Malcolm X By Any Means Necessary

PLOT SUMMARY I read the book Malcolm X By Any Means Necessary. This book talks about Malcolm's childhood, growing up around unfriendly white people, and his adulthood, becoming a leader.

Malcolm's original last name was Little. The Littles were a very poor family. Since Malcolm was poor and black, he was the kid everybody picked on. Malcolm's family also moved a lot, so he could not get settled in one town. The reason they moved so much was because Malcolm's father was very involved with the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). The UNIA made a lot of white people angry and they would send death threats to the Little family, so the Littles would have to leave their home. The book says that since Malcolm was a little boy he had been treated unfairly by white people because of his father's work with the UNIA and just for being black.

One night Malcolm woke up because he heard his mother screaming. When Malcolm went downstairs, he saw his mother surrounded by police officers. Malcolm later found out that his father had been killed by a mob of people who pushed him under a trolley. This is just one of the many bad things that white people did to Malcolm's family. Other things include a robbery and someone setting their house on fire while people were still inside of the house (luckily no one got hurt or even killed).

Malcolm, in his teenager days, became a criminal. He was caught stealing a jewel and got sent to prison. Malcolm got a longer sentence because he was stealing the jewel with two white girls as his accomplices and even talking to a white girl back then was a crime.

When Malcolm got out of prison he learned his lesson not to steal. He decided to join The Nation Of Islam. Malcolm became very involved with The Nation Of Islam. The Nation Of Islam was a large group of black people that hated white people and were being taught to hate white people. It was founded by Elijah Muhammad. Malcolm helped Elijah Muhammad form many temples and he even ran one of the temples. Malcolm was having a few disagreements with Elijah Muhammad and he left The Nation Of Islam. Many people from The Nation Of Islam did not agree with Malcolm leaving and he started getting death threats.

When Malcolm left The Nation Of Islam, he took a spiritual trip to Mecca, Egypt. There he met the Prime Minister. When Malcolm came back to the United States he formed a group called the Afro American Unity which fought for equal treatment for all races.

CHARACTER Malcolm X was the main character in my book. I thought Malcolm was very passionate and devoted to his work, whatever work that he was doing. He also was very brave to stand up to white people like he did.

7 READING STRATEGIES In the book I used the important information reading strategy. There was a lot of information that did not really matter to the plot of the story.

MY THOUGHTS I liked the book very much because it was inspirational. I also thought it was a little boring from time to time. I found myself drifting off from the book and thinking about what I was going to have for dinner. I would recommend this book, but I wouldn't say it was a great book it was just a good book.

AUTHOR Walter Dean Myers was the author of my book. I love the way Walter Dean Myers writes. I have read other books by him and I have loved them also like Monster.