SEVENTEEN MAGAZINE 

Bibliographic Information:

Publisher: Hearst Communications

First Release Date: September 1944

Executive Director: Kristin Koch

Summary: Seventeen Magazine is a magazine targeted towards teenage girls as well as young adults. This magazine covers a wide variety of topic which appeal to young women such as: tips on love, exercises, articles that feature other young girls, fashion, blogs, celebrity entertainment, horoscopes, beauty, and more. Also they have quizzes available on various topics to assess your personality. The articles can be described as fun, light hearted, and encouraging.

Critical Evaluation: Seventeen magazine is a good PG magazine for teenage girls to read. The content could be considered mature since there are some articles that do very lightly refer to sexual content or experiences. I always appreciated seeing the workouts because it would inspire me to try to workout. The articles featuring real life stories about other girls around the same age were also very interesting. Even though of course i never met any of the girls from the articles, I felt this instant comradery with them just knowing that they have some of the very same thoughts and feelings that i do. Seventeen also did a good job representing all ethnicities of the girls in their magazine. All the makeup ads were never really appealing just because i knew my parents weren’t buying me all of that. However, I did enjoy seeing all the different latest styles concerning clothes.

Reader’s Annotation: N/a

Executive Director Information: Kristin Koch is a well known name in the writing industry. She is not only a multi platform writer and editor, but she is also a content and digital strategist. Her specialties include covering fashion, beauty, design, and lifestyle as well as special editorial projects, and digital brand consulting. Closetful of Clothes is a style website that Kristin founded herself.

She is currently Seventeen.com’s Executive Site Editor, in addition to being the Executive Director of the magazine. As Executive Site Editor, she has many tasks including: overseeing social platforms, the magazine’s digital content, and multi platform projects. During her time working on Seventeen.com, Kristin has increased the traffic in visitors of the sight from 2.7 million, to now 11 million visitors due to her social media presence and usage of Kik and Periscope. Some of the other big names that she has edited for include: Vanity Fair, Glamour, The Nest and more.

Genre: Magazine for teen girls and young adults

Curriculum Ties: N/a

Book Talk Ideas: N/a

Interest Age: 13 and up

Challenge & Defense Preparation:

Challenge Issues: Mature content

Common Sense Media Review: 

Viewpoints:

Influenster Review:

Why Included: I absolutely loved Seventeen magazine as a teenager. It was fun reading all the different articles about girls going to college, reading the fake horoscopes ( my crush never talked to me on the day Seventeen predicted), and reading the real life stories of other teen girls just like me. While the content can be considered mature, it is most likely safe to say that a lot of the subjects covered in Seventeen magazine either the teens have already heard about it, read about it, seen something about it on TV, or has a friend or family member who has experienced whatever it is. So there’s really no harm in parents letting their teen girls read this magazine. I’d definitely recommend it.

O:THE OPRAH MAGAZINE

Bibliographic Information: 

Editor: Lucy Kaylin

Title: O The Oprah Magazine

First Release Date: April 19, 2000

Category: Women’s Magazine

Summary: O: The Oprah Magazine is Oprah Winfrey’s magazine. Oprah Winfrey is a well known television host, actress, producer, as well as an icon and has had many impressive achievements including being the first woman to host and produce her own show. This magazine produces issues monthly, which host Oprah herself on the cover. Each month there are varying articles concerning a large variety of subjects: what jeans to buy, good books to read, beauty tips, hair tips, good restaurants, interviews, as well as articles written by Oprah and more. Positivity, Happiness, and Self Reflection are common themes utilized to help women work towards becoming their best selves in this magazine also.

Critical Evaluation: On one hand the Oprah magazine does talk about some relatable subjects that either come up in everyday life or is something that you can use in your everyday life. However there appears to be more shiny, elaborate, makeup, and beauty ads than actual content. Also, these ads advertise super expensive beauty items which aren’t affordable for the average person or some one with a lower income. While the articles are empowering women and pushing for women to live their best lives, there seems to be a reoccurring theme of pushing for women to live their dreams in various issues. Even though this is a good thought, it isn’t necessarily reality. In order for dreams to be fulfilled, hard work is the only guaranteed recipe for success besides patience and faith. I’m not saying that it isn’t right to encourage people to live their dreams, but the constant emphasis on dreams is a bit much. Also past subscription users have mentioned that the magazine is difficult to cancel  or they complain about the unwanted automatic renewal.

Reader’s Annotation: N/a

Editor’s Information: Lucy Kaylin has been the editor in chief for the Oprah magazine since 2013. She graduated from Columbia where she received her masters degree in English Literature. After graduation Lucy landed a gig at Vogue as a fact checker. Eventually she wanted to move up higher so she got a job at GQ as a staff writer. Even though she was a staff writer, at that time she didn’t have any reporting experience.

Luckily she worked hard, studied hard and managed to get the experience she needed. Lucy stayed at GQ for nineteen years. Eventually she got into editing,but interestingly enough, she preferred not to be the editor that was in charge. So she was the number two editor for Joanna Coles at Marie Claire and later on for  Susan Casey who worked for the Oprah Magazine. Once Susan decided to make a career change then Lucy was ready to step up as the number one editor. Also and as she put it: “When Oprah calls, you don’t say no”.

Genre: Women’s Magazine

Curriculum Ties: N/a

Book Talk Idea: N/a

Interest Age: 13 and up

Challenge and Defense Preparation:

Challenge Issues: Mature Content

Viewpoints Review:

Influenster Review:

MagazineLine Review:

Why Included: Oprah is an excellent role model for teenage girls in today’s society. She is the first and only woman to own and produce her own show. Oprah was a TV host for many years, an actress, producer, the list of her outstanding achievements go on and on making her an icon. Her story is so inspiring especially since she had such a difficult life when she was younger. If teenage girls get nothing else from her, then at least they may be able to see that unfortunate circumstances don’t last forever, and with hard work, persistence and patience anything is possible.

PEOPLE MAGAZINE

Bibliographic Information: 

Editor:Jess Cagle

First Release Date: March 4th 1974

Company: Meredith Corporation

Categories: News; Celebrity Gossip

Summary:  People Magazine, is a magazine that comes out weekly that is centered around the subject of Celebrity news. This magazine covers the news and gossip concerning pretty much any and all celebrities: reality stars, singers, actors, athletes, and more. The objective of this magazine is to stay in the know concerning what celebrities are doing next. People Magazine’s website explores various topics concerning the celebrities such as: news, lifestyles, the royals, and entertainment.

Critical Evaluation: People magazine is the often seen as the go to magazine for celebrity gossip. However, sometimes there are articles and news in the magazine that is outdated. Of course, the magazine can’t capture everything right when it happens, but no one really wants to hear about news from two weeks ago either. While this magazine does cover a wide variety of celebrities of all types of backgrounds and ethnicities, it seems as if they cater to primarily reality stars, semi famous people who are doing something unique or weird, the royal people, actors, actresses, athletes, political people and only certain singers. I can’t ever recall seeing Lil Wayne on the cover of People magazine and i’m sure i never will. It does seem like certain entertainers are excluded purposefully because certain people just seem like they will never be on the cover or  the news stories. It would be nice to know how they select their celebrities.

Reader’s Annotation: N/A

Editor Information: Jess Cagle is well known for his title as Editor of People Magazine and Entertainment Weekly. He is a huge supporter of the LGBTQ community, and he is an openly gay man himself. Jess had made headlines after tying the knot with his long term boyfriend Matt Whitney. Matt is a TV producer and a writer.

From 2000-2002 Jess was the senior editor for Time magazine. He has made many appearances on morning shows such as: CBS This Morning Shows, Good Morning America, and Today. Over the span of his career he has interviewed some of the biggest names in Hollywood such as Jennifer Aniston, Elizabeth Taylor, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, and more. His net worth is rumored to be in the millions.

Genre: Celebrity News

Curriculum Ties: N/a

Book Talk Ideas: N/a

Interest Age: 13 and up

Challenge & Defense Preparation:

Challenge Issues: Mature Content

Yelp Reviews:

Influenster Review:

Amazon Reviews: 

Why Included: This is one of my former go to celebrity gossip magazines. I think it would be a great magazine for teenagers to read because the gossip isn’t trashy at all; it is more so told in an informative way. They actually feature quite a lot of interesting people, that are trying to do positive things with their lives. Plus it is a reputable source, so you can’ beat that.

MUSIC CD TAKE CARE BY DRAKE

Bibliographic Information:

Release Date: November 11, 2001

Artist: Drake

Label: Young Money; Cash Money Republic

Producers: Drake; Lil Wayne; Cortez Bryant; Noah “40” Shebib

Genre: Hip Hop; R&B

Summary: Take Care is Drake’s second album that he released. This album includes various hits such as “Take Care” featuring Rihanna, “Marvin’s Room”, “Make Me Proud” “Hell Ya F****** Right”, “Headlines”, and “The Motto” featuring Lil Wayne. Many of his hit singles were very successful; ” Take Care” peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100. In addition to the names listed, Drake worked with a lot of established music artists such as: The Weeknd, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross, Kendrick Lamar, Birdman, Andre 3000, and more. Drake won his very first GRAMMY with this album, winning the title of Best Rap Album.”Hell Ya F****** Right” earned him a Best Rap Performance nomination, and ” The Motto” earned him a Best Rap Song nomination.

Critical Evaluation: Some of the songs seem to be a bit lengthy. The overall vibe of the album is a mixture between slow tempo music and party music. A lot of the slow songs sound like something that a person would play late at night; for that reason the album tends to have sort of a 1990s R&B feel to it. Sometimes it feels like his music can be a little narcissistic, just because he tends to go on and on about himself in his songs, or how he was hurt by a woman. I enjoyed most of the up tempo songs a little bit better because Drake can get to be very dreary sounding very quickly. So it is always refreshing to be able to skip the long monologues about him being wronged by somebody.

Reader’s Annotation: N/a

Artist Information: Aubrey Graham, better known as “Drake” is a former Toronto native. Before he became a famous rapper, he was an actor playing the character of Jimmy Brooks, a wheel chair bound teenager in the teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation. His ethnicity is both African American and Jewish. His family came from a musical background: his father was the former drummer of Jerry Lee Lewis, his uncle played bass for Sly and the Family Stone, and his mother had a musical background on her side of the family as well.

Drake is always in the news for something, whether it is for his music, his label, who he is allegedly dating, his appearance, his vacations etc. His career has been very successful; he is a multi grammy award winning artist. Earlier in his career he got into a “rap beef” with singer Chris Brown concerning the affections of singer Rihanna, but luckily they reconciled. Drake’s latest album that is out right now is called “Scorpion”.

Genre: Hip Hop & R&B

Curriculum Ties: N/a

Book Talk Ideas: N/a

Interest Age: 10 and up

Challenge  & Defense Preparation: 

Challenge Issues: Mature Content; Sexual Content; Strong Language

Pitchfork Review

Rolling Stone Review

Grammy Awards

Why Included: Drake is a very popular rapper, and it would be very hard to find a teenager out there today who hasn’t heard of him. It seems like teenage girls absolutely love Drake. While some of his music does come off as wallowing and self pity fueled, I can appreciate that Drake doesn’t try to put on this hardcore thug persona. He is almost like the nice guy next door that you wouldn’t think twice about until he comes back from the summer all grown up. Teens in general seem to love Drake, and they even know the lyrics better than I do. Once for a class visit, I had to teach the teens how to search databases. I used Drake as my example, and they were so excited about that. When in doubt always pick Drake.

MUSIC CD THE WRITINGS ON THE WALL BY DESTINY’S CHILD

Bibliographic Information:

Release date: July 27^th 1999

Artists: Destiny’s Child

Label: Columbia

Producers: Kevin She’kspere’ Briggs; Beyoncé; Missy Elliot; Kandi Burruss

Genre: Pop; R&B

Summary: The Writings on the Wall was Destiny’s Child’s second album. At this time, this album reflected songs sung by the original members of Destiny’s Child: Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly Rowland, LaToya Luckett, and LaTavia Roberson. There were many producers for this album including Beyoncé herself, Kevin She’kspere’ Briggs, Missy Elliot, and Kandi Burruss just to name a few. The Writings on the Wall was Destiny’s Child’s best selling set, in total selling 64.4 million units. This album made it towards the top of the charts; on the R&B Hip Hop albums chart, on August 14^th 1999, it both debuted and peaked at the number two spot. On the same day it debuted as number six on the Billboard 200 chart.

Critical Evaluation: This is an amazing and classic album. It tends to be primarily centered around cheating, and the sixteen tracks almost create a revenge plan put into action. From the perspective of constantly trying to get even, the album may come off as childish. However this isn’t a male bashing album at all, it appears that the girls are just discussing the causes and effects of cheating as well as trying to find clarity through those difficult situations. There are also some other prevalent themes in the album such as self-worth, and satisfaction. All the songs are extremely relatable, and cover issues that decent young women often run into when dating. Many of the songs also reflect underlying messages that are supposed to empower women. For examples, the “So Good” track is a response to the people that didn’t believe in the girls’ talent and said that they wouldn’t make it. Songs that specifically deal with women knowing their self-worth include: “Bills, Bills, Bills” and “Hey Ladies”.

Reader’s Annotation: N/a

Artist Information: In 1990, before Destiny’s Child as a group came about, Beyoncé and LaTavia met auditioning for a girls group. They went on to join a girls group called Girls Tyme with four other group members. After a debut on “Star Search” didn’t turn out well. Beyoncé’s father decided to cut three of the members and add LaToya Luckett. It was then that they changed the group name to Destiny’s Child which was inspired from a passage from the book of Isiah in the bible.

The four group members had a successful career together especially since the album The Writings on the Wall did so well, but things started to go south. In December 1999, both LaTavia and LaToya felt that Matthew Knowles favored Beyoncé and Kelly, and they accused him of not giving them their share of their earned money. The two went to look for another manager, only to find that Matthew Knowles cut them out of the group and brought in a new member Farrah Franklin right before they were going to make their music video of “Say My Name”. This was an even bigger deal because “Say My Name” was their highest charting single at that time. Eventually Farrah too would be dismissed from the group for absences and a supposed lack of intrest in the group. Michelle Williams joined the group a while later creating a three-member girl group with members Beyoncé and Kelly; they went on to sell many records together.

https://stylecaster.com/destinys-child-former-members/

Genre: Pop R&B

Curriculum Ties: N/a

Book Talk ideas: N/a

Interest Age: 13 and up

Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation:

Challenge Issue: Mature Content

Review: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/destinys-child-the-writings-on-the-wall/

10 Facts About Destiny’s Child’s The Writing on the Wall: https://www.capitalxtra.com/artists/beyonce/lists/the-writings-on-the-wall-album-facts/billboard-200/

The 10 Commandments of Love Within Destiny’s Child’s “The Writing on the Wall”: https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-juice/6190986/destinys-childs-the-writings-on-the-wall-ten-10-lessons

Why included: The ladies of Destiny’s Child were and are very good role models for teenage girls. Their music wasn’t at all sex based and actually had some powerful messages underneath their lyrics. There isn’t a whole lot of profanity in their music either. It is a shame that other girl groups and singers that came after them didn’t follow in their footsteps. Through their work, Destiny’s Child shows teenage girls that they don’t have to follow society’s footsteps on how a woman should look, feel, and think.

MOVIE REMEMBER THE TITANS

Bibliographic Information:

Director: Boaz Yakin

Release Date: September 23, 2000

Actors: Denzel Washington, Will Patton, Donald Faizon, Nicole Ari Parker, Wood Harris

Box Office: $136.7 million

Featured Song: Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye

Genre: Biographical Sports Drama

Summary: The movie begins with a group of former football players attending a funeral in 1981. Then the movie travels back in time to the desegregated school of T. C. Williams High School in 1971 in Alexandria Virginia. Herman Boone, an African American man, (who is played by Denzel Washington) is hired to assist with coaching the football team underneath the current coach, who happens to be white:  Bill Yoast.  However an interesting twist happens when Herman is made to be the head coach with Bill Yoast planning to take another assistant coaching job rather than work underneath Herman. Yoast’s football players who he has been training for years, threaten to boycott the team if he isn’t their coach. Bill changes his mind and takes a position of defensive coordinator underneath Herman. There are still a lot of racial tensions in the air due to the fact that not everyone is happy about the desegregation decision. Bringing the players together so that they can stop seeing just Black and White and see themselves as a team, isn’t an easy task. Herman has two major challenges that he has to face in the movie: command the respect of his entire team white and black (with Bill included), and win each and every game otherwise he will lose his position. Will Herman be able to rise to the occasion?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remember_the_Titans

Critical Evaluation: This movie is absolutely amazing, and one of my all-time favorite movies. I love that this movie is based off a true story. The characters in this movie were extremely well developed. For example Herman Boone is a dedicated family man, but at school or on the football field he is all business. His no nonsense attitude is a little off putting for the African American players because they thought that since he was a “brother”, that he would allow them some sort of special treatment. They were very wrong, and if anything he was harder on them than the white player, but at the same time treated everyone equally. I appreciated the fact that he was strict, with such high expectations for his players Black and White alike. By being harder on the African American players, he was preparing them for the real world. I loved that Denzel’s performance was everything but stereotypical no matter what anyone else said about him. One example of that was when a coach on the opposing team called him a monkey. Once the titans had won the game when it was time for the coaches to shake hands Herman threw the opposing coach a banana! I appreciated Bill’s character also how he started off being racist, and assuming that he knew more than Herman, but as time goes on he grows to like and respect Herman. When the referees were making unfair calls in order for the team to lose the game to get Herman to lose his job, Bill stood up to them and made them stop. I loved that he did this even though he knew it was going to cost him the hall of fame. This movie is thought provoking, funny, sad, heartwarming and everything in between.

Reader’s Annotation: N/a

Director Information: Boaz Yakin: Boaz Yakin has been in the entertainment field ever since 1989. He took film making studies at the New York City College, and after he graduated he worked for serval companies on film making projects. It was in 1989 that he released his first screenplay The Punisher. Boaz would go on to make his director debut for the movie Fresh, which he wrote as well. Directing Remember the Titans was a great move for his career.

Remember the Titans did extremely well at the box office, and this particular win for him moved him up higher in Hollywood. In 2015, Boaz wrote, directed, and produced the movie Max. In addition to being a director, he was also present at the 2009 Sun Dance Film Festival as a member of the Dramatic Jury. Boaz isn’t limited to only writing, and directing, he made an appearance on the Max movie as well.

https://marriedbiography.com/boaz-yakin-biography/

Genre: Biographical Sports Drama

Curriculum Ties: N/A

Book Talk Ideas: N/a

Interest Age: 10 and up

Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation:

Challenge Issues: Racism; Strong Content;

Common Sense Media Review: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/remember-the-titans

Review: https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/reviews/view/2388/remember-the-titans

Review: https://dove.org/review/3102-remember-the-titans/

Why Included: Remember the Titans demonstrates that anyone can overcome hatred and bigotry.  It teaches the lesson to be yourself no matter what people may say. Instead of trying to argue or get even, it is even more important to let your truth and hard work speak for itself. Nothing is impossible, and you can do anything that you set your mind to. This movie is filled with so many positive life lessons, and if a teen hasn’t seen this movie, then they are missing out.

MOVIE FIST FIGHT

Bibliographic Information:

Director: Richie Keen

Actors: Ice Cube, Charlie Day, Tracy Morgan

Release date: February 17, 2017

Box Office: $41.1 million

Summary: On the last day of school the seniors are pulling every kind of prank they can think of to make the most out of their last day. Charlie Day, who plays Andy Campbell is already feeling the effects of the last day of school pranks which only fuels his anxiety over possible job cuts. He runs into Ice Cube who plays Strickland, who saved him from getting sprayed in paint so as a good gesture Campbell agrees to assist Strickland with his strange TV problem. Campbell was able to find the root of the problem: one of the students had put something in the VCR, and was controlling the tv with his remote. Upon finding this information Strickland goes crazy and furiously grabs an axe and hacks the student’s desk. When the principal gets wind of this outrageous situation, he threatens to fire first just one of them and then both of them if he can’t find out who was the cause of this situation. In a moment of desperation Campbell tells on Strickland, which later on results in Strickland declaring that they are going to have a fist fight after school to settle their dispute. Though Campbell tries reasoning with Strickland, he can’t change his mind to call off the fight. Campbell is scared but eventually up for the challenge. Who will win?

Critical Evaluation: I absolutely love this movie, it is hilariously funny. I literally can watch it over and over and still laugh every time. Ice Cube is brilliant in his acting skills as always ;however, it feels like he always plays the same character. He is either a thug, reformed thug, family man who is rough around the edges, or the angry Black man in most of his roles. This is conflicting for me because Ice Cube did a great job, but his character is basically the stereotypical angry Black Man. How he reacted in response to the prank in his class is exactly how Black people are often assumed to react over miniscule problems: crazy, irrational, uncontrollable, and wanting to handle disputes by fighting. From that perspective, his role is annoying. The big scary Black man who constantly uses profanity and everyone is afraid of thing isn’t appealing as a concept. Besides that the story is hilarious.

Reader’s Annotation: N/a

Director Information: Richie Keen is both an actor and director. He grew up in Highland Park, Illinois. Richie’s resume in television and movies is quite impressive. He has directed episodes of the show Shameless, The Mick, Disjointed, and The Goldbergs. His feature movie directing debut was Fist Fight.

Richie has won a lot of awards as well for his outstanding work. Some of the awards that he has won include: The Writer’s Guild Award for outstanding achievement in writing original media for directing the show Aim High. He received the Digital Luminary Award also for his work on Aim High. Some of the entertainment companies/networks that he has either assisted in developing projects and or written for include NBC, Hulu, Fox, and YouTube Red.

http://www.richie-keen.com/bio.php

Genre: Comedy

Curriculum Ties: N/a

Book Talk Ideas: N/a

Interest Age: 13 and up

Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation:

Challenge Issues: Profanity; Fighting; Mature Content; Crude Humor;

Plugged In Review: https://www.pluggedin.com/movie-reviews/fist-fight/

Review: https://www.amazon.com/Fist-Fight-Ice-Cube/product-reviews/B06VWTG817/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_show_all_btm?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews

Director Richie Keen discuses making Fist Fight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtNxnCsMlN8

Why included: This is one of my favorite movies. One thing that I absolutely loved about this movie is that for once teachers are displayed as real people. As students in junior high and high school, you see teachers all the time but never really get a full glimpse into their personal lives. As teenagers, we just focus on them being the fun police, and giving us homework. But teachers really are people too. It wouldn’t surprise me to know that a lot of teens enjoy this movie since it is very funny.

GIRLFRIENDS TV SERIES

Bibliographic Information:

Creator: Mara Brock Akil

Network: The CW; UPN

Theme song: Girlfriends

First Episode Release date: September 11^th 2000

Summary: The show follows the ups and downs of five friends: Joan Clayton played by Tracee Ellis Ross, Maya Wilkes played by Golden Brooks, Lynn Searcy played by Persia White, Toni  Childs played by Jill Marie Jones, and William Dent played by Reginald C. Hayes. Joan is a successful lawyer, quirky and funny in personality, but often unlucky in love. William, Joan’s coworker and guy best friend, often tries to bring both comedy and reason into the mix. Toni Childs is a spoiled and narcissistic yet successful real estate agent who is “never going back to Fresno”. Lynn is a free spirit modern day hippie who never commits to anything; has a lot of degrees but never uses them. She is constantly bumming off the rest of the girlfriends, but never gets kicked out of the group. Maya, the sassy and smart mouthed receptionist of Joan, is a single mother who goes on to become a best-selling author. The show follows this group as friendships are tested, there are laughs, cries, happiness, and sadness. These girlfriends and William will be there through thick and thin ready to tackle the unpredictable circumstances of life together.

Critical Evaluation: This was my favorite show which came out when I was eleven. I didn’t really start getting into the show until I was eighteen. The characters are so relatable and well developed. My favorite was Joan who seemed to have it all: a great career, house, group of friends, but was unlucky in love. I loved how no character “had it all” Each character was struggling with issues that they needed to fix within themselves ;however, there weren’t any negative stereotypes associated with them such as having a whole bunch of kids, only wanting a man, being ghetto, uneducated. I loved how this was an actual accurate portrayal of working class African American women, who were classy, witty, smart, funny, and interesting. It was just very refreshing to see a group of African American women on TV doing something positive.

Reader’s annotation: N/a

Creator Information: Mara Brock Akil was raised in Kansas City Missouri ;however, Los Angles is her home. She began her writing career on the FOX show “South Central”. Her career expanded as she began writing for UPN writing for the series “Moesha” for four seasons. Mara won the 1999 Sexual Health in entertainment award for her Moesha episode about birth control.

She created her very first show “Girlfriends”. Girlfriends was a very successful show, and it even won the 2002 and 2003 NAACP Image awards nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series. Her inspiration for the various storylines actually came from her own group of friends. Mara was included in the “Top 25 Hottest Women in Urban entertainment.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0015327/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

Genre: TV Sitcom

Curriculum Ties: N/a

Book Talk Ideas: N/a

Interest age: 13 and up

Challenge & Defense Preparation:

Challenge Issues: Mature Content; Sexual Content;

Reviews: http://www.tv.com/shows/girlfriends/reviews/

Mara Brock Akil interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo33jLUl1vM

Common Sense Media Review: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/girlfriends

Why Included: I absolutely loved this show. It gave me something to aspire to in terms of dreaming bigger and pursuing a career. I felt as if, if these women can be successful and do well in life then so could I. I would hope other teenage girls could look at this show and feel the same way. There is more to life than having a pretty face, long hair, and showing your body in hopes of attracting a man (which is the stereotype for women that society deems as acceptable). The show is proof of this.

TV SERIES BAD GIRLS CLUB

Bibliographic Information:

Creator: Jonathan Murray

First Episode Release: December 5^th 2006

Network: Oxygen

Theme Song: Love Me or Hate Me

Genre: Reality Show

Summary: Seven girls from all over the United States are picked to live in a house for three months together in a specific location. In order to be allowed to stay in the house the girls all have to follow specific rules; the main rule is no fighting which seems to be broken every single season, resulting in a Bad Girl having to leave the show early. While this doesn’t sound very exciting or special, these group of girls have been known to have both various kinds of psychological and behavioral issues. Usually the type of girls that are picked to participate have certain characteristics: loud, opinionated, drama starters, quick tempered, confrontational, have family issues, pretty, charismatic, tough, hence the title “bad girl”. While of course the Bad Girls are showing off their different backgrounds, personalities, and beliefs, the main objective is for them to prove that they are mentally strong enough to stay in the house for the full three months. By staying in the house most of the Bad Girls want to try to grow and change some of their destructive ways.

Critical Evaluation: When I was younger, this was my favorite show. I pretty much have watched and owned most of the seasons. However, as I got older and now at the age of twenty-nine, the show doesn’t seem as appealing as it once was. It is a very repetitive show, the only thing that changes are the girls in each season. Every season there are a lot of fights, drinking, talking behind people’s back, threatening, lying, pulling pranks, complaining, throwing stuff, throwing up, potentially going to jail etc. At least two people get kicked off for fighting every season, and there are usually two cliques that the girls fall into. Everyone wants to prove that they are the toughest or prettiest Bad Girl. While some of the girls say that they may want to change their “bad” ways, they usually don’t end up following through. Now it is just boring, and it is like if you have seen one season you have seen them all.

Reader’s Annotation: N/a

Creator Information: Jonathan Murray currently lives in Los Angeles. He obtained his degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Jonathan has built quite an impressive career in television; he started out spending six years at WLUK-TV, WXIA-TV, and WKYC-TV in documentaries, news, and station management. In 1987, he joined together with Mary-Ellis Bunim to form the partnership Bunim Murray productions

In 1991 Bunim Murray productions sold an idea for a TV show to MTV and MTV bought it. The Bunim and Murray partnership turned into a powerhouse as they went on to produce a wide variety of TV shows including: Making the Band, The Simple Life, The Real Word, Road Rules, The Real World/Road Rules, and more. He is known as the co-creator of the Bad Girls Club Series. Also Jonathan was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2012.

https://www.bunim-murray.com/jon-murray

Genre: Reality Show

Curriculum Ties: N/a

Book Talk Ideas: N/a

Interest age: 13 and up

Challenge Issues & Defense Preparation:

Challenge Issues: Profanity; Sexual Content; Mature Content

Reviews: https://www.influenster.com/reviews/bad-girls-club

Tanisha Thomas, a famous bad girl who benefitted greatly from going on the show by jumpstarting her career https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3245655/

Natalie Nunn, another bad girl who went on to do positive things after the show: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3758798/

Why included: This show came out when I was seventeen and I absolutely loved it. It was pure entertainment and what I liked most is that it seemed the girls could do and say what they wanted and seemingly not have consequences from it ( not true). I’m sure there are some teenage girls that probably feel this way too. Hopefully they will be able to use this show to see what not to do and how not to act. I will say that the show does promote unique personalities so I hope the girls would get the underlying message to be yourself no matter what anyone thinks.

GALE VIRTUAL REFERENCE LIBRARY

Bibliographic Information: N/a

Summary: Gale Virtual Reference Library is a database subscription that has both encyclopedias and special reference sources to research. At one point, these particular resources that the Gale Virtual Reference Library provides were only available inside libraries ;however, now they are accessible 24/7 via the internet. Reference sources are difficult to find sometimes these days in libraries, which is what makes this database so appealing.  Each specific library has its own eBook collection; therefore, the content provided in the database may vary depending on whether your subscription is from school, work, the library, or another organization.

Critical Evaluation: The format of the homepage for this database subscription could definitely use some work. Currently, upon logging into the database, there are just names and pictures of encyclopedias and reference sources with subject headings on top of them. As a user this layout is confusing for me. Do I try to find the encyclopedia under the general subject heading in order to find my subject, or do I just search the search bar. The layout could be way better and user friendly. However, I do love that this database provides information that may be difficult to find about people, concepts, and things, that one would have trouble finding in a library. For example, I had to conduct a class visit to teach this very database. To show the kids the value of the database, I chose to research a person I know libraries today don’t have a large amount of information on: Florence Griffith Joyner. This database had a lot of information on her, and I was so thrilled to see that. I would definitely recommend this database

Reader’s Annotation: N/a

Creator Information: N/a

Genre: N/a

Curriculum Ties: This is a great resource to research older people in history who are often unknown as well as concepts and historical information.

Book Talk ideas: N/a

Interest Age: Grades 9-12

Challenge Issues & Defense Preparation:

Gale Virtual Reference Library: https://library.sdsu.edu/research-services/news/gvrl-gale-virtual-reference-library

Reviews: https://www.cengage.com/search/productOverview.do?N=197&Ntk=P_EPI&Ntt=20770342916727322671770477052408908816&Ntx=mode%2Bmatchallpartial

Features of the Gale Virtual Reference Library: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.225.6848&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Why Included: This is an excellent source when students need reference sources on people in history that may be unknown to most as well as general concepts. Teens sometimes don’t know where to look for reference information. Also there are some libraries that don’t have a reference section. Teens will be able to easily gain access to reference information that may be missing from their local libraries.