The Beatles: All Our Yesterdays

Gr 8 Up—Echoing the words that Ringo Starr would later make famous ("Got to pay your dues if you wanna sing the blues/And you know it don't come easy"), this biography that focuses on the Beatles' early years demonstrates how the band's eventual success was the result of exhausting hard work and effort in the face of frequent rejection. Though lacking citations or a bibliography, the book is thorough and accurate in its portrayal of the Fab Four's rise, from childhood and adolescence to their days performing in Hamburg's debauched Reeperbahn district to their decision to swap out drummer Pete Best for Ringo Starr to their being signed by EMI. Well-known quotations (for instance, the infamous words with which Decca Records rejected the quartet: "Guitar groups are on their way out") are incorporated, adding to the authenticity. However, readers get only a hazy sense of the individual group members, with the exception of John Lennon, who is portrayed as flip and often boorish but genuinely vulnerable below the surface. Rendered in a typical comic book style, with motion lines and action words ("BANG!" "BOOM-CHA-BOOM!"), the illustrations, while static at times, have an appealing pop art quality, with dramatic close-ups or panels of characters striking exaggerated poses. Profanity is included (but "bleeped out" through the use of symbols), and there is a bit of sexual content (for example, at one point, the boys perform as back-up musicians for strippers), but the nudity is artfully concealed.