EVERY DAY IS MALALA DAY

An uplifting letter of tribute to Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager made famous by her determined advocacy for girls’ education, illustrated with photos of her and other young people from around the world.

McCarney addresses Yousafzai—who survived a shooting in 2012 and has become a vocal advocate for children’s rights—directly. She praises her courage, describes her experience and tallies many of the social and economic obstacles that “silence girls,” from poverty and discrimination to physical violence and forced early marriage. Strong personal and collective statements of solidarity (“Instead of living in fear… / …we must shout for change”) encourage readers to join Yousafzai. The author closes by quoting parts of the young Nobel Peace Prize nominee’s eloquent speech before the United Nations’ Youth Assembly on the right of children to receive an education. The missive captions a series of full-page photographs, mostly of girls in developing nations posing pensively or, more often, smiling and waving enthusiastically. Proceeds will be donated to a fund sponsored by Plan International, an international nonprofit devoted to children’s rights and welfare.

A brief but moving manifesto that will spark both sympathy and heightened awareness of an endemic global outrage.