This is the story of a young girl who wanted something that most of us pretty much take for granted. Malala wanted to go to school.
In her home country of Pakistan, girls were expected to stay at home, raise families and be rarely seen and definitely not heard but Malala and her mother and father had other ideas. Her parents wanted the very best for her, with her father setting up his own private school for both boys and girls.
With the rise of the Taliban in Pakistan, Malala's world completely changed, becoming unrecognisable from what she'd known her whole life, as harsh laws were imposed, and women were even more subjugated than they were before. Malala's strength of spirit and tenacity came to the fore, as she was adamantly defiant of the harsh regime in her country, and strove to change things. When she was shot for the mere 'defiant act' of wanting to go to school, her story became known internationally - and it wasn't long before Malala used her intelligence and bravery to do the very thing she'd always dreamed of - to start making changes for the better not just for the girls and women of her country, but for all children, ensuring that their basic rights to an education and to comfortable living conditions were recognised more widely.
This is a truly brilliant and highly detailed account of this young girl's life to date, her influences and heroes, her acts of kindness and bravery, and her amazing undaunted spirit.
Sum this book up in a sentence: A really excellent addition to DFB's brilliant "First Names" range, filled with amazing details about Malala's awe-inspiring struggle to raise the profile of human rights worldwide.
"First names: Malala Yousafzai" by Lisa Williamson and Mike Smith is out now, published by David Fickling Books (kindly supplied for review).