Chris Brown

Gr 6 Up—Geared toward hi/lo and reluctant readers, this series profiles several famous hip-hop and rap artists, providing information about their childhoods, struggles and achievements, and eventual stardom. While the subjects might be high-interest, the causal writing is generally stilted, with awkward sentence structure and transitions. In addition, many of the photos are of poor quality, and some even border on inappropriate (although, realistically, they are nothing worse than what readers might see on TV). The vocabulary sections in the back of each volume are not particular helpful. While this set highlights that these artists have overcome difficult circumstances and many of them give back to their communities, it also seems to glorify some of their violent backgrounds and/or illegal actions. For example, Chris Brown discusses the star's physical assault against his girlfriend, noting that, "…many of Chris's fans supported him, especially young girls." Readers and music fans deserve quality literature about their heroes. Unfortunately, this series does not provide it.