Raphaële Frier

Author Raphaële Frier and illustrator Aurélia Fronty join forces in this inspiring picture-book biography of education activist Malala Yousafzai, first published in France. The narrative follows Malala's story from birth, and chronicles how, as a result of her unusual upbringing - her father Ziauddin was an educator, and unlike many in his Pashtun culture, believed that schooling should be extended to girls - she became a vocal advocate for the right of young girls in Pakistan to get an education. Despite growing threats from the Taliban, Malala continues her advocacy, eventually surviving an assassination attempt. Even this did not stop her, and she continued her education and activism in the UK, going on to found the Malala Fund to advocate for girls' education worldwide, and winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. The book concludes with an extensive afterword giving more information about Malala, her people and country, and her struggle for education rights...

Originally published in France as Malala pour le droit des filles à l'éducation, this informative and beautifully-illustrated volume is the fourth picture-book I have read about Malala Yousafzai, following upon her own Malala's Magic Pencil, Lina Maslo's Free as a Bird: The Story of Malala, and Jeanette Winter's Malala: A Brave Girl from Pakistan / Iqbal: A Brave Boy from Pakistan. I initially sought it out because I enjoyed illustrator Aurélia Fronty's work on another French picture-book biography, Franck Prévot's Wangari Maathai: The Woman Who Planted Millions of Trees. I'm very glad that I did track it down, as I found it (not unexpectedly) absolutely gorgeous, from an aesthetic perspective, and quite well-told and informative, from a textual standpoint. I appreciated the fact that Frier delved into the factors which caused the rise of the Taliban in the Swat Valley - namely, the exploitation of a terribly destructive earthquake by a fundamentalist Imam, as a means of convincing people that Allah was angry with them - and that she highlighted the role of Malala's father, in encouraging both her education and her activism. These are elements of the story also ably explored in Maslo's book. The artwork is, as mentioned, just beautiful, and make me wish I could track down more of Fronty's work. All in all, a very worthwhile title, one I would recommend to picture-book readers interested in biography, or in inspirational stories of young people standing up for their rights, and making a difference in the world.… (meer)