I received this book for free from NetGalley to facilitate my review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Stars of the Rock 'n' Roll Highway by Victoria Micklish Pasmore on June 1, 2016
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, General, History, Juvenile Nonfiction, Music, State & Local, United States
Pages: 56
Format: ARC
Source: NetGalley
If Memphis is the birthplace of rock ’n’ roll, it certainly spent its adolescence along U.S. Highway 67. Known today as Rock ’n’ Roll Highway 67, it runs from Newport, Arkansas, to the Missouri border. It is here that the first rock ’n’ rollers honed their skills, playing the small towns along the two-lane road. Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins—These were just a few of the young musicians who performed their music in the school gyms, honky-tonks, and clubs that dotted Highway 67 with such colorful names as Bloody Bucket, Silver Moon, Porky’s Rooftop, and the Skylark Drive In Theater. Presley, Cash, Lewis and Perkins—Sun Records’ “Million Dollar Quartet”—toured together while nurturing such local talent as Sonny Burgess, Bobby Brown, Narvel Flats, and Charlie Rich. In these pages, author Vicki Pasmore takes you on a guided tour of the Rock ’n’ Roll Highway to meet 20 of the entertainers who gave it its name.
Before I give you my thoughts, let me preface it with the fact that I know it was meant for children. That being said, no. Just no.
First, I don’t know any child who would actually care about old Rockabilly artists that were, in most cases, old enough to be their great-grandparents. Second, this book is dry. It’s just a bunch of facts tossed down on paper – or in this case, in an eBook. There’s no character, no life, just a more or less cold recitation of facts.
I could literally hear a boring teacher droning on in my head, reading this book to students who are doing anything they can to not fall asleep. That’s how boring this book is. I didn’t find any of the information particularly compelling to read and I certainly didn’t care about it once I was done.
This is definitely not a book I’d get for any of the kids in my life unless I was trying to get rid of them.
