Trevor Noah is a comedian and the host of The Daily Show. He adapted his book Born A Crime to a children-appropriate version named It’s Trevor Noah: Born A Crime. The book is filled with stories from his childhood in South Africa. In the book, he talks about how he grew up during the Apartheid. The Apartheid called for racial segregation in South Africa. It made it so people of different races and skin colors couldn’t marry or go to the same restaurants and bathrooms. It was basically the South African version of discrimination. He describes the time he was thrown out of a moving car because the driver got upset at his mother for accepting a ride from someone else that was not from the same tribe. He remembers that because his father was white and his mother was black, he wasn’t allowed to walk with his mother on the street because he didn’t have the same skin color as her and that would raise some eyebrows. The title It’s Trevor Noah: Born a Crime says it all, Trevor Noah was actually a crime. Under the Apartheid, it was illegal for a white male to have a child with a black female or vice versa.The book is an adapted version for young readers from his original book Born A Crime, which I read before this one. The books are almost exactly the same except that his first one had lots of swear words. This one for younger readers was also simplified. This book taught me about how it was to live under apartheid, which I wouldn’t have learned about in school. I would rate this book a 10 out of 10 because it made me aware of the world around me and how different racism is in the USA. The book is for ages 10 and up because there are some things that might be inappropriate for younger kids. But even though discrimination is a heavy topic, Trevor Noah did a great job lightening it by making the book funny.
- Christopher, 9th grade teen volunteer