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JIM HENSON: THE GUY WHO PLAYED WITH PUPPETS

Page history last edited by RichiesPicks 12 years, 9 months ago

7 June 2011 JIM HENSON: THE GUY WHO PLAYED WITH PUPPETS by Kathleen Krull and Steve Johnson & Lou Fancher, illustrators, Random House, August 2011, 40p., ISBN: 978-0-375-85721-8

 
"On hot, humid nights, they watched fireflies flickering and listened to frogs croaking nonstop in the swamps.  Listening, watching, singing, and telling stories -- that was entertainment."
 
 
There are so many exceptional picturebook biographies, but it is hard to think of a biographical subject who has had a positive impact on more Americans than did Jim Henson, the guy who created the Muppets.  Harry Houdini might have been the ultimate magician of my parent's generation, but in my lifetime, there isn't anyone who has approached the magic Jim Henson made with his puppets in his all-too-brief lifetime.  Given Henson's pivotal role in creating "Sesame Street," with characters like Ernie and Bert, Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, and Cookie Monster, I'd be satisfied to do for kids in my lifetime what Henson did for millions of them on any given day. 
 
 
Jim Henson began his puppetry career very young.  As a child, he learned how to tell entertaining stories, was "filling notebooks with creatures he made up", setting up little performances for his family, and working on school plays.  By age sixteen he was operating puppets on television, and by time he was in college, he had his very own TV show.
 
 
As a child in the 1960s, I'd frequently see Henson's Muppets on TV variety shows.  Then...
 
"One day in 1968, he got a phone call that would change his life.  It was from a TV producer named Joan Ganz Cooney.  She told him about studies showing the vast difference that preschool education made in children's lives.  Poor children usually had no access to it -- but they did have TVs.  Could TV be used to teach?  And would his Muppet company help her new show for preschoolers?"
 
Of course, what came of this collaboration changed the world for the better, educating and entertaining millions of young children, and introducing them to a cast of characters who were not all white.
 
It is so great that young readers who grew up watching Sesame Street can experience this enjoyable introduction to the life of this amazing, one-of-a-kind hero.  I especially like how so much of the focus of this wonderful book is on the creative pursuits -- in which any child can engage -- that led to Henson's success.

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