I Am Change
Audience: Children
For Ages: 14 - 18 years old
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Number Of Pages: 352
Published: 22nd July 2019
Publisher: Walker Books Australia
Country of Publication: AU
Dimensions (cm): 2.5 x 13.4 x 21
Weight (kg): 0.345
They told her that her body belonged to men and her mind didn’t matter. They were wrong.
“What if I don’t want to marry?” Lillian held her breath. She had never said the words out loud. “Not want to marry?” Her aunt frowned.
“What else would you do?”
Set in a Ugandan village, Lilian has learned to shrink herself to fit other people’s ideas of what a girl is. In her village a girl is not meant to be smarter than her brother. A girl is not meant to go to school or enjoy her body or decide who to marry. Especially if she is poor. Inspired by and written in consultation with young Ugandan women, I Am Change is the tragic but empowering story of how a young girl finds her voice and the strength to fight for change.
Book Features:
- Inspired by the stories told to the author by young Ugandan women. Timely and salient - the rights of girls and women in African countries are only now being exercised. A moving story of one girls struggle.
- 200,000 million girls in developing countries don't have the opportunity to go to school. Their education is disrupted by poverty, child marriage, gender based violence and cultures which favour boys'education. I Am Change highlights the issues that these young women face.
- Through Lilian, Suzy Zail has put a human face on these young women, giving readers a connection and a meaning to the young women's stories.
About the Author
Suzy Zail has worked as a litigation lawyer, specialising in Family Law, but now writes full time. Among other titles, she has written her father’s story, The Tattooed Flower, his life as a child survivor of the Holocaust. Her first novel for young adults, The Wrong Boy, was short-listed for the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year Awards, the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, the WAYRBA, USBBY and YABBA awards.
Her second novel with Black Dog Books, Alexander Altmann A10567, was a Notable Book at the CBCA Awards. She lives in Melbourne and has three children.