The teenager who survived being shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban, only to become one of the world’s leading advocates of education for girls, kicked off a big week by opening a new, A$321 Million library in her adopted home city of Birmingham, UK.

16-year old Malala Yousafzai told a crowd of 1,000 of her “fellow Brummies” outside the stunning new library that even “one book, one pen, one child and one teacher can change the world.”

“We must speak up for the children of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan who are suffering from terrorism, poverty, child labor and child trafficking,” Malala said.  “Let us help them through our voice, action and charity. Lets us help them to read books and go to school.”

The new Birmingham Library is the largest of its kind in Europe, covered in distinctive interlocking silver and gold metal circles.  It replaces an older, 1970s structure in the concrete slab Brutalism style that has largely fallen out of favor around the world.

Malala will travel to The Hague for Friday’s award ceremony for the prestigious International Children’s Peace Prize.  The group KidsRights says she “risked her life in the fight for access to education for girls all over the world.”

The world learned of Malala when she was shot in the head by a cowardly gunman from the Pakistani Taliban, in retaliation for her advocacy of educating girls. She was flown to Birmingham for surgery.  She refused to be deterred, recovering from the attack and using her new fame to take that advocacy to an international level, even addressing a full meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.