Real Love: The Drawings for Sean - Hardcover

Lennon, John

4.38

215 ratings by Goodreads

9780375901744: Real Love: The Drawings for Sean

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375901744 ISBN 13: 9780375901744

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers, 1999

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John Lennon was many things to many people: singer, songwriter, poet, political activist, and, not the least, the most outspoken member of what is, inarguably, the greatest rock-and-roll band of all time. But to Sean Lennon, he was Daddy, a role he took on with as much humor, intensity, and enthusiasm as any he had tackled.

John made the drawings in this book with and for Sean. Drawing pictures and making up funny captions was one of the ways they played together. It was how John taught Sean about the simple joys of creativity. It was one of the many ways John was able to express his real love for -- and great joy in -- his son.

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Review:

John Lennon had two opportunities to be a father. His first son, Julian, was born in 1963 at the dawning of Beatlemania. The impact of the Beatles' success on John and Julian's relationship? Suffice to say Paul McCartney wrote "Hey Jude" as a gesture of sympathy to a forlorn young Julian. Fatherhood fit John Lennon far better the next time around when the indulgent daddy, then in his late 30s, put his musical career on hold to indulge his second son, Sean. Evidence of Lennon the doting dad can be found in this 48-page collection of sun-drenched illustrations sketched out to entertain a toddling offspring. The once-caustic ex-Beatle betrays not a hint of his scathing side in these vivid drawings. Rather, the witty punster who was dubbed the "smart Beatle" after he published the prose collection In His Own Write in 1964 is in full flower here. An illustration christened "Collieflower" shows a budding plant with the face of a canine; "A Frog Pondering" displays a reflective amphibian overlooking a puddle. Real Love is the kind of book that will capture the attention of Beatles collectors, but it should also spark the imaginations of its intended audience--little Lennonists in the making. --Steven Stolder

About the Author:

John Winston Lennon was born in Liverpool, England, on October 9, 1940, and raised by his Aunt Mimi. At the age of six, he wrote and illustrated his first book. When he was 20, he and some friends started a rock-and-roll band called the Silver Beatles, which was later shortened to The Beatles. As everyone knows, The Beatles went on to become the most famous musical group of all time. While still a Beatle, John wrote and illustrated two books of poems: In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works. Of the former, the Times Literary Supplement wrote: "It is worth the attention of anyone who fears the impoverishment of the English language and the British imagination." John died on December 8, 1980. His thoughts, his music, his poetry, and his art live on.

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