Ilene Cooper: Hi, I'm Ilene Cooper and I'm the author of This Boy: The Early Lives of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Lots of books discuss people after they become famous and what their careers were like, but I'm much more interested in what formed these people and what their childhoods were like. How did they relate to their parents and their brothers and sisters and friends? Both Paul and John and John especially, had complicated childhoods, so there was a lot for me to think about as I looked at their histories and decided what to write. I love doing the research on my books, and I've been so lucky. When I wrote The Early Life of John Kennedy, I was able to go to Massachusetts all over the northeast, different places where he lived, and the Kennedy Library, of course. When I wrote about Eleanor Roosevelt, I spent some time in New York and at Hyde Park where the Roosevelt Museum is.

It was the most fun when I was researching this book to go to Liverpool, England and go to the places where John and Paul lived as boys.

When I write, I like to think about my readers seeing themselves and the famous people I'm writing about, and hope that they begin wondering what their own stories are going to be.

I know some young people who read this book may not be familiar with the Beatles music, but I strongly urge them to take a listen. The songs they wrote are as wonderful today as they were yesterday.

And now I'd like to read aloud from This Boy: The Early Lives of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. July 6th, 1957

It was a fine day for a garden party. St. Peter's Church located in a suburb of Liverpool, England opened its grounds each year for the fun-filled affair. John Lennon, 16 years old, was there.

He didn't know it, but he had a decision to make that day. He could never have guessed how it would change his life and the world of music. John, intense and clever, had formed a skiffle band with some friends. It was called The Quarrymen after John's school, Quarry Bank. Skiffle was a homegrown folk music played with an assortment of instruments that could range from a guitar to a bucket with strings attached to a stick that made a thumping bass sound. John liked skiffle, but what he really wanted to play was a new kind of music that was sweeping the United States and making its way across the ocean to England. It was called Rock and Roll.

What The Quarrymen lacked in real talent, they made up for in enthusiasm. Their one standout member was John. He played the guitar with more flair than skill, but he had something just as important as musical ability, star power.

John knew how to joke with an audience, grab their attention and show them a good time. Everyone in the band looked to him as their leader. John would never have had it any other way. The garden party or fete as the British called it wasn't fancy, but it delighted guests with floats, games, even the crowning of a rose queen, and of course there was music. Surrounding the stage were folks of all ages clapping and singing along as The Quarrymen played. Also in the audience was a 15-year-old boy, decked out in a light color jacket streaked with silvery strands and wearing skinny black pants. His name was Paul McCartney.