Book Review: Jim Henson, The Works

Everyone who knows me as an adult thinks that I must have been a huge Disney fan as a child. While I've always enjoyed Disney films and shorts, my childhood was focused mainly on three things: Peanuts, Star Wars, and The Muppets.

This week's book spotlight is Jim Henson, The Works — yet another of my most prized books in my library. In it, we not only read biographies and histories of the characters that we've grown to love, but we also learn about some of the projects that he would have liked to have produced and how much of an artist and visonary Jim Henson really was.

The book contains some of the most creative and unique page layout designs that I have ever seen. I especially enjoy the small "Jim Henson: The Early Years" book which is about a quarter of the page dimensions of the rest of the book which is tipped-in to the binding. The entire volume appears to have been assembled as thoughtfully and lovingly as you can imagine Jim doing all of the projects during his life.

In a nutshell, I would highly recommend this book—not just to people who are fans of the Muppets, like myself, but to anyone who likes to have a peek into what makes creative people tick, and maybe glean some inspiration in the process.

What made me decide to comment on this book—besides seeing it on my bookshelf every day at work—is my recent purchase of The Muppet Show: First Season on DVD. I was a little nervous when I first got it that I wouldn't enjoy the humor as much as an adult as I did when I was a kid, but I couldn't have been more mistaken. It is so nice to see the sophisticated wit in the writing of this show that still makes me laugh out loud. I was also happy to see that my 5 & 7 year old daughters also laughed quite a bit at the show and often ask to watch them over again. The shows still have value today as great entertainment and I would highly recommend them.