Published November 10, 2026
LeVar Burton’s new memoir, Take My Word for It, was released on November 10, 2026, by Random House. The 352-page book explores the actor’s personal experiences, family relationships, career decisions, and the stories behind his work in Roots, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Reading Rainbow.
Written with Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts, the memoir is available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook editions. Burton narrates the audio edition himself. Its release coincides with a November 10 PEOPLE interview in which he discusses the experiences that shaped the book.
The central question is not simply how Burton became a familiar television presence. It is how the stories he helped tell changed his understanding of family, identity, and what people owe one another.
What the LeVar Burton Memoir Reveals Beyond Television
Take My Word for It looks back at experiences that predate Burton’s television career. Raised primarily by his mother in Sacramento, California, he grew up amid family difficulties and the wider changes of the Civil Rights era. The memoir considers the influence of his mother and other women in his life, alongside his complicated relationship with his father.
Burton once expected to enter the priesthood. According to PEOPLE, a high school performance of T. S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral helped him recognize acting as another way to explore questions about human experience and purpose. That shift eventually led him into a profession built around telling other people’s stories.
The book also explores marriage, parenthood, grief, and mental health. Rather than presenting these subjects as separate from his success, Burton connects them to the choices he made on and off screen.
The Penguin Random House book description confirms that the memoir includes personal family photographs. It also identifies Lewis-Giggetts as Burton’s collaborator, a credit that belongs alongside his name whenever the book is introduced.
Roots and Star Trek Through Burton’s Own Perspective
Burton’s first professional acting job was also his breakthrough. At 19, he played Kunta Kinte in the 1977 television miniseries Roots, adapted from Alex Haley’s novel. The production placed questions of slavery, ancestry, and family history before a national audience.
For Burton, the work had personal consequences. In his release-day interview, he explained that the role encouraged him to investigate his own ancestry. The connection between inherited history and present-day responsibility remains a recurring concern in the memoir.
Ten years after Roots, he joined Star Trek: The Next Generation as Geordi La Forge, an engineer aboard the USS Enterprise. Burton has discussed the importance of seeing Nichelle Nichols portray Uhura in the original Star Trek series when he was young. Playing Geordi allowed him to participate in a different kind of story about representation, one set in an imagined future.
The contrast is striking: Roots brought him into a dramatization of the past, while Star Trek asked audiences to consider possibilities beyond their present circumstances. In Take My Word for It, those roles provide context for Burton’s reflections on being seen, telling difficult stories, and finding meaning in performance.
How Reading Rainbow Became Part of His Personal Story
For viewers who encountered Burton through children’s books, Reading Rainbow may be the most recognizable chapter of his career. He hosted the educational program from 1983 through the end of its original run in 2006, introducing young audiences to reading as a source of discovery rather than an assignment.
Burton told PEOPLE that he did not fully appreciate the show’s influence until children who had watched it grew up and began approaching him. Their memories helped him understand the relationship that could develop between a television host and viewers he had never met.
In his November 10 interview with PEOPLE, Burton discussed a difficult period during his years on Reading Rainbow that included a mental health crisis and his bipolar II diagnosis. He described the program as providing a sense of purpose during that time.
That history complicates a familiar public image. The person encouraging children to explore books was also working through uncertainty away from the camera. The memoir connects these experiences without treating literacy advocacy as an answer to every personal struggle.
For readers exploring the connections between authors’ lives and their work, America Publishers Author Spotlight also publishes author features and literary stories.
A New Book About Family, Storytelling, and Responsibility
Beyond its familiar screen roles, Take My Word for It examines the influence of Burton’s mother, sisters, wife, and daughter. It addresses loss and difficult family relationships while asking how a person’s identity is shaped by those who came before them.
The memoir also returns to a belief that runs through Burton’s public work: stories can help people understand experiences beyond their own. His career has brought that idea to historical drama, science fiction, and children’s television. This time, he applies it to his own life.
For audiences who know Kunta Kinte, Geordi La Forge, or the host of Reading Rainbow, the November 10 release provides context that those performances alone could not supply. It adds to the year’s memoir publishing news, but its significance lies in the personal experiences behind a widely recognized storyteller.
Readers can follow more book releases and publishing news through America Publishers Author Spotlight.
Explore the Memoir and Original News Coverage
🔗Read the Exclusive PEOPLE Interview
🔗View the Official Penguin Random House Book Details
Source: PEOPLE, “LeVar Burton Looks Back on How Roots, Star Trek and Reading Rainbow Shaped His Life Offscreen (Exclusive),” updated November 10, 2026. Read more at PEOPLE.
Official book information: Penguin Random House, Take My Word for It by LeVar Burton, with Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts. Published by Random House on November 10, 2026. Read more at Penguin Random House.
