Somewhat ponderous, but contains enough original material to fill Oscar’s cozy can.
Voluminous and populous, though patchy history of the “grandest and most ambitious experiment in children’s television.”
Distilling scores of recent interviews, former TV Guide editor Davis spins his tale around two central figures: Joan Ganz Cooney, a founder and longtime CEO of the Children’s Television Workshop; and the inimitable Jim Henson, an inspirational, enigmatic genius whose fuzzy creations are still familiar to nearly everyone who ever sat in front of a television as a child. Both receive heavy, deserved doses of idolization. They didn’t work alone, of course; in fact, the author trots in so many supporting characters—some to play recurring roles, others just for a sound bite or two—that lines or scenes from the show itself seldom elbow their way onstage. No matter: Even behind the scenes there were full measures of comedy (a prank ad campaign pairing Cookie Monster with a brand of kielbasa) and tragedy (Henson’s early death and Northern Calloway’s severe, ultimately fatal, bipolar disorder). Not to mention melodrama, irony, dissipation, brilliance, triumphs over critics and multiple reinventions. Davis is too fond of cute turns of phrase (“in most cases, Muppets marinate before they mature”) and he occasionally repeats anecdotes. Also, he spares barely a glance at Sesame Street’s seldom-better-than-second-rate print spinoffs. Still, there’s plenty to relate about the 40-year-old show. Readers less interested in the puppets than the human cast—and perhaps disinclined to lug around such coffee-table histories as David Borgenicht’s Sesame Street Unpaved (1998) or Louise Gikow’s Sesame Street: A Celebration of Forty Years of Life on the Street (2008)—may be drawn to it.
Somewhat ponderous, but contains enough original material to fill Oscar’s cozy can.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-670-01996-0
Page Count: 406
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2008
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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