YA Materials, Literature Log, Book #1: Born a Crime

 Title: Born a Crime

Author: Trevor Noah

Category: Biography/Autobiography/Memoir


Trevor Noah, born in South Africa under apartheid to a black mother and a white father, relates stories from his childhood growing up a world very much divided. He relates his feelings of being an outsider in his community, the complications of race and growing up among black people when the world he lived in didn't consider him black, and the abuse his stepfather inflicted upon him and his mother. He also talks about his schooling, skills, and dating, and one time he spent a week in jail.


I greatly enjoyed reading this book. I found Noah's writing style to be relatable and conversational, not hard to understand, and often quite funny! His stories, while often angering me with the circumstances of apartheid and racism, are often entertaining. I feel that this could be used for teenagers to teach them a little about apartheid, as it happened so recently, and to give a perspective on a part of the world American teens have never seen. This could be used as a lesson in empathy as well, as it can be hard not to feel empathetic towards someone whose book reads as though you are his friend. I think teens could get a lot out of Born a Crime.


-Emaleigh Kitchen

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