Illuminating reading for dreamers and doers already attuned to beats of their own.
The shaping of two Liverpudlian rascals who grew up to be the most successful songwriting duo of all time.
Readers looking for concise views of the “youthquake” that rock-and-roll records and fashions from the U.S. set off in Great Britain and the evolution of the band that became the Beatles will be well served, but Cooper’s main focus stays foremost on the personalities and formative life experiences (rather than the music) of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. And of the two, it’s Lennon who shines brightest here—an “intense and clever” lad with a reputation as a “neighborhood bad boy” (“How naughty do you have to be to be expelled from kindergarten?”) who shuttled back and forth between his irresponsible but free-spirited birth mother and a stodgy, dependable aunt and brought deep wells of “wit, creativity, and confidence, with a streak of cruelty” to his personal relationships as well as to making and performing music. Paul comes off as rather bland in comparison, though the author does write of the “creative alchemy” (“creative and competitive in equal parts”) that occurred in the wake of their historic meeting at a church garden party in 1957. Both come alive here, and readers who see them as distant products of a vanished era will come away with fresh insight into how their characters, context, and times reflect on our own.
Illuminating reading for dreamers and doers already attuned to beats of their own. (endnotes, bibliography, photos, photo credits, author’s note, index) (Collective biography. 11-15)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2023
ISBN: 9780451475855
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
If Freedman wrote the history textbooks, we would have many more historians. Beginning with an engrossing description of the Boston Tea Party in 1773, he brings the reader the lives of the American colonists and the events leading up to the break with England. The narrative approach to history reads like a good story, yet Freedman tucks in the data that give depth to it. The inclusion of all the people who lived during those times and the roles they played, whether small or large are acknowledged with dignity. The story moves backwards from the Boston Tea Party to the beginning of the European settlement of what they called the New World, and then proceeds chronologically to the signing of the Declaration. “Your Rights and Mine” traces the influence of the document from its inception to the present ending with Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. The full text of the Declaration and a reproduction of the original are included. A chronology of events and an index are helpful to the young researcher. Another interesting feature is “Visiting the Declaration of Independence.” It contains a short review of what happened to the document in the years after it was written, a useful Web site, and a description of how it is displayed and protected today at the National Archives building in Washington, D.C. Illustrations from the period add interest and detail. An excellent addition to the American history collection and an engrossing read. (Nonfiction. 9-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-8234-1448-5
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2000
Logically pointing out that the American cowboy archetype didn’t spring up from nowhere, Sandler, author of Cowboys (1994) and other volumes in the superficial, if luxuriously illustrated, “Library of Congress Book” series, looks back over 400 years of cattle tending in North America. His coverage ranges from the livestock carried on Columbus’s second voyage to today’s herding-by-helicopter operations. Here, too, the generous array of dramatic early prints, paintings, and photos are more likely to capture readers’ imaginations than the generality-ridden text. But among his vague comments about the characters, values, and culture passed by Mexican vaqueros to later arrivals from the Eastern US, Sadler intersperses nods to the gauchos, llaneros, and other South American “cowmen,” plus the paniolos of Hawaii, and the renowned African-American cowboys. He also decries the role film and popular literature have played in suppressing the vaqueros’ place in the history of the American West. He tackles an uncommon topic, and will broaden the historical perspective of many young cowboy fans, but his glance at modern vaqueros seems to stop at this country’s borders. Young readers will get a far more detailed, vivid picture of vaquero life and work from the cowboy classics in his annotated bibliography. (Notes, glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2001
ISBN: 0-8050-6019-7
Page Count: 116
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2000
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