-Kathleen McBroom
(Media Specialist, Dearborn Public Schools, Dearborn Michigan; LIBRARY MEDIA CONNECTION; February, 2004

Krull takes her remarkable gift for witty, brief, and incicive biography to new hights in this compendium. Most of the artists get a single page (the Beatles get more) facing one of Alcorn's fabulous polychrome re;lief-block prints. Her choices are sound: Elvis to Kurt Cobain, and a host of people who only need one name: Dylan, Jimi, Joni, Santana, Bono, Bruce. She captures the essence of their music in ways that will send young readers to their parents' or grandparents' music collections (a fine list of sources includes a book, a website, and a CD for each artist). Alcorn's dramatic images use the texture inherent in his medium to make beautiful contrasts of patterns, and color creates almost psychedelic light-and-dark effects. He uses iconic imagery brilliantly: showing Bono with a sword and a halo; Cobain as a broken mirror. Readers will be sobered to see just how many of the dead rock stars died because of drug use, but krull never equates their creativity with their excesses. (Biography. 9+)

- KIRKUS REVIEWS
(*Starred review; September 15, 2003 ©)

Grades 5-8 -- Concise, single-page entries chronicle the accomplishments of 24 icons of the rock stage. Krull has chosen the most influential of subjects -- entertqainers, who added elements of rhythm and harmony, innovators of intstrumentation, and commentators on contemporary life. Biographical sketches, from Elvis (b.1935) to Kurt Cobain (b.1967), include the controversies of public and private lives without sensationalizing. Each entry is paired with one of Alcorn's inspired, eye-catching illustrations. Startling pop-art portraits in polychrome releif-lock prints with folk and religious motifs face text in varying colors and fonts, while a thumbnail representation of each portrait decorates the cover. Krull's work recognizes th eimpact of the art without judging the sometimes antisocial actions of the artists. This slim volume will rock th eresearch of younger music enthusiasts.

- Mary Elam
(Forman Elementary School; Plano, Texas; SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL © 2004)

For those of us who think wistfully back on the pop icons of our youth, today's image of our former music heroes as wizened elder statesmen (and women) is a harsh reminder of time's relentless passage. True, as of this writing, the Stones are on tour, but even if, from 20 rows back, it smells like teen spirit, up close it is a different story.

Leave it to illustrator, painter, and printmaker Stephen Alcorn to restore rebellious vigor and meaning to past icons who have lost their luster. "As I look back on those years, I am struck by the extent to which music in the second half of the 20th century served as both a catalyst and a mirror to the social unrest" he says. Through the impressionable eyes of a child, Alcorn witnessed first-hand the musical counter-culture of the Woodstock Generation and saw there a positive force for social change. "I have always considered myself my good fortune to have come of age undr a torrent of creativity."

Alcorn's "Modern Music Masters" series (www.alcorngallery.com) is the most recent of a cycle of portraits he has created over the years. Here, he pays homage to the musicians who have provoded a musical backdrop to our lives. He decided to include those early pioneers who influenced the musci he grew up with, and their descendents as well. The series has many twists and surprises, intentionally playing on mythos (McCartney as satyr, Jagger as saint) but also right along with it (Bono as crusader and Elvis as Angel). One of the most poignant pieces is also the starkest: a black and white portrait odf a shattered Kurt Cobain. Many emmplu symbolism that is not readily aparent but affect us subconsciously.

The result of a quarter-century of experimentation with relief-block, the series is in many ways as inspirational as the music it celebrates.

- Steven Brower
PRINT MAGAZINE; LVII © 2003 (Feb. 03)