(4) K-3 Zoom In on Technology Pioneers series. These early-reader biographies give the most general facts about each figure's early life, career accomplishments, and legacy. Choppy texts are adequately illustrated with archival and stock photos on cleanly designed pages. Among the modern-day (male) tech entrepreneurs profiled, the volumes on nineteenth-century chemist and physicist Curie and early-twentieth-century nuclear physicist Wu feel pro forma; contemporary female technology pioneers are out there. Timeline. Glos., ind. Review covers these Zoom In on Technology Pioneers titles: Bill Gates, Chien-Shiung Wu, Jeff Bezos, Jerry Yang, Marie Curie, Steve Jobs.

Reviewer: Katrina Hedeen

(4) 4-6 Newsmakers series. This accessibly written series is notable for its clean layout, including color photographs, sidebars, and charts. The mostly complimentary narratives are solid overviews of their subjects' early lives, successes, and failures. A "Stop and Think" feature offers discussion questions that can be used for assignments. For the living subjects, the content will soon become outdated. Reading list, timeline. Glos., ind. Review covers these Newsmakers titles: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Vladimir Putin, Malala Yousafzai, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Nelson Mandela, and Pope Francis.

Reviewer: Cyrisse Jaffee

(4) K-3 Pebble Books: Business Leaders series. Designed to introduce new readers to business leaders' contributions and to meet Common Core requirements, these slight books meet minimum standards with simple sentences, limited vocabulary, many photos, a running timeline, and a clear trajectory. But they falter somewhat when photos don't align with text and content is more complicated than writing restrictions can encompass. Reading list. Glos., ind. Review covers these Pebble Books: Business Leaders titles: Bill Gates and Milton Hershey.

Reviewer: Frieda F. Bostian

(4) 4-6 Who Was...? series. Illustrated by Ted Hammond. A simple narrative introduces Gates and conveys the curiosity and competitive temperament that motivated an active little boy to become a billionaire computer genius and global philanthropist. Unsophisticated black-and-white illustrations substitute for photographs and fail to enhance the information. The full- and double-page text boxes, however, successfully illuminate places, concepts, and people in this accessible biography. Timeline. Bib.

Reviewer: Tamara DePasquale

(3) YA Technology Pioneers series. Emphasizing the details of their business successes rather than their personal lives, these profiles provide young readers with inspirational, true stories of how Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos developed their start-up technology ventures into huge and profitable companies whose products and services permeate our lives. Color photos and sidebars support the workmanlike prose. Reading list, timeline. Bib., glos., ind. Review covers these Technology Pioneers titles: Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon.com.

Reviewer: Jack Forman

(3) YA With casual yet informed narrative voices, these biographies offer insight into three well-known public figures, providing multifaceted understandings and allowing readers to form their own opinions. Marshall and Reagan delve into the men's early lives, while Gates focuses largely on the computer tycoon's adult years. All volumes include source notes. Marshall and Gates have websites; Marshall includes a reading list. Bib., ind. Review covers these titles: Bill Gates, Thurgood Marshall, and Ronald Reagan.

Reviewer: Chelsey Philpot

(4) 4-6 People to Know Today series. These books profile well-known contemporary figures in business and popular culture. Each volume provides information about its subject's childhood; later career accomplishments are detailed in generally positive terms. Sidebars discuss such related topics as lawsuits and the savings and loan crisis. Stock photos accompany the dry but adequate treatments. Reading list, timeline, websites. Ind. Review covers these People to Know Today titles: Sam Walton, Dr. Phil, and Bill Gates.

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(4) YA American Business Leaders series. After outlining Bill Gates's life as a student, programmer, and founder of Microsoft, this new edition includes chapters on "Competition" and "Microsoft at War," which discuss recent antitrust litigation. The grainy photographs and bland design are discouraging, but researchers will appreciate the straightforward updated text. Timeline. Bib., glos., ind.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(4) K-3 People to Know series. These easy-to-read biographies are useful and relatively informative, though they tend to gloss over controversial issues (the Holocaust, sexual abuse). The books are all liberally illustrated with photographs, and sidebars provide additional information about relevant topics such as how wing shape affects lift. Reading list, websites. Glos., ind. Review covers these People to Know titles: Anne Frank, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, and The Wright Brothers.

Reviewer: Cyrisse Jaffee

(4) YA Internet Biographies series. Six visionaries responsible for landmark contributions to computer-technology history are profiled in this series. Their successful businesses follow a similar trajectory, through persistence and optimism, obstacles overcome, philanthropy, and future goals. Though the financial details will be difficult for the intended audience to grasp, familiarity with Pixar, AOL, Amazon.com, and Microsoft products will fuel interest in the books. Bib., glos., ind. [Review covers these Internet Biographies titles: Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Esther Dyson, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, and Steve Case.]

Reviewer: Paula M. Cairo

(4) YA A & E Biography series. These biographies offer straightforward information about their subjects in accurate, if adulatory, packages. Illustrated mostly with low-grade black-and-white photos, along with a few color photos, these books generally afford serviceable, well-documented introductions to their subjects. Crazy Horse, Cousteau, and Gandhi contain time lines; Gates, Sagan, and Gandhi contain glossaries. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Frieda F. Bostian