Picture Book Highlights | 50th Anniversary of Hip Hop

By Monica C. RSS Tue, June 20, 2023

Get ready to party! We are celebrating 50 years since hip hop entered the music scene and changed everything.

Learn how it all began and see for yourself how the music, the beat and the rhythm can make storytelling even more fun!

 

What is Hip-Hop? by Eric Morse; illustrated by Anny Yi

This is a playful guided tour of one of the most revolutionary pop culture movements of the twentieth century. Beginning with block parties in the Bronx, What is Hip-Hop? brings the reader up to the present day, with rhyming verses and engaging 3-D clay illustrations. It's a fun, accessible, and informative read for B-boys and B-girls of all ages.

When The Beat Was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop by Laban Carrick Hill; illustrated by Theodore Taylor

Before there was hip hop, there was DJ Kool Herc. On a hot day at the end of summer in 1973 Cindy Campbell threw a back-to-school party at a park in the South Bronx. Her brother, Clive Campbell, spun the records. He had a new way of playing the music to make the breaks-the musical interludes between verses-longer for dancing. He called himself DJ Kool Herc and this is When the Beat Was Born!

Hip Hop Dog by Christopher Raschka; illustrated by Vladimir Radunsky

This is an empowering tale of an underdog who finds his voice through music. Told in acrobatic, infectious rhythms and rhymes, Hip Hop Dog is an uplifting story about one down-on-his-luck dog who finds his place in the canine world through hip hop.

Hip and Hop In The House: A Free-Flowing Tortoise and the Hare Collection by Jef Czekaj

Hip is a turtle who raps very slowly. Hop is a bunny who raps superfast. Together they are Hip & Hop, the best rap duo in Oldskool County. This hilarious collection features two stories that remix the fable of the tortois and the hare, combining comics with short raps, traditional narration, and the coolest characters on the block.

Hip and Hop Don't Stop! by Jef Czekaj

A rabbit and a turtle defy convention when they team up to win a rap music contest in spite of their differences.

Yes, Yes, Yaul! by Jef Czekaj

Rap duo Hip the turtle and Hop the rabbit try to convince a prickly porcupine that saying "no" to everything is no fun at all.

Hip Hop Lollipop by Susan McElroy Montanari; illustrated by Brian Pinkney

Follow a little girl as she moves, swings, and grooves her way through her bedtime routine, dancing all the while, until she finally closes her eyes and dances through her dreams.


Be sure to check our catalog and Overdrive Kids eReading Room for these titles and many more being added.


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