Bamberger's

Newark was the big city we visited for its nice department stores like Orbach's and Bamberger's.

Loraine Boyle: School for Thought Loraine Boyle 2010

Newark was the big city we visited for its nice department stores like Orbach's and Bamberger's.

Loraine Boyle: School for Thought Loraine Boyle 2010

Newark was the big city we visited for its nice department stores like Orbach's and Bamberger's.

Loraine Boyle: School for Thought Loraine Boyle 2010

Far from being only that, Michael Bamberger's vivid, engaging Wonderland is both the perfect corrective to the invidious abstractions of Freaks, Geeks, and Cool Kids and — hello, Dawson's Creek — something of a real-life teen soap; its intertwined storylines and folkloric personalities certainly draw you in the same way.

The Kids Are All Right 2004

Bamberger's treatment of the kids is very gentle and — so one assumes, anyway — discreet.

The Kids Are All Right 2004

Far from being only that, Michael Bamberger's vivid, engaging Wonderland is both the perfect corrective to the invidious abstractions of Freaks, Geeks, and Cool Kids and — hello, Dawson's Creek — something of a real-life teen soap; its intertwined storylines and folkloric personalities certainly draw you in the same way.

The Kids Are All Right 2004

Best of all, and clearly Bamberger's favorite, is go-getting junior Bob Costa, an irrepressible fast-talker who wangles his way into everything from interviewing Patti LaBelle at a Philadelphia Eagles game to shaking hands with Bill Clinton.

The Kids Are All Right 2004

The episodes along the way are the story, from unexpected tragedies — it's a shock when one promising student Bamberger's been following gets killed in a car accident in Florida — to equally unexpected moments of glory, particularly the scene in which a skinny, unprepossessing senior named Jeff Heinbach musters up the nerve to challenge the visiting district congressman, Republican Jim Greenwood, on his support for the Iraq War.

The Kids Are All Right 2004

Bamberger's treatment of the kids is very gentle and — so one assumes, anyway — discreet.

The Kids Are All Right 2004

The episodes along the way are the story, from unexpected tragedies — it's a shock when one promising student Bamberger's been following gets killed in a car accident in Florida — to equally unexpected moments of glory, particularly the scene in which a skinny, unprepossessing senior named Jeff Heinbach musters up the nerve to challenge the visiting district congressman, Republican Jim Greenwood, on his support for the Iraq War.

The Kids Are All Right 2004