The Life of John Lennon by Doreen Rappaport

Rappaport, D. (2004). The life of John Lennon. New York, NY: Hyperion Books for Children.

Summary:
This book begins by telling the reader that John Lennon’s dad was away at sea and his mom did not want him, so he goes to live with his very strict aunt. His uncle taught him how to read and he began to write his own stories and draw illustrations to accompany them, but his aunt did not like them so he kept his dream a secret. The story goes on to tell the reader how he met Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. Throughout this entire time of trying to form a band with these new friends, his aunt was telling him he could never make a living playing in a band. Soon after, the Beatles had many hits and Beatlemania began to sweep the world! John Lennon became very vocal against the Vietnam War and not long after, the Beatles parted ways. Soon after, he recorded his solo albums before being assassinated at the age of 40. Throughout the story, there are partial lyrics woven through the text.

Ages:
4th through 8th grade

Credibility of Author:
Doreen Rappaport is a well-known author who read many books before writing this book.

National Standards that this book relates to:
The social studies standards met are people, places, and environments.

Access Features:
There is a list of songs from John Lennon, an author’s note from Doreen Rappaport, an illustrator’s note from Bryan Collier, important dates, selected discography with Beatle’s albums and solo albums, selected research sources, and websites.

Description of the Illustrations:
The beginning end pages are illustrations of photographers with a quote from John Lennon. The illustrator was Bryan Collier and to create the illustrations for this book he listened to John Lennon’s songs and conversations. By doing this, he found a connection that he was able to draw.

Awards:
none

Related Texts:
Uptown (An Owlet Book) by Bryan Collier
In His Own Write by John Lennon

My response to the book:
I thought the way that this book was created and put together was amazing. The illustrations are absolutely unbelievable and the way that the lyrics were woven through the text is very cool!

How I would use this book in my class:
I would not so much use the text in my second grade class, but I would definitely use it to discuss techniques that illustrators use to pull the reader in.