I want to be a Rockstar

I want to be a Rock Star is a new children’s book by Melbourne author Mary Anastasiou. The book is charmingly illustrated by Anil Tortop.

This is the first in a series of books for young readers by Anastasiou, inspiring them to explore their future passions and creative dreams. I Want to be a Movie Star and I Want to be a Sports Star are the upcoming titles in this series.

My son, who is 7, read the book straight away by himself when he received it, after being intrigued by the title. In fact this book came along at just the right time as we are introducing him to music and pop culture. Only a week ago my music loving husband carefully curated a best of alternative Rock playlist for him to listen to. I must agree it was a great playlist but we would like to open him up to many more genres out there, I am personally not a rock person but love country and retro disco and would like to share that with him (much to the dismay of my husband!). 

This delightful book takes the young reader on and adventure following Luke and his dog Ralphie on their dream of being music stars through the many different genres of music such as country music, rap music, all the way to classical music. There is no general info about these genres, but each of these musical styles is given personality through Anil Tortop’s energetic illustrations. My husband and I follow and appreciate pop culture of all levels and hope to share that passion with our kids, this book is a great way of introducing creative musical dreams in a visual and entertaining way. My son really loved reading the book with us also and listening to our personal insights on these music genres. 

Coming from music loving parents, he was familiar with most of the genres in the book except for Jazz and the art of DJ-ing, so we will definitely create some fun playlists for him to further explore now.

This book isn’t a fairytale it’s so much more. It’s an opportunity for young readers to discover that ‘happily ever after' can happen in real life by having ambitions and dreams that are real in this world. Whether those dreams be creative or sporty, discussing and reading about what these are with children can become an exciting way for the young readers to begin this journey. We are looking forward to reading the rest of this series. I want to be a Rock Star is available in a hardcopy, a portion of the sale of these books go to the children charity TLC for Kids.

Reviewed by Virginia and family

For more info visit https://www.lilrebel.com.au/