Young people have it easy these days. In the age of torrents, cloud computing, YouTube, and iTunes, having instant, unfettered access to the entire history of recorded sound and images is a given. But who’s going to point out the good stuff? And what if kids want to make some of it themselves? Two new books attempt to fill those vital roles of curator and teacher.

Robbie Robertson is the guitarist and songwriter who acted as bandleader for Ronnie Hawkins, Bob Dylan, and, most famously, the Band. In Legends, Icons & Rebels – assembled with the help of his son, Sebastian, a pair of music industry friends, and a team of illustrators – Robertson seeks to give kids an education in mid-20th-century musical performers who were “the original risk-takers, extremely unique, and tremendously influential to future generations.”

With that broad mandate, the coffee table–sized book singles out 27 legends from the realms of pop, rock, country, jazz, and R&B (Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Joni Mitchell, Bob Marley, Johnny Cash, the Beatles, James Brown, and Hank Williams among them). With a few exceptions, the heyday for most came in the 1950s, ’60s, and early ’70s (Stevie Wonder is the youngest, and one of the few still alive and making music). Each artist gets a lively and colourful spread with a short bio, a few fun facts, and a very select list of greatest hits. It all makes for a breezy, informative read, and the two CDs that come with the book are a helpful and welcome addition.

I have no objection to the majority of Robertson’s choices, though a few seem somewhat arbitrary. Jazzman Louis Jordan and crooner Nat King Cole are nice and all, but their cultural impact is not at all comparable to some of the other artists included – or that of David Bowie, Miles Davis, Patti Smith, Duke Ellington, Jimi Hendrix, Brian Eno, Robert Johnson, Janis Joplin, the Rolling Stones, the Velvet Underground, the Clash, Black Sabbath, or Afrika Bambaataa – none of whom appear. A non-pop dark horse like Glenn Gould would have been nice, too.       

The book is clearly a labour of love for Robertson, though someone needed to tell him that filling it with his own reminiscences, mostly as they relate to the Band, crosses the line into self-indulgence. The authors also sometimes forget that they are writing for kids, as when they say, about the Beatles, “You probably can’t remember the first time you heard their music, but somehow you seem to know every word to every song.” They also often make the case for an artist’s greatness by piling on superlatives, rather than giving readers a sense of their uniqueness.

Learn to Speak Film has a much better sense of its readership – and contains no anecdotes about jamming with Bob Dylan. The fourth in Owlkids’ Learn to Speak series – after volumes on music, dance, and fashion – the book, like its predecessors, offers a step-by-step approach to the subject, moving from the abstract (the importance of inspiration) to the concrete (marketing, attending film festivals).

The text by Michael Glassbourg, a filmmaker and professor at Toronto’s Humber College, is engaging, even when describing things like on-set catering, storyboarding, or the job of a Foley artist. Every stage of filmmaking is broken down into navigable steps, and though the tone is uniformly enthusiastic and encouraging, the book makes no bones about the amount of hard work involved.

Glassbourg suggests numerous movies that are worthy of study, and brings in other film professionals to offer their perspectives. Jeff Kulak’s illustrations and design keep the information at the forefront, and never get too busy or distracting – aside from the fact that the pros who make cameo appearances are all rendered in a pale shade of greyish-green, making them look undead. Some stills from the films noted in the text would also have been a nice addition.

The best thing about Learn to Speak Film is that it offers information that cannot be easily found with a Web search. Though it suffers from a narrow musical aesthetic, Legends, Icons & Rebels likewise offers a more knowledgeable and idiosyncratic approach to musical discovery than any Amazon customer list. Culture has become an endless all-you-can-eat buffet. Books like these show young people where to start, and help point out the freshest fare.