Teen Web
Los Angeles Public Library
2007
http://www.lapl.org/ya/index.html
Age Range: 12+
Format: Website
Rating: 5/5

A FABULOUS website, Teen Web is interactive, pretty, user-friendly, cool and informative. This is everything that teen library sites should be! The main page has a great design; users can move elements of the page, choose from teen-friendly categories and view photos from teen events. The main theme of the site is centered around a teen school binder, complete with doodles and tabs for different "subjects." The subjects are all relevant, and include links to general stuff (like comic books and sports), teen library resources, homework help links, information for life (health, family, etc.), events at the library, the teen reading club, a library game (that I coulnd't seem to make work), and the opportunity to give opinions and feedback! The sections are all different than the ones offered through the main Los Angeles Public Libray website, and are all directly appropriate for young adults. The links are all stable, and take the user to reputable, enjoyable and interactive sites with good information. There is no "kiddish" feel to the site; it's cool and playful and pretty hip (although, it's debatable whether a non-teen can make this statement).

If I was to create a teen library website, I think that I would use Teen Web as a template! It's THAT good!

The Zone: Teens @ Burlington Public Library
Burlington Public Library
2007
http://www.bpl.on.ca/bplteens/thezone.htm
Age Range: 12+
Format: Website
Rating: 4/5

The Zone, from the Burlington Public Library in Ontario is a very informative, clean, and semi-cool teen library site. Great links to relevant and reputable sites, The Zone offers teens an opportunity to see what's new, to get homework help, check out teen reads, get information on writing contests, links for general subjects and to ask a librarian. The graphics are simple, yet eye-catching, and the page gives information separate from the library's main site. Teens can also provide content for the site: specifically book reviews and submissions for the writing contest.

Although perhaps not the prettiest teen library site, The Zone definitely does the job, and offers appropriate information for users. Especially impressive are the extensive links provided, and the emphasis on the activities of the library's Teen Advisory Board.

Shojo Beat
November 2006
Viz Media
Age Range: 12+
Format: Magazine
Genre: Manga
Rating: 4/5


A great magazine for the manga lover in all of us (well, us girls anyway). Shojo Beat is concerned with manga dealing with themes of emotions, relationships, love, identity and the like. It has vastly different content than Shonen Jump (the action-packed boy's manga magazine), but very similar format. The bulk of the magazine is monthly installments of various manga titles, along with a preview of a new manga soon to hit stores. This month's issue previewed Punch, a story about Elle, the daughter of a wrestling champion and a boxer and granddaugther of a Muay Thai champion, who can't seem to hold a boyfriend because her fighter friends keep such good tabs on her. She's bound by a promise her grandfather made eons ago, and is therefore engaged to a guy she considers a brother. Wild circumstance ensues.

Aside from the actual manga supplements, this issue of Shojo Beat also includes suggestions on how to dress like your favourite manga character, includes new manga titles, gives the history of Japanese school uniforms, shows you how to draw manga, showcases reader artwork and offers tips on "how to get a guy the Shojo Beat way." These tips are actually dreadfully funny, and include dating a robot to make other guys jealous, pretending you're a male samurai, getting transported to a mystical world, and transferring to an upscale private school even though you're poor in order for guys to fall for your "goofy-yet-honest common ways." Brilliant!

Although a little on the girly side, Shojo Beat is a delightfully positive way for girls to engage in their reading, be creative and keep on top of the latest manga. If you have little to no money for comics/manga in your library, subscribing to Shojo Beat (and Shonen Jump for the boys) will at least keep the wolves at bay until you can scrape up enough cash to buy the popular paperbacks.

Konvicted
Akon
2006
Umvd Labels
Age Range:
Format: Audio Recording, Music
Genre: Hip Hop, R&B
Rating: 3.5/5



So... I'm gonna admit it right now:

I.
Actually.
Like.
This.

And now that that's out of the way...

Akon is well-timed, not a bad singer, has a cool tone to his voice, knows who to make friends with, and is strangely witty. Believe me, I'm as surprised as you are, but it's true. I've got a bop to the head, I wanna dance (and maybe even stop frontin'), and I actually want to hear this CD again.

Oh, and I'm a sucker for Snoop, so it's always a plus if you've got the D-O-Double G on your album!

Akon's got a pretty solid career for himself, I'm willing to bet, and deservedly so. He's good at what he does, and I can understand the huge wave of popularity. It's catchy, it's fun, it's not too-too in your face with the womanizing/misogynistic/glam stuff.

Well.. maybe it is pretty in your face with it. Snoop and Akon sing about "winding and grinding" and have a delightful video of beautiful women stradling chairs in pantyhose. At least they're curvy, though!

And.. what does "you know my pedigree" mean? Good God, do girls think like dog breeders? D-O-Double G breeders? Please someone let me know!

Hole in My Life
Gantos, J.
2004
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Age Range: 14+
Genre: Biography, Printz Honor Book, Robert F. Sibert Honor Book
Rating: 4.5/5



A really poor choice in late adolescence ripples through the rest of Jack Gantos' life; his decision to transport drugs for $10 000 in 1971 turns into a six year prison sentence that changes, well, everything.

Raw, candid, passionate, direct, funny and true in the way that only certain humans can be, Gantos writes of his past with none of the sickly sweet metaphors or annoying slap-you-in-the-face themes you'd expect from a memoir about drug trafficking and the ramifications of such activities. A book more about the function and beauty of writing, about finding your way in life, about screwing up and living to talk about how much it sucked and about how important the screw ups actually are to the development of your humanity. Gantos is stripped down, and writes beautifully about life, love, and most importantly, about writing. He talks about that feeling of having thoughts too big for your head, how strange it is to write in the same places his favourite writers once wrote, the importance of feeling your life, and how the path that leads you is sometimes misguided.

Make no mistake, this is a really good book. And has so much potential - not only for emphasizing multicultural materials, but also for encouraging teens to read biographies of people who aren't basketball stars, but who had to go through a whole lot of crap to get to where they are. And for a real-life, no-shit account of how the stuff that seems OK can really, really go bad. A lot of kids need to see this side of the story; not the glamorized drug lifestyle, and not the hard-hitting family living class textbook. But the stories of folks like Jack Gantos, who made wrong choices, paid for their mistakes, actually did come out learning a lesson, and have talent enough to write about it. No apologies, no crap, just you and Jack. It seriously feels like sitting down and talking to this guy. This guy who knows more than you, and who wants you to take whatever you will from his experiences. This guy who I would love to meet and talk with about Kerouac and Hemingway's house and, well, everything!

Step Up

2006

Fletcher, A. (Director)
USA

Touchstone Pictures

Age Range: 12+

Format: Video, Movie

Genre: Drama, Music, Dance

Rating: 2/5

Tyler, a hip-hop-bad-boy, Vanilla-Ice-wannabe from "the wrong side of the tracks" beats the shit out of a rich-kid arts school, so has to do community service as janitor amongst the pretty dancers and singers. And of course, falls for Nora, the prettiest and bestest of them all. They are thrown together out of happenstance to practice for Nora's final project (no one else can do it but the janitor??), and dramatic, frolicking romance ensues.

Yes.

I swear. It does indeed ensue.

Complete with loads and loads of dancing.

Although, somewhat enjoyable, in that "oh God, it hurts" kind of way. A movie for the S&M freak in all of us!

But, really.. what you want to hear is the real dirt! I figured I'd do something a little different this time 'round, and make J. (boyfriend extraordinaire/scathing critic) help me out a little. For what follows, I cannot be held accountable.

_________________________________________________

How Jamie Saw It:

In a toss up for worst movie in the entire universe, it’s a neck-in-neck race between Step Up and the movie I made in my grade 11 comp. tech. class (it was mostly just a film of our janitor, Mel, sweeping around the urinals).

I’m proud to say that I officially made the second worst movie in the universe.

It’s the age old tale of the poor guy from the wrong side of the tracks who through a twist of fate (and some sweet dance moves), meets and bags the rich girl from the right side of the tracks. Too bad the bloody train didn’t hit them.

I’ve actually ruined the plot for you though… well, not ruined, per say; it wasn’t really that much to begin with. Actually, I don’t even think it had a plot. It had characters, I know that. And they could dance, I know that too. And it had Brenda Chenowith from Six Feet Under, that part I recall. As an aside, she has ginormous boobies.

Sadly, this is how I will remember Step Up.

Rating: 0.5/5 (half-points for boobies)

Whole New Thing
2005
Buchbinder, A. (Director)
Canada
Acuity Pictures Production
Filmed in Nova Scotia
Age Range: 14+
Format: Video, Movie
Genre: Independent Film, Drama/Comedy
Rating: 3.5/5



Emerson, an androgynous, home-schooled thirteen year old is forced to attend junior high in the small-town school. Eloquent, intelligent and insightful, yet unskilled in young adult social graces, Emerson is, unsurprisingly, somewhat of an outsider. He falls in love with his English teacher, Mr. Grant, a man on the outside of the small town himself when he sees a kindred soul in the man. Through odd circumstance, Emerson, his parents and Mr. Grant all find peace within themselves and grow together in this odd coming-of-age story.

So, picture it: my boyfriend and I are at the movie store. I'm looking for "young adult" movies to rent to blog about, and I've been cautioned that only one dancing movie is acceptable under our newly fashioned relationship rules (in the car on the way). This does not give me many options. I somehow end up in the independent film section, and remember that, yeah, I used to watch weird little movies in high school - why not! So I choose Whole New Thing based solely on the fact that there's a young adult in it. I'm going to admit that I hardly even read the back. Shame on me.

But you know what? Delightfully surprised! This is one weird movie! But in such good ways! And as a bonus, it was filmed right here in good ol' Nova Scotia, and it's an award winner not only in Atlantic Canada, but also Internationally. I know that I would have probably enjoyed this film as a young adult, but I'm really doubting the mass-marketability of it to teens. I was, well.. weird. I liked weird music and weird books and weird movies and not in the "I hate everything that's mainstream" kind of way, just in the "God, she's dorky, eh?" kind of way. I adore Emerson's character; he's weird and ballsy and has his heart on his sleeve and doesn't really know how else to be. He's my kind of weird. There were scenes that made me a tad uncomfortable: Emerson tricks his teacher-crush into joining him in the sauna (although nothing happens), and Emerson is propositioned by none other than Ken from Street Cents (my childhood! OK.. it's just the guy that played him.. not really Ken), and it's a very intense, emotional and uncomfortable scene. But it's supposed to be.

A movie about small-town life, unhappiness, love, despair, poetry, sex, Shakespeare, inspiration and family, Whole New Thing was definitely worth the late charges!