An accessible introduction to a hip-hop virtuoso that trusts teens’ ability to tackle complex social issues.
A thorough and approachable tour through the life, impact, and artistry of a rap luminary.
Teen hip-hop heads and novices alike will relish this biography of Kendrick Lamar, a revered Black artist whose work has been in dialogue with America’s racial and political landscape for over a decade. The introductory chapters describe Lamar’s multifaceted youth. Even his supportive parents, who explained to an artistic and conscientious young Lamar how their Section 8 housing worked, couldn’t spare him from the harrowing realities of 1990s Compton. The narrative follows him as he refines his craft from early mixtapes to a Pulitzer-winning album, peppering in funny anecdotes and A-lister cameos, such as when hip-hop titan Dr. Dre called and Lamar, thinking it was a prank, hung up. The biography successfully highlights how Lamar not only lived through the shifting American discourse on race but helped shape it, from sharing the personal pain of poverty and racism to providing a soundtrack and rallying cry for Black Lives Matter protests with his hit “Alright.” Throughout, text boxes and single-page segments introduce related people and concepts, including Tupac Shakur and freestyle rap. Mooney acknowledges and contextualizes themes from Lamar’s work, such as police brutality, substance abuse, and sex addiction, without sensationalizing them, highlighting his skills as a storyteller.
An accessible introduction to a hip-hop virtuoso that trusts teens’ ability to tackle complex social issues. (glossary, source notes, selected bibliography, further information, index, photo acknowledgments) (Biography. 13-18)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2026
ISBN: 9798765688632
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Twenty-First Century/Lerner
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
Small but mighty necessary reading.
A miniature manifesto for radical queer acceptance that weaves together the personal and political.
Eli, a cis gay white Jewish man, uses his own identities and experiences to frame and acknowledge his perspective. In the prologue, Eli compares the global Jewish community to the global queer community, noting, “We don’t always get it right, but the importance of showing up for other Jews has been carved into the DNA of what it means to be Jewish. It is my dream that queer people develop the same ideology—what I like to call a Global Queer Conscience.” He details his own isolating experiences as a queer adolescent in an Orthodox Jewish community and reflects on how he and so many others would have benefitted from a robust and supportive queer community. The rest of the book outlines 10 principles based on the belief that an expectation of mutual care and concern across various other dimensions of identity can be integrated into queer community values. Eli’s prose is clear, straightforward, and powerful. While he makes some choices that may be divisive—for example, using the initialism LGBTQIAA+ which includes “ally”—he always makes clear those are his personal choices and that the language is ever evolving.
Small but mighty necessary reading. (resources) (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09368-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
A truth-is-stranger-than-fiction story about a lost soul finding her way.
Navigating high school is hard enough, let alone when your parents are CIA spies.
In this graphic memoir, U.S. citizen Glock shares the remarkable story of a childhood spent moving from country to country; abiding by strange, secretive rules; and the mystery of her parents’ occupations. By the time she reaches high school in an unspecified Central American nation—the sixth country she’s lived in—she’s begun to feel the weight of isolation and secrecy. After stealing a peek at a letter home to her parents from her older sister, who is attending college in the States, the pieces begin to fall into place. Normal teenage exploration and risk-taking, such as sneaking out to parties and flirtations with boys, feel different when you live and go to school behind locked gates and kidnapping is a real risk. This story, which was vetted by the CIA, follows the author from childhood to her eventual return to a home country that in many ways feels foreign. It considers the emotional impact of familial secrets and growing up between cultures. The soft illustrations in a palette of grays and peaches lend a nostalgic air, and Glock’s expressive faces speak volumes. This is a quiet, contemplative story that will leave readers yearning to know more and wondering what intriguing details were, of necessity, edited out. Glock and many classmates at her American school read as White; other characters are Central American locals.
A truth-is-stranger-than-fiction story about a lost soul finding her way. (Graphic memoir. 13-18)Pub Date: Nov. 30, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-316-45898-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
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