Copy provided by the Publisher

Think of the Quirk Kid books as a sort of Readers Digest condensed book collection of biographies. In just ten to twelve pages, which includes bright and colorful illustrations, we get a great overview of a variety of musical celebrities. There are four general categories with four people each, and while most are from the last forty years or so, there are some outliers.

The "Pop Superstars" include Cher, Beyonce, Harry Styles, and Taylor Swift, so this will draw in a lot of young readers who are Swifties! It was interesting to read about Styles, since I found out he is the age of my children, but the book didn't give me much information about his interesting style.

"Jazz Clubs and Concert Halls" gives us older musicians like Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Yo-Yo Ma, and Glenn Gould, of who I had never heard. Born in 1932, Gould was considered one the most famous classical pianists.

The musicians of my era get a shout out with "Songwriting and Music Making" with such Boomer favorites as Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Bob Marley, and Dolly Parton. I was glad to see Mitchell included, since she is such a brilliant writer, and is still singing despite health challenges, but I would have chosen John Lennon or George Harrison to represent the Beatles; after all, they are unfortunately dead, and Sir Paul is still going strong.

Finally, "Rhythm and Blues and the Motown Sound" is represented by Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Prince, and Mariah Carey. Wonder's story is especially suited to this series, since his career started when he was quite young.

This series of collective biographies reminds me of the Childhood of Famous Americans series, with which I was obsessed in the fourth grade. It's helpful to young readers to see the childhood daily life and challenges of people who became big stars. I really appreciate that this has a bibliography as well as a good index; I'm seeing more and more nonfiction books that lack these crucial elements.

It's tough to balance the mix of different types of music and different eras of performers, but Kid Musicians delivers a well orchestrated interlude of stories about performers that will be music to young readers' ears.