Grade 5-8–These books in a 25-volume series follow a format for hi/lo readers. Filled with color photographs, quotes, and magazine-cover reproductions, and with brightly colored framed text, the books are a glossy advertisement for the bling of hip-hop. The authors don't shy away from prison stays, drug use, and provocative lyrics prevalent in the artists' lives or works. Each volume relates turbulent lives, dark events, and the artist's attempts to find acceptance in the mainstream music world. The books devote a page or two to the history of the genre itself, but make clear the artists' lives and paths that assisted in hip-hop's development. Additional purchases where readers' interest is high.–Mary Elam, Forman Elementary School, Plano, TX Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
