LeVar Burton is an actor most famous for portraying the young Kunta Kinte in Roots, the blind guy in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and as the host of Reading Rainbow. He got millions of young Americans interested in books and literature. He’s not quite Mr. Rogers, but he’s been a positive influence in children’s television programming for decades. Recently he did a reading of Adam Mansbach’s Go the Fuck to Sleep as part of telethon to raise money for charity. Go the Fuck to Sleep is not a children’s book. It’s a parody of children’s books written from the perspective of an exasperated parent trying to get their kid to go the fuck to sleep, and it’s full of cuss words that would get bleeped on basic cable. LeVar reads the short story to a group of adults sitting cross-legged and listening intently. It’s impossible not to have flashbacks to your childhood, but it’s slightly jarring (and also hilarious) to hear him cussing like a sailor. LeVar agreed to do the reading if viewers donated $75,000. The telethon ended up raising $442,389. That’s not all LeVar, but he definitely helped.
Critically Rated at 14/17
Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young
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