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A review by saidtheraina
Notes from a Young Black Chef (Adapted for Young Adults) by Kwame Onwuachi
4.0
I haven't watched Top Chef in years. So, I wasn't familiar with Onwuachi at all until I started reading this book.
And I found his memoir very engaging. I really loved the parts where he made decisions that changed the rest of his life.
I appreciated the honest depiction of microaggressions as Onwuachi experienced them. In school, in professional kitchens. It is sobering. But it is important to bring those things into the light.
I picked this up thinking I might take it out to schools. I still might, but probably just high schools. Most of the story happens when Onwuachi is making grown-up, career-level decisions.
It didn't change my sense that books that were originally written for adults and then get "adapted for young readers" don't truly become the kinds of books I'm looking for as I'm looking for books to promote to a wide student audience. I wonder what was edited out.
There were things that felt missing. Very little is said about how Onwuachi decided to do TV in the first place. His love life is only mentioned in a passing reference to a girlfriend very late in the book. Not sure if that's what got edited out in the Young Adult adaptation, or if those parts of his story are missing in the source material.
Pretty great!
And I found his memoir very engaging. I really loved the parts where he made decisions that changed the rest of his life.
I appreciated the honest depiction of microaggressions as Onwuachi experienced them. In school, in professional kitchens. It is sobering. But it is important to bring those things into the light.
I picked this up thinking I might take it out to schools. I still might, but probably just high schools. Most of the story happens when Onwuachi is making grown-up, career-level decisions.
It didn't change my sense that books that were originally written for adults and then get "adapted for young readers" don't truly become the kinds of books I'm looking for as I'm looking for books to promote to a wide student audience. I wonder what was edited out.
There were things that felt missing. Very little is said about how Onwuachi decided to do TV in the first place. His love life is only mentioned in a passing reference to a girlfriend very late in the book. Not sure if that's what got edited out in the Young Adult adaptation, or if those parts of his story are missing in the source material.
Pretty great!