Book Review: I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai

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book, book review, books, education, girls, girls' education, I am Malala, Malala Yousafzai, memoir, non-fiction, review, reviews, Taliban, terrorism, YA, young adult

I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban

by Malala Yousafzai

genre: memoir, YA

Synopsis from Goodreads

I come from a country that was created at midnight. When I almost died it was just after midday.

When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education.

On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive.

Instead, Malala’s miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize.

I Am Malala is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls’ education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons.

I Am Malala will make you believe in the power of one person’s voice to inspire change in the world.

Silence Me by Teresa Marie

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charities, girls, guest post, human rights, injustice, poetry, poverty, silence, The Girl Effect blogging campaign

One of our readers and frequent commenters has written this poem for The Girl Effect Blogging campaign.  We are ending our part of the campaign with this poem, “Silence Me.”

image from "What About God" blog.

You can never
silence me forever

I will speak out
not whisper but shout

The injustice of all
the innocent that fall

The Girl Effect Blogging Event

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blogging event, charities, community involvement, girls, international aid, outreach, poverty, The Girl Effect

Being a girl is hard enough without the extra pressures put on girls in poverty.  Women, remember being twelve?  No one expected you to be an adult and hopefully your biggest medical worry was the flu.  Men, could you imagine your sister, niece, daughter, or granddaughter married off at twelve, separated from her family and loved ones?  It is easy to sit back in our recliners and forget that not everyone gets to choose when they are married.

The world is not equal.  Did you know, according to The Girl Effect website “[l]ess than two cents of every international aid dollar is directed to girls.”

Less than two cents.

Victory for the JCPenny Petitioners

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girls, JCPenny, petition

After 1627 people signed the petition to discontinue the sale of JCPenny’s “I’m too pretty to do homework so my brother has to do it for me” shirt, the Chairman and CEO Mike Ulman III has issued the following statement:

We agree that the “Too pretty” t-shirt does not deliver an appropriate message, and we have immediately discontinued its sale.  Our merchandise is intended to appeal to a broad customer base, not to offend them. We would like to apologize for any concern we may have caused and assure you that we are taking action to ensure that we continue to uphold the integrity of our merchandise that [our customers] have come to expect.

http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-jcpenney-to-stop-promoting-sexist-messaging-to-girls

Thank you Lauren Todd for the petition.  Thank you everyone who signed and everyone who would have signed if the petition was still open.  It only took 2 days and the shirt has already been removed from the online catalog.

Let’s hope JCPenny and other retailers see this and get the message.  Girls are not just looks and we do not want to be devalued.  We will not tolerate it anymore.

Petition to keep JCPenny from teaching “pretty” girls they’re useless intellectually

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girls, JCPenny, petition

JCPenny currently stocks a vomit inducing prettied upshirt  that reads “I’m too pretty to do homework so my brother has to do it for me.”

An image of the shirt and the petition to stop promoting sexist messages to girls can be found here: http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-jcpenney-to-stop-promoting-sexist-messaging-to-girls

Rarely am I this appalled.  Pretty girls do not have to strive academically?  Pretty girls must rely on the male gender to do work for them?  Pretty girls are more entitled? What’s next, a shirt that says pretty girls do not have valid opinions and should not be allowed to vote?  What about the girls who struggle in school and have body issues, are we trying to tell them they have no value in society?

As if the shirt is not bad enough by itself, the caption on the store website reads: “Who has time for homework when there’s a new Justin Bieber album out? She’ll love this tee that’s just as cute and sassy as she is.”

JCPenny, this is not cute.

Sign the petition if you think girls have value beyond their looks.  If you don’t, Darwinism will take care of you soon enough.

-Eliabeth Hawthorne

The Girl Effect

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charity, ermilia, girls, The Girl Effect

I don’t think either of us has posted about The Girl Effect.

http://www.facebook.com/girleffect

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIvmE4_KMNw&autoplay=1

This is our chosen main charity.  The Girl Effect is about letting girls have time to grow into women and not catapulting them into situations beyond their maturity level and quite frankly, unhealthy.  What if one of these girls was your daughter, would you be selling them into a marriage if you had another option?   Give families another option.

Or as they put it, “the world could use a kick in the pants”

http://www.girleffect.org/question

Like Ermilia, Like The Girl Effect on Facebook, you don’t have to contribute financially if, like us, you don’t have the money right now, but do something to show your support.  Put the G on your hand and post it to your wall.  You may spark interest for someone who does have the money.  We can change the world, sometimes all it takes is a post.