Rockin’ new book For Those About to Rock teaches kids music history with some edgy fun.

If you respect and appreciate good music and great artists, then you may be feeling a bit indifferent about the trending videos on YouTube that feature millennials and Gen Zers sharing their reaction to first hearing classic songs by legendary artists like the Bee Gees and Motley Crue. Now, watching strangers react to music sounds about as interesting as playing Zeppelin records backwards hoping to hear Satan. However, the most surreal part of the whole “reaction video” trend is that some young people simply aren’t ashamed of their lack of basic music history.

Granted, being able to name the four original members of KISS without needing to check Wikipedia won’t land you a professorship at the local university. But by the time anyone reaches their teen years, you’d hope they’d have some semblance of how and why Bruce Springsteen and The Beatles are just as important to American and world history as George Washington and Albert Einstein.

Considering how difficult it is just to get a basic quality education nowadays, we’re not holding our breath. Fortunately, a rockin’ new book has found a great solution. Author/rocker Kate Seldman‘s For Those About to Rock: A Kid’s Guide to 50 Legendary Musical Acts is a long overdue, gorgeously illustrated “textbook” that highlights a rich musical education delivered in a fun and engaging presentation that would appeal to any young mind that loves learning.

For Those About to Rock‘s carefully curated content encapsulates what most diehard musuc fans would consider the 50 influential rick-based artists that changed music while making workd history in the process. Aside clever quick-bite histories of timeless rock greats like Elvis, Jimi and Janis are entries to every worthy artist from British legends like David Bowie, Black Sabbath and the Sex Pistols to American icons like Nirvana, The Stooges and Lynyrd Skynyrd. The colorful, fully-illustrated tome provides a two-page salute to each artist and also includes in its lineup boundary-busting rock-oriented superstars like Madonna, Beastie Boys and Run DMC.

“This is a work of creative nonfiction,” explains the book’s intro. “It is a collection of writing inspired by legendary musicians and bands. It is not an encyclopedic account of events and accomplishments of their lives.”

Check out more of For Those About to Rock here as we hold a Bic up high in appreciation of Seldman’s contribution to help keep the world rockin’ — and a little smarter.