50 pages • 1 hour read
Malala Yousafzai, Patricia McCormickI Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World (Young Readers Edition)
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | YA | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Quiz
Reading Check, Multiple Choice & Short Answer Quizzes
Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.
Prologue-Part 1: “Before the Taliban”
Reading Check
1. Where does Malala live?
2. Who is Moniba?
3. How does Malala feel about school?
4. Where do the majority of children in Malala’s hometown get their education?
Multiple Choice
1. What is purdah?
A) the practice of women keeping covered or secluded from men
B) the practice of revenge
C) a traditional dish made with lamb and rice
D) a valley in the northwest region of Afghanistan
2. What job does Malala’s father hold?
A) imam in the local mosque
B) writer for the city newspaper
C) principal and teacher at the Khushal School
D) doctor at the nearby health clinic
3. How does seeing the poor children picking through trash at the dump affect Malala?
A) She feels discouraged about the educational system.
B) She wants to help make the world better.
C) She hopes the children find good things to sell.
D) She wants to give them jobs at the school.
4. Why do the mufti and community elders come to Malala’s home?
A) to warn them about increasing restrictions
B) to convince Malala’s father to join the governing group of elders
C) to offer help setting up an educational newsletter
D) to insist that girls should not attend the Khushal School
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Describe two of Malala’s defining character traits.
2. What does visiting her cousins in the village help Malala understand about the difference in gender roles in her country?
3. How does Malala’s father differ from other Pashtun Men?
4. What impact does the 2005 earthquake and its aftermath have on the people of Pakistan?
Part 2: “A Shadow over Our Valley”
Reading Check
1. What does haram mean?
2. Who is Maulana Fazlullah?
3. What does Malala’s father find on the gate of the Khushal School?
4. What happens when Fazlullah declares war on the Pakistani government?
5. What does Malala believe about education?
Multiple Choice
1. What does Fazlullah preach about girls who attend school?
A) They will be the pride of Pakistan.
B) They are bad Muslims.
C) They should help teach others.
D) They must wear a special uniform.
2. How does Malala’s father show courage?
A) He moves his family to a safer location.
B) He visits Taliban headquarters to talk with them.
C) He speaks out against the Taliban.
D) He writes a book about the Taliban’s crimes.
3. Why does Malala admire her upper-school teacher, Madam Maryam?
A) She is college-educated and self-sufficient.
B) She knows how to protect the students during air raids.
C) She gives Malala special treatment.
D) She is good friends with Malala’s family.
4. In what ways do the Taliban exert control in Mingora?
A) They forbid Western music, videos, and television.
B) They flog people for disobeying their rules.
C) They execute people for speaking out against them.
D) all of the above
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Malala think that women, especially, approve of the Radio Mullah and his message?
2. How do the Taliban’s edicts affect women?
3. What impact does Benazir Bhutto’s assassination have on Malala?
4. How does Malala differentiate between war and terrorism?
Part 3: “Finding My Voice” Chapters 11-15
Reading Check
1. What does Malala volunteer to do for her father?
2. What is sharia?
3. Do the Taliban honor their peace treaty with the Pakistani government?
4. What does Malala’s family decide to do when the Taliban targets Islamabad?
Multiple Choice
1. How does the “peace assembly” at school inspire Malala?
A) She hopes that the Taliban will listen to the girls’ speeches.
B) She desires to speak out about girls’ education to an even wider audience.
C) She wants her class to publish their speeches.
D) She wants to become a television host.
2. Why does Malala refuse to wear a veil on her television interviews?
A) She is challenging the Taliban to target her.
B) She believes that few people watch the interviews.
C) She is proud of her identity and has nothing to hide.
D) None of the girls in Swat wear veils.
3. How do Malala and other upper grade students defy the Taliban when their school is closed?
A) They teach their younger siblings.
B) They study at home.
C) They attend school secretly.
D) They tutor each other.
Short Answer
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Malala title this section “Finding My Voice”?
2. What does Malala fear will happen if she cannot attend school?
3. How does Malala show her dedication to her own education and her advocacy for the educational rights of all girls?
4. What does Malala learn about the media from doing television interviews?
Part 3: “Finding My Voice” Chapters 16-19
Reading Check
1. What does Malala’s father do instead of evacuating with the family?
2. What happens to the Khushal School during the fighting between the Taliban and the Pakistani army?
3. Why does Malala’s father receive a letter calling him a bad Muslim?
Multiple Choice
1. Which important individual nominates Malala for an international peace prize?
A) Desmond Tutu
B) Oprah Winfrey
C) Barak Obama
D) Nelson Mandela
2. How does Malala differ from the other girls at the village school?
A) She already knows the lessons they are studying.
B) She speaks out and does not cover her face.
C) She is much taller.
D) She helps the teacher create lessons.
3. What does Malala do that symbolizes her hope for a peaceful future?
A) gives money to a foundation to protect child laborers
B) writes a novel about world peace
C) opens a literacy center
D) plants a mango seed
Short Answer
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How does becoming an IDP, or Internally Displaced Person, affect Malala?
2. Why does Malala decide she wants to become a politician, rather than a doctor?
3. Describe two events that encourage Malala in her fight for girls’ education and explain how they give her confidence for her cause.
4. How do the Taliban use the terrible flooding that strikes Pakistan in 2010 to their advantage?
Part 4: “Targeted”
Reading Check
1. Why does Malala’s father suggest they cut back on their advocacy work for girls’ educational rights?
2. What important step does Malala’s mother take to improve her life?
3. Name one incident that shows the Taliban is still active in Malala’s hometown.
4. Where do the Taliban ambush Malala?
Multiple Choice
1. How does Malala react to the news that she is on the Taliban’s hit list?
A) She is terrified.
B) She thinks it is just a rumor.
C) She wants her family to move to Shangla.
D) She is calm.
2. How does Malala plan to respond to a Taliban member who tries to kill her?
A) She will fight him.
B) She will try to reason with him.
C) She will run away.
D) She will ask Pakistani soldiers for help.
3. What does Malala do with the prize money she earns from her peace awards?
A) donates it to UNICEF
B) gives it to her father to put in trust for her
C) starts an education foundation for impoverished children
D) helps her relatives in Shangla rebuild their home
4. How do Malala and her father react to the threat against her?
A) They pretend that nothing is wrong.
B) They are careful, but fearful.
C) They suspend their advocacy work for a while.
D) They leave the country to gather international support.
Short Answer
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Describe one way that Malala shows the heroic quality of self-sacrifice.
2. What is Malala’s attitude towards death? How does she think that her or her father’s death would affect their cause?
3. Why does Malala reject violence as a response to Taliban threats?
4. The Prologue is where Malala first describes the day she was shot. What is the effect of repeating the account of this day at this point in her memoir?
Part 5: “A New Life, Far from Home” Chapters 24-29
Reading Check
1. After being shot, in what country does Malala awaken?
2. Name one of Malala’s two major worries in the hospital.
3. How does Malala initially communicate with the doctors?
4. What does Fazlullah threaten when he learns of Malala’s survival?
Multiple Choice
1. How does Malala feel about herself when she looks in the mirror and sees the extent of her injuries?
A) She is depressed about her appearance.
B) She is frightened by her swollen face and partially shaved head.
C) She is simply glad to be alive.
D) She hopes her parents will not see her looking this way.
2. Who does Malala worry most about while she is in the hospital?
A) her mother
B) Shazia and Kainat, the other two girls who were shot
C) her father
D) her brothers
3. Why does Malala need to comfort her father when the family is at last reunited?
A) He is overwhelmed with joy.
B) He feels he should have been shot instead.
C) He is recovering from his own illness.
D) He needs her reassurance that she will stop her advocacy work.
Short Answer
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Describe how Malala shows courage and strength during her hospital stay.
2. How does the assassination attempt change Malala’s outlook on life?
3. Why does Malala believe the Taliban attempt on her life backfired for them?
4. How does Malala’s Islamic faith contrast with the Taliban’s interpretation of Islam?
Part 5: “A New Life, Far from Home” Chapters 30-Epilogue
Reading Check
1. In addition to the work of the doctors, what else does Malala believe helped save her life?
2. Who is the important person that visits Malala in the hospital?
3. What prohibits Malala and her family from returning to Pakistan?
4. What prestigious award does Malala receive two years after the attack on her life?
Multiple Choice
1. What new job does Malala’s father receive?
A) principal of a new girls’ school in Birmingham
B) hospital public relations director
C) host of an anti-Taliban podcast
D) Pakistani education attaché in Birmingham
2. Why is the gift of Benazir Bhutto’s scarves important to Malala?
A) The scarves remind Malala of Pakistan.
B) The scarves signify that Malala, like Bhutto, is working for equal rights.
C) The scarves help conceal Malala’s injuries from the attack.
D) The scarves represent Taliban control.
3. Which set of adjectives best describes Malala’s first impression of Birmingham?
A) grey, exciting, diverse
B) hot, slow, calm
C) rainy, dull, restrictive
D) sunny, peaceful, boring
4. How does Malala initially feel about her new school in Birmingham?
A) She is unhappy when other girls are unfriendly.
B) She feels like she does not fit in.
C) She wishes her new school had the technological resources she enjoyed at the Khushal School.
D) She is thrilled when she is elected student body president.
Short Answer
1.Why does the book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, inspire Malala?
2.What does Malala see as her mission in life? Why does she feel this way?
3.Why is Malala upset when people blame her father for the Taliban attack on her life?
4. How has Malala changed over the course of the memoir? In what ways does she remain the same?
Quizzes – Answer Key
Prologue-Part 1: “Before the Taliban”
Reading Check
1. Pakistan (the country) and Mingora (the city) are both acceptable answers. (Chapters 2, 4)
2. Malala’s best friend (Prologue, Chapter 5)
3. She loves school and has since she was little. (Chapter 1)
4. at a madrasa, or school that only teaches about Islam (Chapter 5)
Multiple Choice
Short Answer
1. Answers will vary. Malala is curious, stubborn, and compassionate. She is competitive at school. She is a thinker and is upset by injustice. She loves her family. (Chapters 2, 3, 5, 1)
2. Malala realizes that women are not treated equally to men: Women do not have the same personal freedoms or access to jobs or education. Girls are less valued than boys. (Chapter 2)
3. He supports Malala’s thirst for learning and believes in the importance of education for all. He believes she should not be restricted by her gender but live a free life. He loves and values her. (Chapters 1, 2, 5)
4. The earthquake left people vulnerable to the strict fundamentalist religious teachings of the TNSM, or Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Sharia-e-Mohammadi. (Chapter 4)
Part 2: “A Shadow over Our Valley”
Reading Check
1. “forbidden” by Islamic law (Chapter 6)
2. the Radio Mullah and/or the local TNSM leader (Chapter 6)
3. a note threatening the school and Malala’s family (Chapter 7)
4. There is an armed conflict between the Pakistani army and the Taliban in Mingora. (Chapter 9)
5. that it is a human right (Chapter 8)
Multiple Choice
Short Answer
1. Answers may include: women respond to the Radio Mullah’s charisma; women believe his message because many of them are uneducated and raised to follow their religious leaders’ instructions; and they prefer Islamic law to the Pakistani judicial system. (Chapter 6)
2. The Taliban’s edicts are more restrictive for women, requiring them to cover themselves more completely and ordering them to stay home in purdah, thus denying them education. They also bomb girls’ schools. (Chapters 7, 10)
3. Malala regards Bhutto, the country’s first female prime minister, as a role model and hero. Bhutto’s death inspires Malala to continue Bhutto’s work, fighting for women’s rights and democracy. (Chapter 8)
4. Malala thinks that war is an overt, open conflict, but terrorism is designed to cause fear and uncertainty. (Chapter 10)
Part 3: “Finding My Voice” Chapters 11-15
Reading Check
1. write an online diary for the BBC talking about life under Taliban rule (Chapter 12)
2. strict religious law (Chapter 15)
3. No; they continue to fight the army. (Chapter 15)
4. flee the city / go to the mountain village of Shangla (Chapter 15)
Multiple Choice
Short Answer
1. Malala begins speaking out more publicly for girls’ educational rights and grows more self-assured and certain of her cause. (Chapters 11, 12, 13, 15)
2. She will not become a doctor, but must conform to a traditional gender role, cooking and cleaning for her brothers, and later a husband. (Chapters 12, 13)
3. She risks retribution from the Taliban by writing the blog, going on television interviews, and attending school when it is forbidden. (Chapters 12, 13, 14)
4. The media has the power to reach many people nationally and internationally and call attention to her cause. She also sees how the Taliban censor media to gain power and control. (Chapter 15)
Part 3: “Finding My Voice” Chapters 16-19
Reading Check
1. He travels to raise media awareness and call attention to the conflict with the Taliban. (Chapter 16)
2. The school is not destroyed, but damaged by the army who used it as an outpost. (Chapter 17)
3. because he speaks out against the Taliban (Chapter 18)
Multiple Choice
Short Answer
1. It makes her worry about her family and feel disconnected from her hometown. It makes her value her home and heritage even more. (Chapter 16)
2. Malala recognizes that political leaders have the power to make societal changes. (Chapters 16, 19)
3. Answers could include: being speaker for the District Child Assembly Swat and seeing their resolutions create change; winning the first Pakistani Peace Prize; requesting a list of changes from the Prime Minister; winning other peace prizes (Chapters 18, 19)
4. The flooding, like the earthquake, allows the Taliban to prey on people’s fears, saying it was punishment for their un-Islamic behavior. (Chapter 18)
Part 4: “Targeted”
Reading Check
1. He fears for Malala’s life. (Chapter 20)
2. She learns to read. (Chapter 21)
3. Answers can include: the Taliban spies on the girls’ school field trip; Malala’s father’s friend is shot; Malala is named on the Taliban hit list. (Chapters 20, 21, 22)
4. on the bus on the way home from school (Chapter 20)
Multiple Choice
Short Answer
1. Answers will vary: She gives up her prize money for a charity foundation; She keeps her fears of the Taliban to herself, sparing her family; She continues her advocacy work despite the threat against her life. (Chapters 22, 20)
2. Malala calmly understands that everyone will die. If she and her father are killed advocating for girls’ education, she believes their deaths will draw even more attention and supporters to their cause: their “voices will only multiply.” (Chapter 20)
3. Using violence would make her no different from the Taliban. Instead, Malala will respond with nonviolence and try to emphasize their commonality. (Chapter 20)
4. Repeating this description emphasizes its importance as a pivotal event in Malala’s life and future. It also brings the reader up to the present in Malala’s life: Up until now, Malala has been describing her past. (Chapter 23)
Part 5: “A New Life, Far from Home” Chapters 24-29
Reading Check
1. Birmingham, England (Chapter 24)
2. She worries her father was hurt, and that her family cannot afford her medical care. (Chapters 24, 25)
3. by writing in a notebook (Chapter 24)
4. that the Taliban will try again to kill her (Chapter 29)
Multiple Choice
Short Answer
1. Answers may vary: Malala does not cry during all the frightening and painful things she experiences in the hospital—until her family arrives. Malala stays strong despite the isolation from her family and her helplessness. (Chapters 25, 28)
2. She is grateful to God to be alive, and even more certain that her advocacy for education is correct. (Chapter 29)
3. The attack drew even more international attention to Malala, her fight for girls’ educational rights, and the Taliban’s own violent attempts to deny girls an education. (Chapter 29)
4. Malala believes that Islam is about truth, while the Taliban spreads violence, fear, and falsehood. (Chapter 29)
Part 5: “A New Life, Far from Home” Chapters 30-Epilogue
Reading Check
1. the thoughts and prayers of all the people around the world who wished her well (Chapter 30)
2. the President of Pakistan / Asif Ali Zardari / the husband of the late Benazir Bhutto (Chapter 31)
3. the threat from the Taliban (Chapter 31)
4. the Nobel Peace Prize (Epilogue)
Multiple Choice
Short Answer
1. Malala admires Dorothy’s perseverance, spirit, and empathy. Dorothy faced many obstacles and never gave up, and she also helped others. Malala believes in the same principles. (Chapter 31)
2. Malala believes it is her responsibility to work for peace and education, because God saved her life so that she could spend it helping others. (Chapters 36, 35)
3. Malala idolizes her father and dislikes when others criticize him. This also angers her because it suggests that she is unable to think and speak for herself—a stereotype that is patently untrue. (Chapter 34)
4. Malala has grown in her understanding and commitment to her cause. She recognizes she is now a role model for others. She is respected internationally and expands her advocacy work. She is also still a regular girl: fighting with her brothers, going to school, and talking with her friends. (Chapters 33, 34, Epilogue)
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