Point of View

The novel is told from the first-person point of view of young Malcolm Little, who is based on the author Ilyasah Shabazz's father, Malcolm X. Malcolm narrates most of the novel in the present tense, with the exception of some flashbacks relating events from his childhood in Michigan, which are told in the past tense. This is a rare look into the life of Malcolm X before he joined the Nation of Islam and took up the cause of black empowerment, his childhood and young adulthood. While it is technically fictional, the author drew from her father's autobiography, diaries, speeches, and the memories of friends and family to make the portrayal of young Malcolm accurate.

The first-person narration allows the reader access to Malcolm's thoughts and feelings about the major events of his life, and about racism and white supremacy. Because of this, the reader...