Zoë Kravitz: X-Men's Amazing Angel

Gr 6 Up—Like similar celebrity-centered series, this one presents high-interest material in a splashy way. Profiling six popular action stars, a plethora of information is given about their childhoods, careers, interests, and even their romantic lives. Unfortunately, most of the books read more like teen gossip magazines than biographies. The frequent use of slang such as "yummers" and "nutso" and abbreviated words such as "sibs" and "favs" smacks of talking down to the audience and does nothing to aid with vocabulary building. Text boxes contain both biographical and superfluous information (e.g., "Feed him sushi for dinner, show him an action flick, and he's yours!"). Each volume contains myriad color photos from the subjects' movies and personal lives, with captions such as "Taylor's rockin' bod makes its debut in New Moon." Unless you have pop-culture fans pleading for this type of series in your library, it's probably to their advantage that you pass on this one.