however, that the book’s focus on her personal life and its challenges is the true story of Malala. The Taliban came to Swat Valley when she was ten years old. Her celebrity outside Swat Valley began when she was just 11. But her day-to day-life was still filled with school, family and friends. Even the reality of Taliban rule, with its public floggings, revenge killings and intrigue, horrible as it was, remained in the domain of the adults; she was protected, she assumed, in the bosom of her family.