From childhood friendship to brief teenage stardom, from early failures to musical greatness — the incredible story of how Simon & Garfunkel became a cherished voice of their generation.
Long before they became one of the most beloved and successful duos of all time, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel were just two kids growing up in Queens, New York — best friends who met in a sixth-grade production of Alice in Wonderland and bonded over girls, baseball, and rock ’n’ roll. As teens, they practiced singing into a tape recorder, building harmonies that blended their now-famous voices until they sounded just right. They wrote songs together, pursued big-time music producers, and dreamed of becoming stars, never imagining how far their music would take them. Against a backdrop of street-corner doo-wop gangs, the electrifying beginnings of rock ’n’ roll, and the rise of the counterculture folk music scene, G. Neri and David Litchfield chronicle the path that led two young boys from Queens to teenage stardom and back to obscurity, before finding their own true voices and captivating the world with their talent. Back matter includes an afterword, a discography, a bibliography, and a fascinating list of song influences.
AWARD
| 2019 NCSS-CBC Notable Trade Books for Young People
Influenced by Elvis, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and other folk singers, they produced their number-one hit “The Sound of Silence” after the assassination of JFK; the song broke all records, outselling even the Beatles. Neri conveys the spirit of those times through a text compiled from interviews with the two singers and other sources...Appealing, digitally created full-bleed illustrations capture in detail city streets, the two young boys, their later stardom, and their famous 1981 concert in Central Park. —Booklist
When Paul Met Artie is a colorful, factual, enjoyable account of two lives and how they intertwined to become the voices of a generation. —New York Journal of Books
The book’s heavy retro vibe is reinforced by plenty of visual motifs—faded floral-print wallpaper, a reel-to-reel tape recorder, Paul and Artie in their iconic turtlenecks—that leave the reader feelin’ groovy. —The Horn Book
Neri tells the endearing story of the sometimes rocky partnership between folk rock duo Simon and Garfunkel, beginning as children in Queens. Vignettes detail formative events in the boys’ lives, the words displayed on the pages like song lyrics and paired with song titles...Neri gently underscores how, while Simon and Garfunkel found lasting fame, they began as friends who loved singing together. —Publishers Weekly
This nostalgia-tinged biography of folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel opens with the pair’s legendary 1981 concert in New York’s Central Park, then quickly shifts settings to Queens, three decades earlier...A charming addition to poetry or biography collections. —School Library Journal
G. Neri is the award-winning author of many books for young readers, including Ghetto Cowboy, winner of a Horace Mann Upstanders Book Award, and Hello, I’m Johnny Cash, an Association for Library Services to Children Notable Book. He lives in Florida.
David Litchfield is the creator of the award-winning The Bear and the Piano and the illustrator of several other books for young readers. He lives in the United Kingdom.
From childhood friendship to brief teenage stardom, from early failures to musical greatness — the incredible story of how Simon & Garfunkel became a cherished voice of their generation.
Long before they became one of the most beloved and successful duos of all time, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel were just two kids growing up in Queens, New York — best friends who met in a sixth-grade production of Alice in Wonderland and bonded over girls, baseball, and rock ’n’ roll. As teens, they practiced singing into a tape recorder, building harmonies that blended their now-famous voices until they sounded just right. They wrote songs together, pursued big-time music producers, and dreamed of becoming stars, never imagining how far their music would take them. Against a backdrop of street-corner doo-wop gangs, the electrifying beginnings of rock ’n’ roll, and the rise of the counterculture folk music scene, G. Neri and David Litchfield chronicle the path that led two young boys from Queens to teenage stardom and back to obscurity, before finding their own true voices and captivating the world with their talent. Back matter includes an afterword, a discography, a bibliography, and a fascinating list of song influences.
Awards
AWARD
| 2019 NCSS-CBC Notable Trade Books for Young People
Praise
Influenced by Elvis, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and other folk singers, they produced their number-one hit “The Sound of Silence” after the assassination of JFK; the song broke all records, outselling even the Beatles. Neri conveys the spirit of those times through a text compiled from interviews with the two singers and other sources...Appealing, digitally created full-bleed illustrations capture in detail city streets, the two young boys, their later stardom, and their famous 1981 concert in Central Park. —Booklist
When Paul Met Artie is a colorful, factual, enjoyable account of two lives and how they intertwined to become the voices of a generation. —New York Journal of Books
The book’s heavy retro vibe is reinforced by plenty of visual motifs—faded floral-print wallpaper, a reel-to-reel tape recorder, Paul and Artie in their iconic turtlenecks—that leave the reader feelin’ groovy. —The Horn Book
Neri tells the endearing story of the sometimes rocky partnership between folk rock duo Simon and Garfunkel, beginning as children in Queens. Vignettes detail formative events in the boys’ lives, the words displayed on the pages like song lyrics and paired with song titles...Neri gently underscores how, while Simon and Garfunkel found lasting fame, they began as friends who loved singing together. —Publishers Weekly
This nostalgia-tinged biography of folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel opens with the pair’s legendary 1981 concert in New York’s Central Park, then quickly shifts settings to Queens, three decades earlier...A charming addition to poetry or biography collections. —School Library Journal
Author
G. Neri is the award-winning author of many books for young readers, including Ghetto Cowboy, winner of a Horace Mann Upstanders Book Award, and Hello, I’m Johnny Cash, an Association for Library Services to Children Notable Book. He lives in Florida.
David Litchfield is the creator of the award-winning The Bear and the Piano and the illustrator of several other books for young readers. He lives in the United Kingdom.
