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.

Gilmore Girls / Amy Sherman

Gilmore Girls - a television program created by Amy Sherman is now available in DVD. Gilmore Girls tells the story of a single mother with a teen daughter who lives in a small town in New England. Mother and daughter are very close to each other and quick witted. The small town is typically a friendly place and the two "girls" have various interactions with friends, neighbours, workmates and schoolmates. Various mishaps and humerous situations occur as the series proceeds all within the realm of the normal human experience.


Gilmore Girls depicts two clever ladies living a typical North American existence with ease and grace. The humour of the characters and the charm of the small town are the main appeal of this series. I think Gilmore Girls would mainly appeal to teen girls, because the main characters are both female. I also think the show is for a white middle class audience, because there is only one regular character in that does not fit this physical description and the everyday problems and issues that the characters have to deal with are relevant to this demographic. Gilmore Girls is funny, quaint and not overly controversial and should be suitable for most young adults.

Efros, M. (Producer). (2004). Gilmore girls. The complete second season. [videorecording (DVD)]. Burban, CA: Warner Home Video.

Gifts / Ursula La Guin

Gifts by Ursula Le Guin is the story of a young boy living in a world of Uplanders. Some Uplanders are born with Gifts that allow them to call animals, to make people go blind to, “undo” things and various other mysterious powers. The Gift runs in a family and the power to “undo” runs in Orrec’s family, but the Gift has not reveal itself to him as a young man at the beginning of this story. The story follows Orrec’s life as his family deals with friendly and unfriendly neighbouring homesteads. Orrec and his friend Gry struggle with the difficulties of living with families dominated by these Gifts and the daunting decision of how to use their Gifts or not use the Gifts they inherit.

Ursula Le Guin weaves a compelling story in Gifts – which is set in a world of homesteads that could have existed hundreds of years ago with families like clans and no modern conveniences. La Guin mainly explores the ethical decisions that these two teens make in this Upland world and the difficulties they have to deal with as a result of their choices. For readers that enjoy a well crafted story with characters that have troubles they can relate to in a figurative way, then Gifts is an excellent read.

Gifts is the first of the Ursula La Guin books I will review from The Annals of the Western Shore series.

Le Guin, U. K. (2006). Gifts. New York: Harcourt Ltd.

The Tale of One Bad Rat / Bryan Talbot

The Tale of One Bad Rat is a graphic novel by Bryan Talbot about a runaway teen girl who is trying to survive on the streets of London and as she travels in the English countryside. Helen carries a pet rat on some of her journey and she is apparently tracing a path followed by Beatrix Potter at one point in her life. Helen tries to avoid religious zealots, groping-drunk politicians and prostitutes. Helen also has hallucinations about dying or being in dangerous situations. Helen is fleeing an abusive father and harassing mother and she meets plenty of kind people in her travels, but she has a hard time trusting some of her new friends.

The Tale of One Bad Rat is an emotional and thought provoking story. It doesn’t tread lightly on the nature of sexual abuse or living on the street. Helen faces many dangers and has a huge mental obstacle to navigate in overcoming the guilty she feels from being abused. The illustrations in the story support the text, by showing the girls physical circumstances, her hallucinations, and instilling a mood over each scene in the story. Bryan Talbot has written and important story for anyone who needs to know about child abuse!

Talbot, B. (1995). Tales of one bad rat. Milwaukie, OR : Dark Horse Comics, Inc.