Turning the Page on Himself: LeVar Burton Tells His Own Story in 'Take My Word For It'

For decades, LeVar Burton invited children to open a book and step inside someone else's story. Now the beloved host of PBS's Reading Rainbow is asking audiences to step inside his. Burton sat down with CBS Mornings to discuss his new memoir, Take My Word For It. The title is a playful nod to the famous catchphrase that closed so many episodes of the children's program, which urged young viewers to go and discover a book for themselves.

The phrase has a fitting irony. For a generation of readers, Burton was the trusted guide who never asked anyone to accept his recommendations on faith alone. With the memoir, the storyteller becomes the story, and readers are asked to trust his account of a life lived on some of television's most important stages.

A Career Written in Three Acts

Few performers have shaped American television across as many distinct eras as Burton. He first rose to national prominence playing Kunta Kinte in ABC's landmark 1977 miniseries Roots, a production that drew a massive audience and pushed the country into a public conversation about slavery and its legacy. For a young actor, it was a debut that carried enormous historical weight.

He later reached a different kind of audience as Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge on Star Trek: The Next Generation, a role that made him a fixture of science fiction culture and a familiar face at fan conventions for decades afterward.

Running alongside both was Reading Rainbow, the PBS series that turned literacy into an adventure. Under Burton's warm, unhurried guidance, the program treated books less as homework and more as passports. That combination of entertainment and education secured his place in the memories of millions of viewers who grew up during its long run.

Why the Memoir Matters Now

Burton's decision to put his own experiences on paper lands at a moment when reading itself is under pressure, competing with an endless scroll of short-form video for young people's attention. Coming from a figure synonymous with the joy of reading, the book carries a quiet argument that long-form storytelling still has the power to illuminate a life.

His CBS Mornings appearance offered fans a chance to hear Burton reflect on the arc of a career that has moved between historical drama, futuristic adventure and children's educational programming. Each chapter of that career has served a common thread: the belief that stories help people understand one another and themselves.

A Familiar Voice, a New Role

For longtime admirers, the memoir may feel like a homecoming of sorts. The man who spent years reading to the nation is now handing over a book with his own name on the spine. In the broader landscape of celebrity memoirs, Burton's stands out because his public identity has always been bound up with the written word.

Whether readers pick it up out of nostalgia for Reading Rainbow, devotion to Star Trek or a deeper interest in the cultural impact of Roots, Burton is once again extending a familiar invitation: open the book and see for yourself. Readers can judge his story firsthand, without having to take anyone's word for it.