device was her rhetoric. Talking to herself about what she should do. Talking to God was a huge one. We just saw her constantly making decisions, but also that true aspect of questioning what you are doing something before you do it. It was just so powerful.
I think young adults love this book because it is someone their age who had their education taken from her. Something we don't even think about except mostly in a negative way. When I was younger I hated school. I never wanted to go. But the older I got the more I appreciated school--well specific classes. And now in college I love school. I am a schoolaholic. But to have that love for school at such a young age is something rare in the united states. I also think students are interested in the book because she was shot for wanted her education and standing up for education. That is the big thing. People are drawn to the dramatic, and being shot and living is as dramatic as it gets.
My one drawback is cause it read very young. Maybe it is because I was reading the YA version but it just felt young. I want to give it to my 12 year old cousin to read who absolutely detests school.
My rating: A-
