Patricia McCormick’s visit at Hainberg-Gymnasium 2015

“She’s a hero to the whole world, the best-known teenager in the world and, honestly, I was nervous in her company at first.”

That’s what the award-winning author Patricia McCormick told us first about her youth novel “I Am Malala”. 

Hainberg-Gymnasium had the honour of being visited by Patricia McCormick, the author of novels like “Never Fall Down”, “Purple Heart”, “Sold”, “My Brother’s Keeper” and “Cut” for which she won the German Peace Prize for Youth Literature in 2009. Ms. McCormick’s books are based on stories of young people having a terrible childhood in different regions of the world. It’s not her aim to horrify the readers but to make them pay attention to the situation of children in other countries. Ms. McCormick writes and publishes her novels especially for the younger generation. “When writing books for young people you must catch them with the first sentence because otherwise they will not go on reading.” That’s what Ms. McCormick said about the challenge of writing youth novels. 

Before becoming a well-known author, Ms. McCormick worked as a reporter for daily newspapers, and went into magazine journalism where she wrote book and movie reviews. After that she studied fiction writing at The New School in New York City and finally wrote critically acclaimed books for young adults. Currently Ms. McCormick lives in Manhattan.

The reading in the assembly hall of Hainberg-Gymnasium Göttingen on 18 March 2015 was Ms. McCormick’s first reading at a German school. Her audience consisted of the year ten students, some of the ninth graders and also of teachers of HG. The reading consisted of three phases. First Patricia McCormick was introduced to the audience by Ms. Lieberknecht and Mr. Teichmann and after that she read out some chosen passages of her novel “I Am Malala”. In the end the audience was invited to ask questions about Ms. McCormick herself, the work with Malala on this novel or about the Taliban and the situation in Pakistan in general. 

From the beginning Patricia McCormick was very open. She didn’t seem to feel uncomfortable talking about her feelings and experiences she had while working with Malala. Ms. McCormick is a very friendly and calm person. She was not like a stranger visiting our school but a woman who wanted to share her insights and impressions with young people. One could see that she enjoyed being there and talking to her audience. Ms. McCormick was very relaxed and friendly all the time although she told us that she was a little nervous at the beginning. The audience was very quiet while Ms. McCormick was reading out some passages of her novel “I Am Malala”. They didn’t just listen to her but also felt with Malala and her family, one could see that in the faces of all those people sitting there and waiting for Ms. McCormick to tell them more.

A lot of questions were asked which showed that the audience was very interested to find out more about this extraordinary girl. The questions were about Malala and what kind of person she is. Ms. McCormick tried to answer as precisely as she could and she explained more than once that even the well-known celebrity Malala is really an open and friendly girl like many others. She likes to meet up with her friends and she plays with her brothers. She laughs a lot and she has fears and hopes like all the other girls at her age. She is a Muslim girl and believes in God, even talks to him, but is not very strict about wearing a head scarf and praying five times a day. Her father is her hero and she loves her family. Malala is a very good student and works very hard for a good education. That’s what Ms. McCormick found out while working with her. 

Another question was about Malala’s future. Ms. McCormick had talked about a lot of things with Malala and that was also a question which Ms. McCormick had asked her. So she told us that Malala wants to become a politician because when she was younger her dad sometimes met some friends of his to talk about politics and she always had to bring some snacks and something to drink for their guests. Unlike other girls she did not leave quickly but she stayed and listened to the conversations which interested her a lot. That is the reason for Malala wanting to become a politician. 

In the end students and teachers had the opportunity to buy the novel “I Am Malala” with a signature by Ms. McCormick. All in all, the reading was very interesting and informative for the audience and for Patricia McCormick as well.

Katharina Jakob and Dilan Schuani (10B)