Witch Child / Celia Rees

Witch Child is apparently the diary of a young girl from 1659-60 as she lives through the terrible time of witch phobia and witch trials in England and the New World near Salem. Mary is put on a boat with a group of highly patriarchal Puritan settlers bound for America after her grandmother is hung for being a witch. Mary falls under suspicion of being a witch herself, but she befriends some of the settlers and survives in the new settlement for a time. When she can no longer avoid the suspicions, rumours and fear that lead to untimely end for the unfortunate few who were too different in that time and place Mary tries to escape.

Witch Child appears to be based on a real diary that was found sewn into the lining of a quilt from that time period which makes the story all the more realistic and extraordinary. The story weaves an intriguing and suspenseful story of the history of that time and gives the reader a look at the prejudice and fearfulness that prevailed in those days leading to the persecution and death of some innocent people. I think this story would be an excellent catalyst to encourage teens to become interested in this time period or to encourage their interest in general historical topics.

Rees, C. (2000). Witch Child. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press.

BOP Magazine

BOP Magazine is fan magazine that one YA librarian told me is popular with teen girls. BOP is heavily laden with pictures of young rock stars, and TV and movie stars. The text that accompanies these images is minimal. The text mostly refers to the likes and dislikes of the star(let) or their job. BOP is also filled with or some contest that will allow the reader to meet their favourite famous person or win some merchandise related to their heroes or heroines. BOP does tell some gossip, but it is usually fairly positive and does not focus on the weaknesses or misfortunes of these young and famous people. BOP is also apparently also very popular for the posters of the stars that are inserted amongst the pages of the magazine.

I can find little or no literary value in BOP. There are no interesting stories, lyrics to songs, writing contests or anything that seems to encourage creativity on the part of the reader. BOP Magazine does not appear to be anything more than a vehicle to promote famous young stars. For a teen, being intrigued by a hero or heroine may be encouraging if the stars role as a positive role model is emphasized, but BOP focus’ on things like “crushes,” who is wearing the latest fashion and who made an appearance on Hannah Montana.

BOP Magazine. (2008). Glendale, CA: Laufer Media Inc.

Mad Magazine / E. C. Publications

Mad Magazine is a satirical look at politics, popular culture and human vanity. In an illustrated format Mad creates parodies of TV shows, commercials, books, situations from the news, websites, artwork and even themselves. Some of the humour is funny, some of it is clever, and some of it is just plain insulting to those being mocked. Mad started publishing in 1952 (Mad Timeline, nd, para.2.and is self proclaimed as “America's longest-running humor magazine, besides Time”(Mad, nd, para.2).

I think the humour in Mad would be most appealing to boys, because it can be rude and crude and sometimes it may be classified as potty humour. Some of the humour and illustrations can be sexually suggestive in nature and they might appear to condone drug use, smoking, violence, racism, and telling falsehoods. These topics are fodder for any humorist and Mad tells its fair share off-colour jokes. To read Mad and understand all of the nuances of the humour takes a relatively high reading level, so I think some of Mad’s readers don’t understand all the humour in the magazine. On the other hand Mad may serve to elevate the critical thoughts about our culture and the highly massages message we receive from other forms of media.



About Mad Magazine (nd) Retrieved from http://www.dccomics.com/mad/?action=about

Mad Magazine. (2008). New York: E. C. Publications

The Mad Timeline (nd) Retrieved from http://www.dccomics.com/mad/?action=timeline

Bloody Jack : being an account of the curious adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy / L.A. Meyer

Bloody Jack : being an account of the curious adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy by L.A. Meyer is the story of young orphan girl from London in the 18th-century who disguises herself as a young boy and enlists in the Royal Navy as a ship’s boy. Mary “Jacky” Faber distinguishes herself with her, intelligence, her bold nature and her brave deeds and she acquires the name Bloody Jack. After a long time Mary reveals her identity to the boy she has fallen in love with and then the story really gets interesting.

The version of Bloody Jack I partook of was the audio version on CD-ROM. I have not listened to any audio books before and only a few stories on tape. I must say I enjoyed the story in this format and I found that the narrator’s voice was engaging and she kept me interested in the story through all 6 discs. The story is not for very young children, because there is violence, murder and some sexually suggestive situations in the story. I thought the story was quite realistic in it’s portrayal of life on a Navy ship in that period and the suggestion of the unlikely event that a girl could be mistaken for a girl seemed very plausible in the way it was presented. I story is about courage, loyalty, love and integrity.

Meyer, L. A. (Author), & Kellgren, K. (Narrator). (2007). Bloody Jack : being an account of the curious adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy [Sound recording]. Roseland, NJ: Listen & Live Audio.

Forever / Judy Blume

Forever by Judy Blume is a simple story about a young high school girl who falls in love, has her first sexual experience, and then breaks up with her lover. Katherine is a level-headed average high school girl who experiences the feelings and events that most high school girls feel with their first sexual encounter, she is afraid of getting pregnant, venereal diseases, learning about intercourse and feelings of intimacy.

Forever is an important story, because it is not sensational story about sex, it is a realist story about a normal sexual experience and how a young woman can learn about love and sex. It is controversial, because it is explicit in its description of sex and the experience is pleasurable and does not end in a catastrophic pregnancy or disease. The story does show all of the pressures that Katherine has to deal with from her family, friends and her lover and her decision to wait for weeks after he initially wants to, to have sex.

Blume, J. (2007). Forever. New York: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing.

Powers / Ursula K. Le Guin

Powers is the third book of Ursula K. Le Guin's Annals of the Western Shore series. Powers is the story of a boy who is taken to be a slave with his sister at a young age. Gaivr is treated roughly at times as a slave and he eventually escapes his masters after his sister is killed. Gavir starts a voyage to find a new place to
call home and to find the answers to the visions that he sees from time to time. Gavir is a Marshland boy who not only has the power to see visions of the future, but he also has an extraordinary memory and can recite many poems and songs after briefly studying them.

For a long time I did not sense there was much connection between "Gifts" the first book of the Western Shore series and "Powers" the third book in the series. Apart from the setting of the book and the power that Gavir has I found no connection between the two books until the Uplands are mentioned in the middle of the book and at the very end of the book a character from the first book shows up in the third book.

Powers is well written, but I found it to move slowly in the beginning and it did not immediately catch my attention. I became more interested when Gavir escaped from his masters and started his journey. Gavir's journey seems to be a test of his character, because everywhere he spends time he finds problems with his adopted communities. Issues of trust abound in this story as Gavir seeks to find the meaning behind the visions he has seen and his desire not to be recaptured. This is a good book for those interested in fantasy and the works of Ursla LeGuin.

Le Guin, U. K. (2007). Powers. New York: Harcourt Ltd.