Little X: Growing Up in the Nation of Islam

Rating:
Summary: Beyond what the Nation wants us to know...
Review: Fantastic. I study religion, and this book provided fascinating new insight into a movement that has changed and gone through many hands. I learned a lot, and chnaged my point of view as a result...I guess that the number one thing that I learned was that all people just want an identity...and Elijah Muhammad provided that African American with that. There are a lot of interesting facts that one can glean from this book.

Rating:
Summary: Why is this book out of print?
Review: I do not understand why *Little X* went out of print. I was assigned it in a university course and loved it. Where else can we read about women's experiences in African-American Islam and Christianity?

There are big differences between the various kinds of Islam in this country and we need to know them all. It is human to interpret a religion according to one's own community needs, and that is what the Nation was for in Tate's early days. It is well-written. Why copy edit out the dialogue of family truths and pains and growth. Where is Tate today? Everyone in my class enjoyed reading *Little X* - and when I went to get a copy for a gift, I couldn't believe they stopped printing them.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting but needs editing
Review: Ms. Tate writes about her experiences growing up in the Nation of Islam (NOI). She discusses her bizarre education at the Nation of Islam school and her difficult adjustment to the public school system after the NOI school was shut down. In a span of several years she listens as the adults around her complain that the leaders of the NOI are not following their own rules (and there are a LOT of rules). Then she discovers that her parents are also not following the rules; they have a stash of marijuana in their bedroom, which she steals and smokes several times per day. She describes her mother's movement from NOI, to orthodox islam, and finally to the Church of Scientology. Unfortunately the book is repetitive and there are many statements that you will read twice. I don't know where the editor was on this one. This book is written in an adolescent voice and actually reminds me a lot of another memoir: "Red Scarf Girl" by Ji-Li Jiang (about the Chinese Cultural Revolution). A good book for teens and pre-teens.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent entry into growing up in a religous system
Review: Thankyou, Sonsyrea Tate, for this wonderful book. It was very interesting and touching reading - seeing the world of the Nation through the innocent eyes of a little girl. I liked the language in the book, the characters and the way Tate is telling her story. No sentimentality at all but still very strong and touching. Very good! please write some more!..

Rating:
Summary: Little X: Growing Up in the Nation of Islam
Review: The author's paternal grandparents joined the Nation of Islam in the early 1950s and by the time she was born in 1966, the family enjoyed a leading position in the Washington, D.C. temple. With a memory that borders slightly on the unbelievable, Tate recounts her early childhood in the Nation, followed by her mother's conversion to mainstream Islam, the discovery of her family's religious hypocrisy, and then her own crisis of faith and exit from Islam, followed by a journalistic career that included a stint at The Washington Post. Tate's account has particular value for giving a sense of the life of the poor but defiant life that NOI membership entails. The awkwardness of being marked by NOI customs (clothing, diet, female modesty, no extracurricular activites or games) comes through as one strong motif ("I felt like an ugly duck"), plus the extreme relief at being able, once no longer a Muslim, to blend in with the crowd. Tate makes vivid the narrow scope of her ambitions ("I knew . . . the only reason I was on this Earth [was] to become a good wife and mother") and describes the total protection by her male relatives against non-NOI men ("If somebody made your sister cry, you gotta beat him up!") -- though, alas, not against non-NOI women and their cutting remarks. She recalls rumors of Fruit of Islam hit squads, the agony as an eight-year-old sitting straight through an eleven-hour temple service, and her Christian grandmother who tried to trick her into eating pork ("we knew better than to eat any pink meat"). More surprising is the author's endorsement of her education at an NOI elementary school, despite its obvious drawbacks ("We didn't have textbooks, so the dictionary pretty much became our spelling book").

Middle East Quarterly: Islam in the United States December, 1998

Rating:
Summary: Little X: Growing Up in the Nation of Islam
Review: The author's paternal grandparents joined the Nation of Islam in the early 1950s and by the time she was born in 1966, the family enjoyed a leading position in the Washington, D.C. temple. With a memory that borders slightly on the unbelievable, Tate recounts her early childhood in the Nation, followed by her mother's conversion to mainstream Islam, the discovery of her family's religious hypocrisy, and then her own crisis of faith and exit from Islam, followed by a journalistic career that included a stint at The Washington Post. Tate's account has particular value for giving a sense of the life of the poor but defiant life that NOI membership entails. The awkwardness of being marked by NOI customs (clothing, diet, female modesty, no extracurricular activites or games) comes through as one strong motif ("I felt like an ugly duck"), plus the extreme relief at being able, once no longer a Muslim, to blend in with the crowd. Tate makes vivid the narrow scope of her ambitions ("I knew . . . the only reason I was on this Earth [was] to become a good wife and mother") and describes the total protection by her male relatives against non-NOI men ("If somebody made your sister cry, you gotta beat him up!") -- though, alas, not against non-NOI women and their cutting remarks. She recalls rumors of Fruit of Islam hit squads, the agony as an eight-year-old sitting straight through an eleven-hour temple service, and her Christian grandmother who tried to trick her into eating pork ("we knew better than to eat any pink meat"). More surprising is the author's endorsement of her education at an NOI elementary school, despite its obvious drawbacks ("We didn't have textbooks, so the dictionary pretty much became our spelling book").

Middle East Quarterly: Islam in the United States December, 1998