Meredith A. Bak is Assistant Professor of Childhood Studies at Rutgers University-Camden.
This multilayered study presents unique and compelling optics on the generative interplay between childhood, material, and media cultures. By deftly weaving together widely varied source material, eloquently engaging how cultural ideas echo across history, and rigorously contextualizing its histories within cultural theories, Bak paints a profound, holistic picture of the complex cultural formations that coalesce around play, proving that charting these cultural constellations around optical toys has a distinctive merit. -American Journal of Play