Ilyasah Shabazz

Kekla Magoon

Follows the childhood of the civil rights leader to his imprisonment at age twenty, where he found the faith that would lead him to his path towards activism and justice.

A Novel

Jeni Enjaian

I stumbled across this book while researching books to include in my Civil Rights Era book club for my students. I am so glad that I did. Although I have read nonfiction biographies of Malcom X before, this book took a different slant on it, a fictionalized yet true to life slant. I bought in, 100% to the authenticity of the narrative, especially since one of his daughters coauthored the book. While many may feel uncomfortable with the frequent use of the n* word, I feel that the way that Shabazz and Magoon used this word illustrated the exact reason why we should not use this word today. 

I highly recommend this book, although I would also recommend that readers should be of a mature, discerning reading level if they were to read this on their own or that readers should participate in guided discussions surrounding the novel so that the impact of the use of language such as the n* word is not distorted and has full efficacy.

X A Novel

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