Meet the young activist who stood up for her rights--and changed millions of lives. Before Malala Yousafzai (b. 1997) became the youngest Nobel Prize laureate, she was a girl fighting for her education in Pakistan. Growing up, Malala's father encouraged her to be politically active and speak out about her educational rights. When she did, she was shot by a member of the Taliban and the story received worldwide media coverage. Protests and petitions...

Before she was a famous mathematician and the first computer programmer, Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) was the daughter of well-known poet Lord Byron. Byron died when Ada was very young, and Ada's mother encouraged her interest in mathematics in an attempt to prevent Ada from turning into a melancholy poet like her father. Ada grew up and married a count, and as a countess, she was given access to some of England's greatest scientists and authors, including...

"Before he was the first Black president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela was a boy with a traditional Thembu upbringing. He went on to study law and become involved with African nationalist politics. The government had established an apartheid (a system of segregation that privileged white people), and Mandela worked to overthrow this system. He was arrested, accused of treason, and thrown in jail. When he was released, Mandela negotiated an end to...

"Before he led the first expedition to circumnavigate the Earth, Ferdinand Magellan [1480-1521] was a Portuguese noble who dreamed of adventure. After years of sailing, he was chosen to lead a crew to circle the globe--a trip that no other ship had ever completed. Though Magellan died in combat in the Philippines before he could finish the voyage, his ship made it around the world, and he is still known as one of the greatest explorers."--Back cover....

See how Amelia Earhart went from a little Kansas tomboy to a high-flying feminist icon

Before Amelia Earhart (1897–1939) became a world-famous pilot, she was a little tomboy from Kansas with a taste for adventure. When she visited an airfield and took a short plane ride, she knew she had to be a pilot. She signed up for flying lessons and cropped her hair short so that the other pilots would take her seriously. She became the first

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