Peter Ackerman (1)
Author of Ice Age [2002 film]
For other authors named Peter Ackerman, see the disambiguation page.
About the Author
Image credit: Broadway Play Publishing Inc.
Works by Peter Ackerman
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Ackerman, Peter
- Gender
- male
- Occupations
- playwright
screenwriter
children's author - Short biography
- Peter Ackerman is an American playwright, actor, and screenwriter best known as a co-writer of the animated movies Ice Age and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs for 20th Century Fox. He began his career as an actor in the low budget movie Astronomy of Errors (2000), and later went on to perform off-Broadway in the Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) and in Visiting Mr. Green. Following his work on the Ice Age movies, Ackerman was a writer and producer on the TV series The Americans on FX channel, and was hired in 2017 as the screenwriter of The Angry Birds Movie 2 for Sony Pictures.
For the stage Ackerman's debut play, Things You Shouldn’t Say Past Midnight, was performed off-Broadway in New York and at Soho Rep in London. He was commissioned by NPR to write the radio play, I’d Rather Eat Pants, which was broadcast as a short serial on Morning Edition. He authored the play, The Urn and his adaptation of The Pajama Game starring Harry Connick Jr., won the Tony Award for Best Musical Revival on Broadway. He has also written the children’s books The Lonely Typewriter, and The Lonely Phone Booth, which was produced as a musical at the Manhattan Children’s Theatre.
(source: Wikipedia) - Nationality
- USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
A young boy with a penchant for screaming finds his calling in this third picture-book from author Peter Ackerman and illustrator Max Dalton. His long-suffering parents, having done everything in their power to stop his screams, eventually discover that eating and cooking are the only things that shut him up. Eventually, when his prodigious culinary skills are revealed, his parents open up a restaurant - Boy - where he serves as chef. But will he revert to screaming when he has a bad night show more on the job...?
A humorous send-up of the classic story of the badly-behaved child, The Screaming Chef highlights the idea that when young people have something to keep them busy - something they enjoy, and that gives them a sense of accomplishment - they are less likely to behave poorly. Leaving aside the question of message, the story here is amusing, and will no doubt keep young children entertained, as they recognize a little bit of themselves in the willful main character. The artwork is colorful and every bit as entertaining as the text, matching its somewhat zany humor perfectly. Recommended to all young screamers, and to anyone searching for children's stories that address screaming and how it effects the people around the screamer. show less
A humorous send-up of the classic story of the badly-behaved child, The Screaming Chef highlights the idea that when young people have something to keep them busy - something they enjoy, and that gives them a sense of accomplishment - they are less likely to behave poorly. Leaving aside the question of message, the story here is amusing, and will no doubt keep young children entertained, as they recognize a little bit of themselves in the willful main character. The artwork is colorful and every bit as entertaining as the text, matching its somewhat zany humor perfectly. Recommended to all young screamers, and to anyone searching for children's stories that address screaming and how it effects the people around the screamer. show less
The phone booth at the corner of 100th Street and West End Avenue provided a valuable service for many members of the local community, giving people a means of contacting employers, suppliers and loved ones. It even provided the secret agent a place to change his disguises. But then one day people started speaking into shiny objects they carried around, and it seemed that no one needed the phone booth anymore. Would it be carted away? Or would it still serve a purpose...?
This debut show more picture-book from screenwriter and playwright Peter Ackerman and illustrator Max Dalton, who subsequently collaborated on The Lonely Typewriter, presents an engaging, kid-friendly story, one which highlights themes such as the progression of technology over time, and the role of icons and landmarks, in the emotional life of a community. I enjoyed the story, appreciated the New York City setting, and found the colorful, stylized artwork appealing. I do wish that the author had included an afterword giving more information, as this is apparently based on a true story, but leaving that aside, The Lonely Phone Booth is one that I would recommend to those looking for children's stories that explore means of communication, or the emotional attachment people form to icons and beloved objects, as well as to anyone searching for picture-books set in New York City. show less
This debut show more picture-book from screenwriter and playwright Peter Ackerman and illustrator Max Dalton, who subsequently collaborated on The Lonely Typewriter, presents an engaging, kid-friendly story, one which highlights themes such as the progression of technology over time, and the role of icons and landmarks, in the emotional life of a community. I enjoyed the story, appreciated the New York City setting, and found the colorful, stylized artwork appealing. I do wish that the author had included an afterword giving more information, as this is apparently based on a true story, but leaving that aside, The Lonely Phone Booth is one that I would recommend to those looking for children's stories that explore means of communication, or the emotional attachment people form to icons and beloved objects, as well as to anyone searching for picture-books set in New York City. show less
Purchased by Pearl, a woman who used it to type pamphlets for Martin Luther King, Jr., during the Civil Rights Movement, the eponymous typewriter in Peter Ackerman's story was next used by Pearl's daughter Penelope to type her award-winning poetry collection, and to write love letters to her eventual husband. But when the typewriter is replaced with a computer, and put away in the dusty attic, it grows lonelier and lonelier. Then one day, when Penelope's son Pablo needs to write a paper show more about penguins, only for the computer to break down at the exact wrong time, the typewriter is rescued from oblivion, and once again put to use...
The second picture-book collaboration between author Peter Ackerman and illustrator Max Dalton, following upon their earlier The Lonely Phone Booth, The Lonely Typewriter highlights a number of themes - the fact that vintage items can still be of use, the idea that objects can have interesting histories - while also spinning an engaging kid-friendly story. I appreciated the homage to an important time in American history that Ackerman included, by having the typewriter used to create pamphlets for the Civil Rights Movement, and I found the fact that Pablo's parents were a biracial couple, without that needing to be remarked upon in the text, quite appealing. The text here is rich in alliteration - words beginning with 'P' abound - and the artwork has a vintage cartoon-like charm. Recommended to anyone who enjoyed the earlier Ackerman/Dalton venture, as well as to anyone looking for children's stories that address the theme of reusing older items, or of objects having a history all of their own, that is intertwined with the histories of the humans around them. show less
The second picture-book collaboration between author Peter Ackerman and illustrator Max Dalton, following upon their earlier The Lonely Phone Booth, The Lonely Typewriter highlights a number of themes - the fact that vintage items can still be of use, the idea that objects can have interesting histories - while also spinning an engaging kid-friendly story. I appreciated the homage to an important time in American history that Ackerman included, by having the typewriter used to create pamphlets for the Civil Rights Movement, and I found the fact that Pablo's parents were a biracial couple, without that needing to be remarked upon in the text, quite appealing. The text here is rich in alliteration - words beginning with 'P' abound - and the artwork has a vintage cartoon-like charm. Recommended to anyone who enjoyed the earlier Ackerman/Dalton venture, as well as to anyone looking for children's stories that address the theme of reusing older items, or of objects having a history all of their own, that is intertwined with the histories of the humans around them. show less
It’s a mighty bad play in which you still feel cheated even though you got it for free from the library. I got halfway through this tawdry mess before giving up. Except for poor Ben, every character in Peter Ackerman’s play would have to gain a dimension to be two-dimensional. Not many laughs, two bimbo best pals, a would-be erudite hitman, and a flaming gay man. Not much here to like. How did this hot mess make it to Off Broadway? Or win an Audie Award in 2003? Or get turned into a TV show more series by DirecTV in 2014? On second thought, turning it into a TV comedy series makes sense: Have you seen some of the recent unwatchable fare? show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 6
- Members
- 1,539
- Popularity
- #16,725
- Rating
- 3.6
- Reviews
- 22
- ISBNs
- 34
- Languages
- 2