Steven Spielberg

I bought for my son (10) to read for a school report...book arrived in great condition.

Reviewed by Ben Weldon (age 10) for Reader Views (11/07) "Steven Spielberg (Just the Facts Biographies)" by Tom Powers is the true story of Steven Spielberg and how he made his way from a weird, skinny kid to a rich movie director. Even as a child, he liked to scare other people. He once trapped his sisters in a closet with a fake glowing skeleton that he had made. He was known to be quite diabolical; however, when he had to dissect a frog in biology class, he vomited. He loved movies and television, and he sometimes rented 8mm movie reels and charged the neighborhood kids 35 cents to watch. Young Steven was actually quite timid and poor at sports. He was sometimes teased because he was Jewish and had a sort of unhappy childhood. Stevens's father encouraged him to begin creating movies as a way to increase his self-confidence. Spielberg got his start in movies at a very young age and was determined to make a career in film directing. When he was 13, he created his first movie, "Battle Squad," about fighting the Nazis during World War II. At 15, he made his first full-length science fiction movie, "Firelight". After he graduated from high school, he intended to enroll in a top college film program, but he was not accepted anywhere. He finally enrolled in California State University majoring in English; there was a movie studio right near the college building called Universal Studios. In the summer he put on a suit and tie, walked right into the studio as if he belonged, and put up his name on an empty room. Eventually a security guard caught him and threw him out. Despite getting kicked out, he kept going back until he was offered a job directing TV shows including "The Twilight Zone" and "Night Gallery." Eventually Spielberg got bored directing television and wanted to move on to more creative pursuits in movies. Spielberg has made some of the greatest movies that Americans and the world have experienced. "Jaws," a scary killer-shark movie directed by Spielberg, was the first Hollywood movie to take in more than $100 million at the box office. It was, however, just the beginning of Spielberg's blockbusters which included "E.T.," the "Indiana Jones" series, "Shrek," and "Jurassic Park" (his biggest money-maker) among many others. Spielberg's movies were thrilling, full of action, and often scary. He also made some more serious and dramatic movies such as "The Color Purple," "Schindler's List," and "Saving Private Ryan." Steven Spielberg now has his own private studio called Dream Works, which produces movies, video games and computer games. He has won many awards for his movies and is remarkably rich. His early determination seems to have paid off beyond his wildest dreams. I thought that "Steven Spielberg" was an excellent book and I hope all readers will enjoy it as much as I did. This is a very well-written book with many sidebar facts that I did not know about. I thought that learning about Spielberg's past wa