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?”
Growing up 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.
Suzy Zail’s novel ‘The Wrong Boy’ has long been a favourite with the Year 7-9 girls in our library and we were incredibly excited when we heard she had released a new novel ‘I am Change’ for a slightly older age group (we would recommend Year 10 and older).
Haunted by the 2014 kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls in Nigeria by the Boko Haram terrorist organization, and after a chance encounter with a Ugandan girl visiting Australia, Zail felt compelled to fly to Uganda and listen to the stories of young women. After interviewing many of these women, Zail left Uganda with their stories and the responsibility of sharing what she could to create awareness of their situations and most importantly, to create change.
As the mother of two young daughters, I must admit, reading the foreword of the novel had me in tears before I even reached Chapter One. Written by Namukasa Nusala Sarah, one of the young women Zail interviewed, the Foreword provides an affirmation for Zail that she got the story right. While her novel isn’t focused on the particular story of one of these girls, it is a combination of the stories and events they described for her. Namukasa writes that when she read the final version of the book, “I cried, because I was Lilian… Everything that happened to Lilian and her friends has happened to one – or all – of us. Suzy had listened to our stories. It was all there. The lessons and the beatings, the laughter, the drums, the hunger and the fear”. This was a moving sentiment for me as the reader of the novel, and particularly as a mother of young girls, knowing that the story I was about to read was something so real to those who had inspired the novel.
This is where we provide fair warning that ‘I am Change’ is one of those reads you can’t put down once you start. It’s not a ‘nice’ story by any means but it is one you feel compelled to finish once you start. The power of this novel in telling the stories of young Ugandan women and their fight for equality, education and basic rights cannot be ignored. Zail’s ability to articulate the plight of these girls with such respect, while not sugar-coating the issues they face on a daily basis is profound. The novel left with me with a great sense that I too, had a responsibility to share this story, to help create awareness that there was more to the lives of these young women than marrying young in the attempt to provide food and security for the parents and siblings they were leaving behind.
Fortunately for me, the day after I finished the novel, a Year 10 student approached me wanting a recommendation for a new book. I placed ‘I am Change’ in her hands and asked her to read it and give me an honest review when she was finished. Two days later she returned and apologized, even though she had finished it, she couldn’t return it yet – she was making her mother read it.
We knew then that we wanted to do something more than simply add the novel to our collection, we wanted to encourage as many of our students to read it as we could. Fortuitously, shortly after this, when Suzy heard we were loving her book, she reached out to us via social media and we were able to provide an opportunity for our Year 10 bookclub members and Extension English students to read ‘I am Change’ and work with Suzy.
What did we do?
Our Year 10 students were about to complete a unit in English that included a persuasive speech on ‘the power of words to create change’. All students were reading ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee as a stimulus for this unit, so offering our bookclub and extension students the opportunity to read ‘I am Change’ in addition to this, gave them the opportunity to examine the juxtaposition between an historical novel set in the 19th century with one based around current events. While our whole year 10 cohort had the opportunity to attend an hour long Q&A with Suzy, students participating in the extension activity also attended an additional two hour workshop with her.
Side note: there is much potential here for inter-disciplinary activities with subjects such as History and Legal Studies. Our students happened to be studying social justice and education in Religion and were able to apply their learning in this activity to their work.
Why year 10?
While the discourses and themes evident in this novel are pertinent for females of all ages, it is inspired by historical events surrounding the struggle of young women in Africa to challenge social norms and complete their education, instead of marrying as teenagers. As such, the novel deals with mature discourses and the confronting issues faced by women placed in these positions and we felt that Year 10 was the appropriate level for this.
Why do we love Suzy?
Suzy was an absolute dream to work with. She put an enormous amount of effort into understanding the units our students were studying and her manner with the girls was fantastic. Our students were incredibly engaged listening to Suzy discuss her encounters with the young women she interviewed in Uganda. Most importantly, Suzy was able to ‘go beyond’ the storyline of ‘I am Change’ and discuss her passion in helping create awareness and change for these women in Uganda. Our students appreciated the way Suzy was creating change not only by writing her novel to create awareness, but also that she was so willing to discuss her experiences and is advocating for the girls in her novel through the #giveagirlabook campaign and other initiatives. Since her visit, Suzy has put interested students in touch with ‘penpals’ in Uganda so they are able to engage with these students further.
Visit Suzy's website for further information about her work with 'I am Change', learning resources and inspiration.
Publisher Black Dog Books (an imprint of Walker Books) also provides Teacher Resources for 'I am Change' here.
