X

X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon  348 pp.

This is an award winning novelized biography of the man who would become Malcolm X. Written by one of his daughters and based on Malcolm Little/El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz's diaries and interviews with friends and family. The book covers his childhood through the teen years to his imprisonment for burglary at age 21 where he converted to Islam and studied the works of men like Marcus Garvey who his parents followed. Appended material expands on his life after prison and his work with the Nation of Islam which he left to create the Organization for African-American Unity. This YA novel is interesting and I learned much about Malcolm X that I did not know. And it fulfilled the last title I needed for the 2019 A to Z Book Challenge. I downloaded the book via Overdrive.

One Crazy Summer

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, 218 pages

Eleven-year-old Delphine is a responsible, no-nonsense girl, which should come in handy as she and her two younger sisters travel across the country to visit the mother they haven't seen in seven years. The reunion doesn't bode well, as their mother seems much more interested in doing her own thing than in getting to know her daughters. Delphine and her sisters soon learn that their mother is deeply involved with the Black Panthers, making Delphine worry about their safety while also making her deeply curious about her mother.

This outstanding middle-grade novel won the Coretta Scott King Award in 2011, and there's no wonder why. This book illustrates the Black Panther movement in a way that is rarely discussed in schools, in part because it focuses on the kids that saw the movement taking shape. It's a great book, and I'll be recommending it to everyone I meet.