I once did an essay in my lit class about kids' TV, and I stumbled on some fascinating things about Sesame Street, mainly the adaptions they have done in different countries that deal with pertinent issues (like HIV/AIDS in South Africa). This intrigued me enough to get Street Gang from the library. Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting, which may be partly my fault.
Street Gang was a bit difficult to get into to begin with, because it was so very thorough. You get the back story of everyone even temporarily involved with Sesame Street, including hir childhood, education, etc. Once it finally got to the part where Sesame Street was being developed, luckily things got more interesting, as you get to find out about the names you've heard of, like Jim Henson, and the development of characters like Cookie Monster and Big Bird.
Street Gang was thorough in its coverage of Sesame Street through the decades, but it only mentions the existence of other countries' versions, without actually describing them, and that's what I had been looking forward to (maybe if it had covered that, I wouldn't have just found out what Sesame Park was by googling it now). It also didn't mention Play With Me Sesame. Only by googling now have I dispelled my fears that Sesame Street was replaced by Play With Me Sesame and Sesame Park.
It definitely had interesting segments, and I'd recommend it if you wanted to know about the people involved in production, but the author just didn't have the same priorities as I had as a reader, so I couldn't get too much satisfaction out of it. Oh well, still worth the read.
3.5/5