The curse words may be gone, but the young readers’ edition of his memoir, “Born a Crime,” doesn’t soften his story of growing up under apartheid.
By Maria Russo
Trevor Noah Thinks Kids Can Handle the Truth
It’s easy to see how “Born a Crime,” Trevor Noah’s funny and devastating memoir of growing up mixed race in South Africa, became a best seller. Less predictable was the success of the book’s young readers’ edition, published this month and aimed at children 8 and up. I asked the comedian and talk show host to talk about adapting his story for a much younger audience. These are excerpts from our conversation.
How did you arrive at the idea of a young readers’ edition of “Born a Crime,” given that your show is on way past this audience’s bedtime?
It was a combination of factors, one of the most prevalent being that a lot of parents were saying their kids loved the book. People would say, I read the book to my 8-year-old, or my 10-year-old, but I wish they had a version they could read for themselves.
What changes did you make?
We slightly changed the framing of the book to gear it to a younger reader who doesn’t know about the history of South Africa. And then the main difference is obviously we’ve changed the language a bit. It’s not like the first book is graphic, but we made sure it’s completely suitable for kids of all ages.
There’s that scene when you’re 5 years old and you don’t want to use the outhouse, so you put a piece of newspaper on the kitchen floor — somehow it seems even funnier in the version for kids.
Changing the word to “poop” — that small thing makes it more accessible. But everything else in the scene is basically the same. I didn’t want the parents who’d liked the book to not get the same book for their kids.
I think the great stories connect with you regardless of your age. That’s what Pixar and Disney do today — they tell a story, and someone older can take away something different than a younger person does, but the heart of the story remains intact. The stories I loved as a kid are still the stories I love now.
Many people find it hard to figure out a way to talk to kids that’s not condescending.
I found it to be a natural mind-set, maybe because I thought about telling these stories to my younger brother, who is 17. I speak to him like an adult. I was lucky to grow up in a household where my mother gave me respect and treated me like an adult. That’s important to do with younger readers — they may not have the experience, but they are still functioning human beings and they can grasp the concepts. When I was growing up, Roald Dahl had the biggest impact on me. The way he told a story was so simple, yet so complicated at the same time.
This edition also has to explain South Africa to American children, who generally don’t know about apartheid. How did you approach that?
Unfortunately that’s true, that American children don’t learn about apartheid. But also, unfortunately, I could use a lot of American examples as reference points.
You mean like this one: “In America you had the forced removal of the native peoples onto reservations coupled with slavery followed by segregation. Imagine all three of those things happening to the same group of people at the same time. That was apartheid.”
That passage is the same in both editions.
Did you worry that young readers wouldn’t get some of the nuances in either the politics or your own story?
Maria Russo is the children’s books editor at the Book Review.
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