Kate DeMonica: "Cool Hip-Hop Music"

"Cool Hip-Hop Music” by Karen Latchana Kenney is an informational book that introduces kids to different genres of music, instruments, a timeline of the creation of hip-hop, different parts of hip-hop, famous hip-hop artists, music production, rap, art and dance, and beat-boxing. Throughout this informational book there are photographs relating to each topic, and highlighted vocabulary words. This book is useful in a music classroom because it introduces students to a genre of music that is not typically taught in music classrooms, but can help students relate to music because of its popularity. It is also useful because it connects music to different art forms and can spark an interest in expression. This book also has a lot of instruction on how to make hip-hop music because there is a focus on applying what the book teaches, and a lot of music classrooms focus on hands on application.