Are the authors of any of these books members of this forum?

Has anyone here read or seen these books and if so can offer description or comment? I have the third one ordered and can post when it arrives.

[ 1 ] Bradbury, Ray, 1920---Juvenile literature. Bankston, John, 1974- Ray Bradbury / by John Bankston. 2011

ACCESS:
Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms
CALL NUMBER:
PS3503.R167 Z57 2011

[ 2 ] Bradbury, Ray, 1920---Juvenile literature. Griskey, Michele. Ray Bradbury / Michele Griskey. 2007

ACCESS:
Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms
CALL NUMBER:
PS3503.R167 Z686 2007

[ 3 ] Bradbury, Ray, 1920---Juvenile literature. Mass, Wendy, 1967- Ray Bradbury : master of science fiction and fantasy / Wendy Mass. 2004

ACCESS:
Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms
CALL NUMBER:
PS3503.R167 Z75 2004

Good idea to have a separate thread. Perhaps the cover art will ring some bells:



Publisher's page for Bankston book



Publisher's page for Griskey book



Amazon page for Mass book

Those are beautiful, Phil.

Here is another, for ages 11 and up, by an author with an unfortunate last name. Only two letters different and he would be a British word for a total idiot.

Personal name: Piddock, Charles.
Main title: Ray Bradbury : legendary fantasy writer / by Charles Piddock.
Published/Created: Pleasantville, NY : Gareth Stevens Pub., 2009.
Description: 111 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 24 cm.
ISBN: 9781433900594 (lib. bdg.)
1433900599 (lib. bdg.)
Links: Table of contents only
CALL NUMBER: PS3503.R167 Z84 2009
Copy 1
-- Request in: Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms



I have the Wendy Mass book and ordered the other two today when I saw prices on Amazon.com had dropped dramatically. The Piddock book is still too high for me to justify right now. I will let you all know my opinions when I have them.

quote:

Originally posted by dandelion:
Here is another...

That cover is familiar. I must have seen it before but confused it with the other three.

quote:

Originally posted by philnic:

quote:

Originally posted by dandelion:
Here is another...

That cover is familiar. I must have seen it before but confused it with the other three.

You are hereby ordered to obtain and review it immediately.

That kind of sucks that the last author's name was Charles and not Peter, because the others were Wendy, John, and Michele, which is the feminine of Michael, and if he'd been named Peter it would have been all of the main characters of Peter Pan!

Perhaps board member Tinkerbell could also write one...

My reviews of the four books can be found here, the Wendy Mass title on page 6 and the other three on page 8: https://raybradburyboard.com/ev...901/m/7637029695/p/1

Copying my reviews from 2012 and 2013 here so they will all be in the same thread but leaving the originals in the other thread.

On December 15 [2012] I finished Ray Bradbury: Master of Science Fiction and Fantasy, by Wendy Mass. An informational book in which most of the facts are factual, but even had everything been correct rather a blah treatment of an awesome subject, then there are the mistakes: Louella Parsons identified as a movie star rather than movie/gossip newspaper columnist, 15 years off on Walt Disney's death, it says on page 67 that the Bradburys spent 6 months in Ireland and on page 87 that they spent 7 months, and there are annoying errors about Fahrenheit 451 and other subjects. Ray deserves much better!

Finished Ray Bradbury by Michéle Griskey, on April 22 [2013]. This juvenile biography is MUCH BETTER than the first one I read. It does read more like a long encyclopedia entry than a story, but is clearly written with many informative "FYI" pages. I didn't learn anything about Ray I didn't know, and I noticed only one real mistake--she said his toy typewriter worked like a real one--that and a couple of typos make for very minor mistakes in this one, and I did learn things about Mars, the space program, Halloween, etc.

Finished Ray Bradbury: Legendary Fantasy Writer by Charles Piddock, on April 30 [2013].

This is a biography intended for ages 11 and up. Downside is it is the most expensive of all the kids' biographies. I only afforded an ex-library copy. No idea why it was discarded; it is a pretty good book, almost as accurate as Michéle Griskey's.

Quibbles with it:

Page 37: He says Ray joined the Los Angeles Science Fiction League in 1936 rather than 1937.

Pages 39 - 40: He says a number of fans dressed up for the first World Science Convention in 1939. Weller's book makes it clear that only Forry Ackerman and his girlfriend dressed up, starting the trend.

Photo captions have little to do with the time the photographs were taken. For instance, 1950s photos with captions about things Ray did in the '30s and '40s. He must have had access to at least some family pictures as there were some of Ray and his parents I had never seen before.

Page 47: Uses the phrase "poet of the pulps" before it was coined by Time Magazine.

Page 50: States "Ray had been on one date before [Maggie] in his life, and that had been years before." Does anyone know where he gets this? I'm sure I read that Ray would occasionally take out a girl with his newspaper earnings.

Page 91: He has Ray and the driver of the limousine which broke down on the way to EPCOT in Florida hiking some distance twice--contrary to Ray's account of events which is found both in Weller and in Ray Bradbury Speaks.

Page 96: Says Maggie refused to get out of bed, Weller says she tried but was unable.

Otherwise pretty good book, informative and almost as good as Griskey's which manages to cover about as much ground in half the pages. Both are beautifully produced on slick paper with color illustrations. Griskey's is more reasonably priced.

Finished reading Ray Bradbury by John Bankston on May 2 [2013]. What can I say about this book except that it makes the other three kids' biographies look brilliant by comparison--even Wendy Mass's, with which I was not greatly impressed. It is a maddening read with a mistake about every two pages--not so much glaring as just really, really annoying.

Quality control was remarkably low on this book. I don't know if all the mistakes are the author's or some are the typesetter's. Also, my copy had two pages 25-26 so presumably there's some other copy missing that page. No pages missing in mine.

One of the most maddening things about this book is its mangling of the names of people, places, titles, etc. It seems to specialize in spelling them right on one page and wrong on another.

Page 17: Marie Esther Moberg (wrong); Page 116: Esther Marie Moberg (right).

Page 17: Spalding (wrong); Page 93 and 128 Spaulding (right).

meaning he has both parents' names wrong on the page describing Ray's birth.

Page 26: Has the radio station's call letters as KGR; it was KGAR.

On pages 41 and 42, Ray's fanzine is Futuria Fantasia (correct), on pages 43, 46, and in the index it is Future Fantasia.

Page 59 and 117: "One Timeless Spring" (right); on another page it was "A Timeless Spring" (wrong).

Page 83: "so could make notes" instead of "so he could make notes."

Page 94: quotes someone stating Bradbury refused to "fly an airplane." Well, so would most of us! As Ray said in "A Sound of Thunder," little things, such as the word "in," count!

On page 128, the main character of Something Wicked This Way Comes is William Halloway (right), on page 98 he is "Holliday."

The author of a book on Bradbury is correctly referred to in a number of places as David Mogen but on page 79 he is "Mogan."

On page 89, Roald Dahl becomes "Ronald" Dahl.

On pages 59 and 117, "The Miracles of Jamie" in Charm becomes "The Miracles of Jane" in Charmed. The author can't even stay consistent in getting it right once and then wrong--that one was wrong both times!

Errors of fact:
(On the upside, at least there's an index so I can quickly find all these mistakes!)

Page 11: He has Ray's 1949 New York trip occurring in 1950.

On page 19 he says Ray's sister Elizabeth was born in 1926 and died in 1927. On page 116 he says she was born in 1925 and died in 1926. Neither is correct; she was born on March 27, 1927 and died on February 8, 1928. He had Sam Weller's book and didn't even check it!

Page 15: he has "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms"/"The Fog Horn" confused with "The Creatures that Time Forgot"/"Frost and Fire." Gets it right on page 69.

There are probably more; if I come across them I'll post them for what good it does.

The book is longer than the others, but not because it says any more about Ray. It quotes books on writing, World War II, the Cold War, and other subjects.

Of the four books, Griskey's is the clear winner, with most amount of information in least amount of pages and least amount of mistakes. Bankston's is the loser, with greatest amount of pages with least amount of information and most mistakes. The other two fall in between.

The worst thing about Bankston's book is not what it says, but what it does not--he TOTALLY LEAVES OUT MR. ELECTRICO! WHAT THE!?!

Need I say more? C-!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: dandelion,