It's Trevor Noah: Born a Crime

Stories from a South African Childhood. Adapted for Young Readers. This internationally acclaimed, young-reader adaptation charts the mischievous childhood and adolescence of a biracial boy growing up in South Africa, whose very existence was a criminal act under the strict, institutional laws of Apartheid.

The Story: Written by prominent global comedian, television host, and political commentator Trevor Noah, this moving masterpiece transforms personal history into an exceptionally vivid, fast-moving personal workspace. The narrative completely shatters the sterile, clinical summaries found in traditional history textbooks. Instead, Noah establishes an honest, emotionally dense ledger built around his formative tracking lines, detailing what it meant to be born to a Black Xhosa mother and a white Swiss-German father when cross-racial relationships carried severe prison penalties.The biography guides young adult readers step-by-step through a versatile landscape of political absurdity and survival. Utilizing a sharp, comedic diagnostic toolkit, Noah details his early childhood parameters—where he had to be hidden indoors or walked down the street like a stranger to shield his family from government administrative sweeps. The text outlines the precise material logistics of his adolescence in Johannesburg, tracking his journey from a hyperactive school outsider to an enterprising teenager running a low-profile pirated music business.Rather than delivering a grim, fatalistic timeline, the memoir functions as a powerful testament to human resilience. The text details his relationship with his fiercely independent, deeply religious mother, Patricia, whose unwavering guidance and sharp wit served as his ultimate protective shield against institutional oppression. By organizing these historical realities into short, punchy chapters tailored for developing minds, this definitive Delacorte Press edition constructs an invaluable classroom asset. It teaches young scholars the absolute metrics of empathy, language skill, and self-worth, turning a chaotic historical era into a profound sanctuary of laughter and hope.

Perfect For: Middle-grade and high-school students seeking a fast-reading, deeply personal introduction to modern world history and the realities of institutional racism; educators looking for diverse, high-interest biographical literature for their classrooms; and book collectors archiving celebrated, adapted historical memoirs.

CYBILS Award for Middle Grade Non-Fiction (2019), Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award Nominee (2022)

Published 2020 by Yearling Books.