First Book of 2009!

I finished Street Gang today! Granted I started reading the book in 2008, but since I finished it in 2009 it totally counts.

To start with I really enjoyed reading about the history (good and bad) of Sesame Street. There were so many components involved in the creation of this ground breaking show. It also introduced me to the mother of it all Joan Ganz Cooney. When people think about Sesame Street they mostly think of Jim Henson and his wonderful muppet creations. But really Jim was just a small piece of the puzzle in what made this show tick. The author had a lot of great primary source material and he didn't gloss over some of the more controversial or negative areas in the creation of Children's Television Workshop and Sesame Street. I do wish he would have gone more into the behind the scenes rivalry in the 1990s between Jon Stone and the new suits at the CTW.

All those positive comments aside, my major complaint about the book was the structure. Davis skipped around so much that it was hard to keep track of where he was in the timeline or who he was talking about. About halfway through the book I had to create a flow chart just so I would know who he was talking about and what their title/position was in that particular chapter.

I do appreciate how he gave a back story to all the key players in the project, but they happened at seemingly random points throughout the text. I also think the pieces about Bob Keeshan and Captain Kangaroo were a bit long and more focused on Keeshan than on his former employees who moved on to become the corner stone of Sesame Street.

I believe it would have made for a more fluid read if Davis had followed more of a timeline for the creation of Sesame Street and also had a portion of the book that was all about the key players. With all the jumping around it was easy to lose track of who was who. I read about the original Gordon, but then no where in the book was there a reason behind the selection of the current actor that plays Gordon. It also neglected to discuss some of the new loved human characters on the show - the author pretty much stopped with the introduction of Gina. He also skipped over much of the 1990s when Sesame Street tried to make some changes that in the end didn't work out.

Overall it was an interesting and honest history of the ground breaking show that taught generations of children how to count and say their ABCs, a show that is loved by millions and continues to withstand the tests of time.

"Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street" by: Michael Davis can be found at your local library or by visiting BarnesandNoble.com