Michelle Obama's Becoming out in paperback and young readers edition in March

Michelle Obama's bestselling memoir Becoming will be published in paperback on 2nd March, alongside an edition for younger readers.

Released in November 2018, the former First Lady's book was a publishing sensation, spending 100 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. It has shifted 778,484 copies through Nielsen BookScan's TCM in the UK and was the 2018 Christmas Number One.

Now an edition adapted for children aged 10 and up, and featuring a special introduction by the author and three full-colour photographic inserts, will be released in hardcover by Puffin, an imprint of Penguin Random House Children’s, with an r.r.p. of £14.99.

A paperback of the original memoir, including a new introduction by the author, a letter from Obama to her younger self, and a book-club guide featuring 20 discussion questions and a five-question Q&A, will be simultaneously issued by Penguin General imprint Viking, with an r.r.p. of £12.99.

The publisher said: “With the Younger Readers edition of Becoming, Michelle Obama tells her full story for a new generation with the honesty and candour that is her trademark. In sharing her joys and triumphs alongside the bumps, bruises and challenges she has encountered along the way, Mrs Obama invites readers to realise that no one is perfect, and that the process of becoming is what matters, as finding yourself is ever evolving. In telling her own story with boldness, she asks young readers: Who are you, and what do you want to become?”

Obama writes in her introduction to the Younger Readers edition: “Growing up on the South Side of Chicago in the 1960s and ’70s, my parents, Fraser and Marian Robinson, always kept it straight with me and my brother, Craig. They never sugarcoated hard truths or presented their reality as anything other than what it was—because they knew we could handle it. I want to give you all that same respect.

“So my promise to you is to give you my story in all its messy glory—from the time I struggled in front of my kindergarten class, to my first kiss and the insecurities I felt growing up, to the chaos of a campaign trail, to the strange experience of shaking hands with the Queen of England. I hope that as you’re reading my story, you’ll also think about your own—because it’s the most beautiful gift you’ll ever have.”