In 1945 Detroit, 11-year-old Betty’s house doesn’t quite feel like home.

Like any good daughter, she believes her mother loves her, but deep down inside, she can’t shake the feeling that her mother doesn’t want her.

Church helps those worries fade, if only for a little while. The songs, the sermons, the speeches from visiting activists like Paul Robeson and Thurgood Marshall stir African Americans in her community to stand up for their rights. Betty, too, is inspired. She finds confidence and purpose in volunteering for the Housewives League, an organization that supports black-owned businesses.

Pretty soon, the American civil rights icon we now know as Dr. Betty Shabazz is born.

Inspired by Betty’s real life―but expanded and accentuated through a creative collaboration with novelist Renée Watson―Ilyasah Shabazz illuminates four poignant years in her mother’s childhood with this book, painting an inspiring portrait of a courageous child conquering the challenges of self-acceptance and belonging that resonates with young readers today.

About the Authors

Ilyasah Shabazz, the third daughter of Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz, is an activist, educator, and motivational speaker who has authored several award-winning publications, including her books, Betty Before X and X: A Novel. She is also an advocacy worker and an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.

Renée Watson is the New York Times bestselling, Newbery Honor Book, and Coretta Scott King Award-winning author of the books Piecing Me Together, This Side of Home, What Momma Left Me, and Betty Before X, co-written with Ilyasah Shabazz, as well as two acclaimed picture books: A Place Where Hurricanes Happen and Harlem’s Little Blackbird, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. She is the founder of I, Too, Arts Collective, a nonprofit initiative committed to nurturing underrepresented voices in the creative arts.