I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai

Good morning readers! In honor of Women's History Month and International Women's Day, I wanted to talk about an inspiring young woman, Malala Yousafzai, and her book I am Malala. Miss Yousafzai was all over the news a couple of years ago, but just for a recap she is a young Pakastani woman who has been fighting for her right to go to school. When she was fifteen, she was shot in the head by someone who (to put it mildly) did not agree with her cause. No one expected her to survive. Not only did she survive, but she also continued to fight for her right and the right of girls everywhere to an education, earning a Nobel Peace Prize.

I am Malala is a biography of her life so far, starting with her parents' early marriage years as her father opens a school for girls, through her attack and her recovery. Malala Yousafzai is a talented writer, and her story is both inspiring and heartbreaking. She and her family have overcome so much to provide her and her fellow students with an education. I cannot recommend this book enough. It shows this remarkable young woman as a real person, flaws and all, and gives new insight into Pakastani Culture and the rise of the Taliban.

I listened to the audiobook version of I am Malala, and I highly recommend doing the same. Yousafazai herself recorded the introduction, and then Archie Panjabi took over for the rest of the text. Both were clear, easy to understand, and engaging.

If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan

How far would you go to have the ability to be with the person that you wanted to spend the rest of your life with? What if your country and everyone around you believed that your love was sinful, and something to be ashamed of? This is the question at the heart of If You Could Be Mine, and Farizan does a wonderful job of addressing it in a way that is approachable for most teens.

The narrator, seventeen year old Sahar is definitely a teenage girl who is being pushed and pulled into womanhood in fits and starts, which allows for occasional glimpses of both incredible maturity, and the kind of naiveté that you only see in someone whose heart has not been broken yet. The story takes place in modern day Iran, and it does an excellent job of showing that part of the world to teens who have not yet been exposed to it.

The writing feels like a seventeen year old wrote it. Not that it is lacking in any way, but that the writing has both a bluntness and a sparseness that I associate with teenagers. For example, from the first page: "We were six. We didn't hear head scarves then. We were little girls, not 'whores of Babylon,' to be met by the scrutinizing eye of any asshole with a beard." This writing style works extremely well for this book, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a gentle romance or a young girl's coming of age story. If you are worried about swears, the above quote is actually the only swear that I remember in the entire book.

Miss Rumphius written and illustrated by Barbara Cooney

Miss Rumphius - or as I called the book growing up, The Lupine Lady - is one of my favorite books of all time. This is not to say that I can't turn a critical eye on the text and pictures, and I will. Later. But first I want to talk about the good parts of the book.

Format: Miss Rumphius is in landscape orientation, allowing a child in a lap-sit reading session to be encircled by the reader's arms, or for an older child to be able to "help" easily with holding the book. Ie, the reader holds the left half of the book, the child the right half. This landscape format is also beneficial to group story time settings, as the wideness of the pictures allows for ease of viewing. However, the length of the text makes the book better suited for story times for older children. I would not recommend this for a preschool story time.

Cover art: The cover art is a wrap around picture. The front shows a woman atop a hill by the ocean, going for a walk. Since I have read the book about a thousand times, I know that this woman is Miss Rumphius. Without this knowledge, she appears to be a proud, independent woman. Her head is up, and she seems to be walking with a purpose. Way in the distance is an island, hinting at travel and exploring the world. Even the fact that Miss Rumphius is on a walk, hints at her desire to explore. As we turn the book over, the walking path leads our eyes up to a house on another hill, overlooking the ocean. So the cover art depicts Miss Rumphius traveling and exploring, but always returning home.

End papers: The end papers are green, grass green. For me, this hints at the love of nature that permeates the story.

Pictures: For the most part this book follows a pattern of the verso page with text on it having a small picture hinting at upcoming events in the story, and the recto page having a full page illustration. Occasionally the illustration actually bleeds over across the gutter into the verso page, or completely takes over both pages. The size of the pictures allows the child to feel fully immersed in the story, and the small preview pictures begins to teach them foreshadowing. The colors are soft and muted, and the colors most often used are the same you would see in a lupine plant - green, purple, blue, and a little bit of pink.

Story: Our narrator is Miss Rumphius's great niece. She tells us about how when Miss Rumphius was a young girl named Alice, she would help her grandfather in his art shop, and how he encouraged her to travel the world like he had. But, that he also encouraged her to make the world more beautiful. And so, Alice grows up to work in the library, and to spend winter days inside the conservatory. Eventually though, she decides to start traveling the world. Everything is grand until she hurts her back getting off a camel, and decides to work on step two of her life goals- having a house by the sea. While resting and healing her back, Miss Rumphius starts to wonder how she can make the world more beautiful. And of course, she decides on lupine flowers! She starts scattering lupine seeds everywhere she goes, which probably makes the local bird population very happy as well. And maybe that little black and white cat who is in most of the pictures at this point. And Miss Rumphius keeps doing her thing, even when they start calling her That Crazy Old Lady. Eventually though everyone grows to respect her, and she tells stories to the narrator and her friends, and encourages them to travel the world, and make the world a more beautiful place.

Things I love: The messages! Let's recap them, shall we? First, the ones that are actually stated. To travel, and to improve the world. And finally the unstated one, that a woman doesn't have to marry and have children to have a rich, fulfilling life. I might be able to find another book depicting a single and happy woman, but this is the only one that I can think of off the top of my head.

Things I don't love: Apparently, people of color only exist in these faraway exotic lands that Miss Rumphius travels to. Everyone else? White as snow. Furthermore, although I know that cigar shops frequently had a statue of a Native American outside their shops and that depicting Grandfather making them is historically accurate, this tradition has always bothered me.

Even with the questionable depiction of race in this book, I still love it. It has a wonderful message that children need to hear, that even the little bit that they can do is enough to make the world a better place. And especially since the length of the book is better suited to slightly older readers, it would be simple enough to have a conversation about the lack of representation.

Buy it here.

Or here.

A Review of Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu, Illustrated by Erin McGuire

Hazel and Jack have been best friends since they were six years old. They spend their hot Minneapolis summers playing baseball with superheros, and the cold winters travelling to Narnia. He helped her through her parents' divorce, and she was his support during his mother's depression. When Jack suddenly stops talking to Hazel, her mother tries to convince her that this happens all the time, that it is to be expected when boys and girls who are friends reach a certain age. But Hazel knows better. She knows that best friends don't stop talking to you for no reason at all, and she has read enough stories to recognize evil magic. She knows it's up to her to save Jack.

This sweet, surprisingly gentle book shows a young girl finding the inner strength to save her best friend, herself, and the other people she meets on her adventure. It is written for late elementary students, but the occasionally heavy issues that are touched upon makes it suitable for older readers as well. I myself thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel.

Hazel's problems do not go away with the end of the story. But she does gain two new potential friends, the knowledge that she has the strength to battle anything, and a little bit of hope for the future.

Read about the author here

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