 | Lucille Ball had no eyebrows? (Wait! What?) Author: Gutman, Dan | |
| Price: $5.70 | ||
Summary:
Did you know that Lucille Ball could pick up radio signals through her teeth? Or that her career was almost destroyed because she was a registered Communist? Bet you didn't know that, as a studio executive, she green-lit both Star Trek and Mission: Impossible! Siblings Paige and Turner have collected some of the most unusual and surprising facts about the beloved actress.
| Illustrator: | Steinfeld, Allison |
Reviews:
School Library Journal (08/25/23)
Booklist (05/01/23)
Full Text Reviews:
School Library Journal - 08/25/2023 Gr 2–4—In the latest volume in the "Wait! What?" series, siblings Paige and Turner discuss the life and career of Lucille Ball, trading facts on the difficulties faced in her early life and going into greater detail on the many firsts Ball accomplished in her career: the first pregnant woman on television; the first television show to be shot using three cameras; the first woman to run a major television studio. Cartoon illustrations throughout highlight some of Ball's famous quotes. The dialogue between the characters includes suggested episodes for readers who want to learn more about Ball and I Love Lucy, and points readers to YouTube to stream full episodes. The book reads like a book-length list of fun facts, with Paige and Turner trading jokes and puns to present facts. Readers familiar with Gutman's writing, particularly My Weird School, will enjoy the format, which seeks to educate and entertain. VERDICT A good additional purchase for intermediate nonfiction collections.—Rosemary Kiladitis - Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.
Booklist - 05/01/2023 Continuing a series designed to give younger readers the dishier celebrity biographies they (purportedly) crave, Gutman goes for what he calls the “good stuff” about Lucille Ball, beginning with her descent from an accused Salem witch and (possibly) George Washington. On the way to a closing claim that the garbage cans in the cemetery where she is buried are all labeled “I Love Lucy,” he trots in Desi Arnaz and the kids—but also her imaginary childhood friends Sassafrassa and Madeline the Cowgirl, other celebrities with the same birthday, and career highlights ranging from failing a casting-sheet audition for a “Lucille Ball type” to an “appearance” on The Simpsons. Framed as exchanges of facts and jokes between modern sibs “Paige” and “Turner” and interspersed for further ease of digestion with both inspirational quotes and monochrome portraits and vignettes from Steinfeld, this introduction to TV’s first millionaire counts as required reading for anyone interested in television’s formative years or, for that matter, anyone who thinks only men could do physical comedy. - Copyright 2023 Booklist.
