From School Library Journal
Gr 4 Up-Two attempts to deliver biographies of stars of the moment, both illustrated with full-color studio photos. Depp's youth was spent hanging "with bad crowds who liked to spend their weekends breaking back into school and destroying the furniture..." simply out of curiosity. Hawes's brief description of Depp's break into film has several time incongruencies. At one point, a tenuous meeting with Nicholas Cage in 1985 provides his entrance into the world of cinema. Later in the text, the author states that shooting for his first movie ended in mid-1984. Film students will find pitifully scant information on his actual work. The critically acclaimed Donnie Brasco only rates two sentences while Depp's poorly received first directing venture, The Brave, is given one paragraph. Keanu Reeves has fewer problems. However, adults may cringe at the description of his early life ("He excelled neither at his studies nor at sports...On the plus side, though, his family did have money..."). Although the filmography includes 1997 releases, the text concludes by briefly mentioning two 1996 films. Serious film students would learn more about Depp's or Reeves's acting from film reviews. Neither book gives more than a superficial look at these box-office celebrities.-Marilyn Payne Phillips, University City Public Library, MO
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