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2 Reviews
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Stuff About Kid's Stuff
This is a book about toys that nicely balances an historical analysis of mass-manufactured toys and their appeals to children, with a look at current toys and their appeals. Mr. Cross has a unerring eye for what toys say about past and current culture. While he is critical of some of today's toys and the type of play they encourage, such as fantasy violence toys, he is...
Published on January 9, 2001 by Panopticonman
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0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Where's the fun?
Ok, it's a book about toys, it should be fun, right? Not with Cross. He takes an interesting topic and rips any shred of joy, wonder, or positive engagement away. It's a boring, lifeless, dispassionate book. The theories are obvious -- girls who play w/ barbies learn to be materialistic women, boys are taught to be "men" by playing with blocks and tools. yawn...
Published on March 12, 2008 by reader 2008
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Stuff About Kid's Stuff,
By
This review is from: Kids' Stuff: Toys and the Changing World of American Childhood (Paperback)
This is a book about toys that nicely balances an historical analysis of mass-manufactured toys and their appeals to children, with a look at current toys and their appeals. Mr. Cross has a unerring eye for what toys say about past and current culture. While he is critical of some of today's toys and the type of play they encourage, such as fantasy violence toys, he is not a public scourge suspecting toy companies of base motivations. Instead, his opinions are considered and grounded in historical observation. Too, he seems to have a soft spot for Marx toys -- those cheap, antic, crazy, tin and plastic toys that spoke to a kid's sense of chaos and anarchy -- in other words, the toys that were the most fun of all!
0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Where's the fun?,
By reader 2008 (PA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Kids' Stuff: Toys and the Changing World of American Childhood (Paperback)
Ok, it's a book about toys, it should be fun, right? Not with Cross. He takes an interesting topic and rips any shred of joy, wonder, or positive engagement away. It's a boring, lifeless, dispassionate book. The theories are obvious -- girls who play w/ barbies learn to be materialistic women, boys are taught to be "men" by playing with blocks and tools. yawn. Better books out there.
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Kids' Stuff: Toys and the Changing World of American Childhood by Gary S. Cross (Paperback - November 15, 1999)
$31.50 $30.24
In Stock | |
 
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