Adapted for Young Readers version by Trevor Noah
Here's a few reasons why reviewing this book has been in the forefront of my mind:
Reason 1. I miss my students TERRIBLY. I can’t stop thinking about them. Before the world was put on hold we were reading this as a read aloud in conjunction with our unit in reading on the Civil Rights Movement Era. We had discussed and found patterns between the CRM and other events across history. We were just beginning to really dive deep into the connections and differences between the CRM and Apartheid. The kids would look forward to hearing It’s Trevor Noah: Born A Crime each day. They’d beg me to read it multiple times a day, not just for my dramatic pauses and inflection in order to portray Trevor’s story, but the immense factual knowledge they were gaining. I miss reading to my kiddos so much and hope they’re reading for pleasure when they can because sparking their interest in reading is and was so important to me.
Reason 2. This book needs some major praise!
Synopsis: Trevor Noah’s Book shares his story of growing up in South Africa as a mixed-race child during Apartheid. For those of you who don’t know, even in the 80's while this was occurring, it was illegal to be mixed. The consequences were unimaginable and the treatment of people of color was beyond inhumane and unfair. Although the times Noah grew up on were extremely trying, he shines light on the positives of growing up with the mother he did and how his life was challenged by Apartheid.
This book is so important to me because of my experience pulling apart the meaning of Trevor's story and how it connects to and differs from what we had been learning about the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. The “adapted for young readers” version stayed true to Trevor's original version while providing my students with a more age-appropriate understanding of the true events of Apartheid. His book is funny, insightful, and the way he wrote his story full of suspense and quite lyrically was phenomenal. I can't even keep the amount of times we seriously belly-laughed under 10. Trevor Noah was meant to be a comedian and being a successful write is all the more reason to love this man. I’d recommend this to anyone who does or doesn’t know the events of Apartheid. Trevor's story is one to hold onto.
An “A + read” from me.
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