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Father's book helps kids see Beatles' cool

The Fab Four deserves a place between hip and hop, pop and punk, according to a new book aimed at teens.

By AMBER MOBLEY
Published October 14, 2005

CARROLLWOOD - Today's average teenager might mistake the Beatles for insects instead of icons of rock 'n' roll.

Not 13-year-old Riyana Lalani.

The Beatles are one of her favorite bands. She ranks them right up there with today's rock/pop/punk bands such as Weezer and My Chemical Romance.

Riyana's dad, Northdale resident and small-business consultant Zane Lalani, first got her interested in the 1960s-era pop/rock band.

Although Riyana said she's "kind of the only one" of her peers at Ben Hill Middle School who likes the Beatles, she hopes her dad's new book, Teenagers Guide to the Beatles (Averstream Press, $24.95), will help other teens learn why the group is loved by so many.

Fresh from launching the book in late August at the Fest for Beatles Fans in Chicago, Zane Lalani will be at Borders Books & Music, 12500 N Dale Mabry Highway, on Saturday from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. to sell and sign his book and talk about the Beatles.

Originally penned exclusively for Lalani's daughter, Teenagers Guide to the Beatles is a biographical sketch of the group and its members, complete with album art, trivia, fan interviews and other information that probes many of the controversies, myths and mysteries surrounding the group.

Zane Lalani was spurred to write the book because as Riyana wanted to know more about the Liverpool legends, he realized it would take much more than a hard day's night to find literature appropriate for a teenager.

"There's so much with the Beatles that you don't want to get into with kids," he said - things like the sex and the drugs, politics and polemics that so often accompany rock 'n' roll.

So Zane Lalani wrote something of his own to allow him to explain the Beatles in his own way for his daughter.

Six readers' reviews on Amazon.com give the book an average of 41/2 out of five stars.

"I bought the book planning to give it to my 13-year-old nephew, but I wanted to read it first," Kari Kraus, 37, of Pleasant Prairie, Wis., said in an Amazon.com review. "Even though I'm a huge Beatles fan, there are lots of little stories and facts that I (didn't) know . . . (and) . . . several funny anecdotes and quotes I'd never heard before."

In another Amazon.com review, "Polythene Pam," 16, of Joliet, Ill., said, "I found the book to be very good. . . . It doesn't have gigantic words or long chapters."

Daughter Riyana is one of her dad's fans too.

"I think (the book) is great, and I knew my dad could do it."

[Last modified October 13, 2005, 08:20:12]