Daughter of Malcolm X Reads New Book in WP
All day Monday, at the Barnes & Noble bookstore on Main Street in White Plains, a percent of purchases went to the Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Library located at the White Plains Thomas H. Slater Center.
Free events scheduled throughout the afternoon included musical solos by students of the Senakwami Institute and a special book reading and signing by Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X and author of “Malcolm Little, The Boy Who Grew Up to Become Malcolm X.”
Ms. Shabazz said she wrote about her father growing up because of the importance of the role of parents in children’s lives.
“I wrote this book for two reasons: to encourage young readers to access the transformational power within as exemplified by the early childhood of my father, and to pay homage to my grandparents Earl and Louise Little,” Shabazz read from the Author’s Note printed at the back of the book.
As an activist, motivational speaker and author of “Growing Up X,” Shabazz promotes higher education, interfaith dialog and building bridges between cultures for young leaders.
She is particularly proud of the opportunity she had to accompany President Clinton when he traveled to South Africa to meet with Nelson Mandela to discuss the development of business relations between the two countries.
As Shabazz read excerpts from her new book to the large crowd gathered in the White Plains store, she singled out the children in the audience and asked them to think about goal setting and plans to achieve accomplishments, whether they be big ideas or small.
Shabazz’s message is that “Bolstered by the love and wisdom of his family Malcolm was a natural born leader. But when confronted with intolerance and a series of tragedies, Malcolm’s optimism and faith were threatened. He had to learn how to be strong and how to hold on to his individuality. He had to learn self-reliance.”
The book is beautifully illustrated by AG Ford, with a hard cover and printing style easy for young readers.
An excerpt: “On one overcast morning Malcolm stood up from his desk chair and walked over to the open window, which was inviting a soft breeze into his room. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and when he opened his eyes again, he saw something that he would never forget. Hanging delicately from a small twig on a giant evergreen tree was a cocoon, something Louise had shown him one day in the garden. ‘You see that peculiar thing, Malcolm? Well, it’s actually a casing spun of silk, a protective covering for the creature that lives inside until it’s mature enough to fly out into the world.’”
Copies of Malcolm Little, The Boy Who Grew Up to Become Malcolm X, can be purchased for $17.99 at the Barnes & Noble at 230 Main Street, White Plains.
