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Mark Midbon <[log in to unmask]>
Thu, 19 Sep 1996 08:48:51 -0700
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Let me add to Jim Zwick's 9/13 comments on the WISHBONE television series.

There are 40 episodes of WISHBONE, so the four episodes devoted to Mark
Twain's books comprise one tenth of the series.  Shakespeare, Dickens,
Dumas, Stevenson and Doyle get only two episodes apiece.  The rest of the
world's authors get one episode apiece, if they get mentioned at all.
Mark Twain and his fans should feel flattered.

On the other hand, two authors whom Twain despised are included in the
series:  Walter Scott and Jane Austen.  So Twain might still have some-
thing to complain about.

Wishbone's fictional owner in the series is a 6th grader, so I assume that
is the target audience.  But my three daughters all loved the series, and
they ranged from 2nd through 7th grade when WISHBONE began televising one
year ago.

Tomorrow (Friday) WISHBONE will rerun its episode on Twain's JOAN OF ARC.
At first I was surprised at the selection of this book.  But the way
WISHBONE handles it is very compelling for the young female audience.  In
half a dozen years, teachers of American literature will face a large
number of students who think of Twain in a different way:  the man who
wrote the female version of BRAVEHEART.

Mark Midbon
AZ State Univ.

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