Starred Review ALA Booklist (Wed Jul 05 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Starred Review In the beginning, they were just two lads from Liverpool: John and Paul nnon and McCartney, that is! How they formed the internationally celebrated Beatles is the stuff of Cooper's superb joint biography. She begins her story with John, charting his life from childhood until he trembled on the brink of, well, Beatledom. Interestingly, despite his later fame as a musician, it was art and writing that were John's earliest creative outlets; music didn't consume his life until rock and roll hit England like a pile driver. Then it's Paul's turn. Growing up surrounded by music, he was a charmer and an excellent student, earning a place in one of England's finest schools. There he met a younger boy named it for it orge Harrison! As for John, Paul met him at a church fete where he first heard John's band, the Quarry Men, perform. Soon Paul, already an accomplished musician, became a member and, not long afterward, persuaded John to invite George to join as well. And the rest, as they say, is (musical) history. Cooper does a brilliant job bringing the two quite different boys to vivid life. Generously illustrated with period photographs, the beautifully written result is fascinating and compulsively readable, as Cooper dramatically demonstrates that, together, the two made magic. "Not a bad legacy for two lads from Liverpool."

Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews (Wed Jul 05 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

The shaping of two Liverpudlian rascals who grew up to be the most successful songwriting duo of all time.Readers looking for concise views of the "youthquake" that rock-and-roll records and fashions from the U.S. set off in Great Britain and the evolution of the band that became the Beatles will be well served, but Cooper's main focus stays foremost on the personalities and formative life experiences (rather than the music) of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. And of the two, it's Lennon who shines brightest here-an "intense and clever" lad with a reputation as a "neighborhood bad boy" ("How naughty do you have to be to be expelled from kindergarten?") who shuttled back and forth between his irresponsible but free-spirited birth mother and a stodgy, dependable aunt and brought deep wells of "wit, creativity, and confidence, with a streak of cruelty" to his personal relationships as well as to making and performing music. Paul comes off as rather bland in comparison, though the author does write of the "creative alchemy" ("creative and competitive in equal parts") that occurred in the wake of their historic meeting at a church garden party in 1957. Both come alive here, and readers who see them as distant products of a vanished era will come away with fresh insight into how their characters, context, and times reflect on our own.Illuminating reading for dreamers and doers already attuned to beats of their own. (endnotes, bibliography, photos, photo credits, author's note, index) (Collective biography. 11-15)

School Library Journal Starred Review (Sat Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Gr 4–8— Introduced by chance at a church garden party in 1956, Lennon and McCartney bonded quickly over their love of the guitar and early rock artists like Little Richard and Buddy Holly, later deepening their friendship in shared grief when both lost their mothers in their teens. In chapters that sometimes focus on one and other times consider both, Cooper masterfully weaves the very different but overlapping lives of the two boys, beginning with John's birth during the Blitz and continuing through their return to Liverpool from a residency with The Beatles in Hamburg, Germany, in the early 1960s. Lennon's prickly personality and wild wordplay, compounded by his chaotic family life, is contrasted with McCartney's loving extended family and his meticulous dedication to craft. Yet as Lennon's first wife, Cynthia Powell, is quoted as saying, "John needed Paul's attention to detail and persistence. Paul needed John's anarchic, lateral thinking." Useful context includes descriptions of the explosion of youth culture after the war, including the stylish but often violent Teddy Boys subculture imitated by Lennon and others. An amazing trove of contemporaneous snapshots of the boys and their milieu round out the compelling narrative. The volume concludes with nine pages of source references, a full bibliography, and an index. The text is mostly unbroken except for photos, suggesting an audience of more confident readers. VERDICT A WWII book, a rock n' roll book, a buddy adventure, this should be an easy sell. Highly recommended for middle graders and middle schoolers.— Bob Hassett

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

The shaping of two Liverpudlian rascals who grew up to be the most successful songwriting duo of all time.Readers looking for concise views of the "youthquake" that rock-and-roll records and fashions from the U.S. set off in Great Britain and the evolution of the band that became the Beatles will be well served, but Cooper's main focus stays foremost on the personalities and formative life experiences (rather than the music) of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. And of the two, it's Lennon who shines brightest here-an "intense and clever" lad with a reputation as a "neighborhood bad boy" ("How naughty do you have to be to be expelled from kindergarten?") who shuttled back and forth between his irresponsible but free-spirited birth mother and a stodgy, dependable aunt and brought deep wells of "wit, creativity, and confidence, with a streak of cruelty" to his personal relationships as well as to making and performing music. Paul comes off as rather bland in comparison, though the author does write of the "creative alchemy" ("creative and competitive in equal parts") that occurred in the wake of their historic meeting at a church garden party in 1957. Both come alive here, and readers who see them as distant products of a vanished era will come away with fresh insight into how their characters, context, and times reflect on our own.Illuminating reading for dreamers and doers already attuned to beats of their own. (endnotes, bibliography, photos, photo credits, author's note, index) (Collective biography. 11-15)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Documenting the subjects’ first meeting and leading up to their meteoric rise to fame, Cooper (A Woman in the House) highlights the stark personality differences that cultivated the “creative alchemy” between John Lennon (1940–1980) and Paul McCartney (b. 1942) in this cerebral origin story. Born to music-loving parents with “a sharp disdain for authority” and raised by a strict aunt, Lennon used his considerable charisma, as well as his guitar- and harmonica-playing prowess, to form skiffle band the Quarry Men. Polite, studious McCartney, meanwhile, also raised by music lovers, had a quiet and affectionate upbringing; guitar playing became his primary emotional outlet following his mother’s sudden death in 1956. In prose that penetrates the Beatles’ larger-than-life aura, Cooper emphasizes the duo’s ordinary childhood experiences. Though the author details McCartney’s joining of the Quarry Men in 1957 and his disciplined personality as a balancing influence to Lennon’s “star power,” frank text also dutifully renders both figures’ similarities, including their controlling behavior with romantic partners. Archival photographs, an author’s note, and concluding remarks on the Beatles’ legacy round out the narrative, while thorough endnotes and a bibliography reflect Cooper’s detail-oriented approach. Ages 10–14. (Aug.)