X Child Stars

X Child Stars by Kathy Garver and Fred Ascher was received direct from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.   Wow, what a thorough collection of former child stars and their short biographies.  Many of those listed are still in the "business."  Further, the authors DID NOT just dwell on tho child actors who's lifes may have taken a wrong turn, they cover many I had never heard of.  If you are interested in what happened to "that kid from the Rifleman, etc," this is the book for you are someone you know with an interest in child actor history.  Lastly though, and most importantly,  where are the Little Rascals?

4 Stars

I actually really enjoyed and learned a lot from this book. I love that it was written from the perspective of former child stars as well, it gave good insight to what it was like. It was entertaining and just a fun read. I would recommend this book. 4 out of 5 stars.

Review will be posted April 15 X Child Stars is a book about child stars and how some of them fall victim to "child actor syndrome". The book is broken up by decades, beginning with the 1950s. Each decade is then broken up by television shows with information on how many seasons it was on the air, what networks, from what dates and info on the child star(s) from that show. This was certainly an interesting read as most of the shows were before my time, though I have watched several in reruns. It is sad how many have fallen victim to child star syndrome, but uplifting how many have gone on to bigger and better things as well.

One quite that stuck with me from the book was:

"Our lives have proceeded apace, but those who watched as as children on television or in movies cling to old images of us while they, understandably, have gone on with their lives. They've changed, but their apprehension of us... as people...has not. And therein lies the trouble"

I definitely get that, as you are stuck in someone's mind at a certain age and they don't want to see you any older! It certainly must be tough.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

There were tales of youngsters in Hollywood I hadn't heard until I read this book. The stories were well told and were something from every generation. Geared to captivate just about any audience.

This book reaches back through the decades of child stars, which anyone who has watched nick at nite may find interesting. Fear not, there are also updates on stars of the 80s and 90s too. Some of our tv stars faced struggles they couldn't move past, and habits they couldn't kick, some are success stories and others have had a second life returning to stardom. There were things I didn't know about some stars and others I had heard about but were confirmed in this child stars dictionary of sorts. It doesn't harp on the miserable or try to knock anyone down and it was fun catching up.

It's always interesting to see what has happened to the stars we watched grow up on television. They seemed a part of our lives.

I'm a sucker for 'whatever happened to' articles, so I loved a whole book of snippets about child actors from my childhood. A great amount of research and work went into this book resulting in a comprehensive account of most all of the child actors I remember from tv shows in the past - and a few I'd completely forgotten about.

My only disappointment - I wish there had been more pictures, especially of the subjects as they are now. I realize, though, that would be difficult if not impossible so I can't really consider that a negative. Overall, I felt the book was well written and extremely enjoyable to read.

I was given this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was another book I requested just to view and read certain sections. I mainly read the sections based on the stars in the 60's, 70's, and 80's. I enjoyed reading about some of the stars of my favorite shows like The Wonder Years, The Andy Griffith Show, The Waltons, and Leave it to Beaver just to name a few. Some of the hardships and behind the stage antics were surprising and at points shocking. This book however is mainly a coffee table reference book, not one I would per se, rewad cover to cover.