Stars Dance

Stars Dance Album by Selena Gomez

           Another Disney Star with many followers known as ‘Selenators,’ has stepped out of the Disney spotlight and has grown up with her music in her latest album titled Stars Dance. Pursuing a more grown up look and vibe, is this at all appropriate for her listeners to be following. Her first solo album since breaking away from her band Selena Gomez and The Scene, Gomez admits artists like Britney Spears and Skrillex were the inspiration for her fourth album. Following with the trend in pop, dance and electronic music this album is about getting your dance on. The music video of Slow Down, features Gomez very grown up looking with her wardrobe and makeup while the setting of the video takes place at a dance club and along train tracks. Although the lyrics of speak of taking a relationship slowly rather than rushing into things.

            Although Selena has been praised for keeping somewhat of a good image with her tween followers, she has certainly grown up and is ready to leave her Disney days behind her. Her first solo album certainly seems to be a big step in the direction of taking on more of a sexual appeal than her previous albums and her on screen time with Disney. One thing that has set these Disney stars a part is they have this wholesome image while working on Disney channel shows but once they leave and try to grow up and look for work in more mature content, this leaves their fan base to look up to their new found identity. As we watch some of these stars grow up like Lindsay Lohan and Miley Cyrus, we see these kids not only struggle with identity and privacy but their fan base is influenced by the decisions they make on and off screen. As parents, this is something we don’t want our kids growing up with.   

Pretties

Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

In the highly anticipated sequel to Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies, Tally Youngblood finally undergoes cosmetic surgery to be a pretty. She finally has it all-she’s beautiful, popular, has a gorgeous boyfriend and wears truly awesome clothes, but something doesn’t seem right, something is mentally off and Tally is on a mission to find out what’s happened. Set in a dystopian future, where everyone is pretty, there’s a price for beauty. Once having undergone the surgery pretties are given brain lesions that leave them in a state of being perpetually lazy and living a life of luxury and high entertainment. Now that Tally is a pretty she forgets she has volunteered to take a drug that cures the legion. This epic sequel takes the reader on a journey that helps Tally remember what’s important and who she is and who her true friends are. In a twisted and engaging story, this is an interesting book that deals with our obsession with vanity and a celebrity like lifestyle.

                        A story that is definitely intended more for a young adult audience, I see more and more middle school aged girls reading this series. While the second book in the series deals with themes of popularity, fame, vanity obsession and the harm in them, I think it ultimately teaches young girls the importance of who you are and not being focused on reaching perfection when it comes to our appearance. An interesting approach to telling a story focused on the standards of beauty and reaching a state of perfection, I applaud this author and how he executes such a powerful message. While reading this book, I couldn’t help but think how many young girls (10, 11, 12 years old) request this book. It made me think about parental guidance in tween reading. Are they aware that the maturity and young adult fiction and tween fiction is significant? Do they care/not care what their children are reading? Should tweens be reading material that is too old for them? It’s certainly an interesting topic to discuss.

Jut Getting Started

Justin Bieber: Just Getting Started

A little old for Justin Bieber, the importance of keeping up with who (and what) is popular in the media plays an essential part in our kids world today, not knowing someone like Justin Bieber makes you sound like a fool to any middle school girl. Therefore seeking out material that focused on specific people and getting to know artists like Justin Bieber and other young pop stars and actors, it seemed like the way to go. In 2008 when Justin Bieber was discovered on YouTube by mega pop star, Usher, YouTube became the place to be discovered. He was talented, an instant heartthrob and it was the perfect time for entertainment to turn to the next big thing, Young Stars. What happened was our kids became obsessed with stars like Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus and knowing intimate details about their lives, creating a whole culture of the celebrity lifestyle and how to get it. Turning to juvenile biographies, Getting Started opened my eyes to how much the celebrity lifestyle has become of a part of the average American’s tween’s life. This book primarily focuses on Justin Bieber, his rise to fame and life on the road. In a nut shell, it’s expanding the brand ‘Justin Bieber’ and screams self promotion.

      A hundred years ago the American Dream was defined by immigrants coming to America to find a better life and doing whatever it took to provide a happier and healthier life than back at home. It meant time, effort and lots of hard work. In today’s culture and society, we continue to go school, get jobs and continue to become successful. But somehow within the last few decades, the American Dream and success is measured by fame, money and independence. Sure young kids look up to Justin Bieber as a talented artist, hot and a bad boy but he is no Benjamin Franklin, so how is this healthy for our kids to want to aspire to be people like Justin Bieber? This idea of fame and the role it plays in our children’s lives is an important topic to bring to the table. What we see on TV and the news is influential in a family’s home, it’s time to change, it’s time to consider that celebrity lifestyle isn’t the most important thing happening in the world.

Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar

The first novel in the Gossip Girl series by Cecily von Ziegesar was intentionally meant for a young adult audience but became huge and popular amongst preteen girls in middle school. A series that focuses on teen drama, the first novel titled Gossip Girl, inspired a hit television show that hit an audience that ranged from middle school to college aged girls. The first book focuses on the lives of privileged teenagers at an elite prep school for girls on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. While the story focuses on a group of best friends, the story is from the perspective of an anonymous gossip blogger. The structure of the story revolves around friendship, revenge and exploiting each other’s love lives. Being a part of the popular group, they can’t help but indulge in visiting the “Gossip Girl” site, where an anonymous blogger spreads rumors and gossip about the elite group of girls.

        Released in early 2002, the Gossip Girl franchise took off when the hit and popular show was created in 2007 staring Blake Lively and Leighton Meester among other famous actors. While self promotion seems to play a big theme in the books and television show, this is another story that focuses on fame, egotism and being the prettiest girl in school. Not exactly books we encourage our young girls to read, we can’t help but wonder why this style of young adult (and ‘tween’) fiction is so popular. Do we want our youth to be influenced by rich kids parading around and sleeping with each other’s boyfriends, exploring with drugs and alcohol. It’s the question of innocence, do we want to preserve the idea of ‘child innocence’ or is it time for them to learn about the reality of our culture and society? Is fame really that imperative to being successful in life? Is it healthy for our kids to fill their mind with the idea of fame, sex and self promotion?

Hannah Montana

Hannah Montana

            After perusing the Children’s Department at the local library, when I came across Hannah Montana I thought there couldn’t be a better show to evaluate and review.  Lucky for me I was able to find the first season of the series easily. One of the biggest and most influential series for “tween” aged girls. Every girl from second grade into early middle school at the school my mother taught was obsessed with the hit show starring Miley Cyrus. The basis of the show centers on Miley Stewart (portrayed by pop star Miley Cyrus) a teenage girl who leads a double life as a normal teenage girl and the pop sensation Hannah Montana. The show became an instant success and proceeded with three more seasons and is considered one of the Disney Channels greatest shows geared towards tween aged girls.

            Now for someone who has no younger siblings I didn’t know much about the show at all. In fact I thought the character of “Hannah Montana” was a dream or fantasy of the Miley Stewart. After watching the first few episodes, I was clearly in the wrong, Hannah Montana is an actual character as well as Miley Stewart. I was a little shocked to learn that within the very first couple episodes Miley’s two friends find out her true identity but are sworn to keep it secret until the right moment presents itself for Miley to share who she really is. Although, a famous pop star, Miley is a normal teenage girl facing normal day to day experiences. This is perhaps why there was such a huge following of the show, many young girls felt they could relate to this character. However the consequence with this show is the idea of wanting fame and the celebrity lifestyle. Very much of our culture focuses on the obsession to be famous, whatever that may mean. I only watched a few episodes of Hannah Montana, but I don’t know if this is show that should be encouraged for young girls to watch. Although the show addresses the normal lives, does it also promote the celebrity lifestyle and encourage young girls to focus on wanting fame and publicity? Maybe I’ll finish the series to see how this question is handled through the show!  

(images via pinterest)

The Golden Compass

The Golden Compass

Before watching The Golden Compass, I couldn’t help but do a little research on the background of the story.  Based on the British Series, His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass (the North America title) was originally released as Northern Skies in England in 1995. The Golden Compass was the first in the trilogy and was successful enough to be made into a hit movie starring Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Sam Elliot and Dakota Blue Richards as the young and adventurous Lyra Belacqua. Told as a fantasy novel, the story revolves around the young Lyra Belacqua and the journey she makes through time and space to save the ones she loves. It is beautiful coming of age story as Lyra travels through a series of parallel universes against the backdrop of adventurous and sometimes life threatening events, with friends, enemies and animal spirits.

            Having not read the book and only watching the film, the story was a bit confusing at times. Much of the story revolves around the powerful Magisterium (which is obvious it represents religion-specifically the Catholic Church?!)  The almighty Magisterium is looking to rid all tolerance and free thinking, therefore their mission to destroy all alethiometers, which is also known as a truth teller (what looks to us like a compass). We learn they have succeeded and have obliterated every compass except for one in which only one can read, precious little Lyra. Most of the story follows Lyra on an epic journey to find her friends who have been taken by the Gobblers and to save her Uncle. Throughout the story, we learn that everyone in this alternate world (that looks very similar to earth) has an animal spirit that walks along the side of humans. They are also referred to as daemons. Children’s daemons are able to change shape and form, while at a certain age an adult’s daemon, takes on its permanent form.

            Like any typical tween or young adult novel, it’s a story of a child growing up and finding who they are and what their voice is. In this case, we learn early on that Lyra is an orphan. Not growing up with a parent, Lyra is this young girl who is trying to make sense of the world around her despite her upbringing and little guidance. Most of the story focuses on Lyra being the only person who can read this compass and finding the confidence and pride she needs that she is the one who will save all these worlds from clashing and going to war with one another. This young girl is the protagonist of the story and will rise to become a leader and the voice of all the orphan children she must save in the first novel. I think this story is an excellent source of literature for young children, particularly to ‘tween’ age children, this is the age where children start to make sense of the world and their place in it.   

Smile

Smile

            The graphic novel, Smile by Raina Telgemeier is an excellent true story of growing up and going through the changes of life as a young adult. This graphic novel is based on the true events of the author going through her teen years and dealing with the struggles and embarrassment children are faced with orthodontia. It begins after a Girl Scouts Meeting when Raina is chasing her friend and trips and falls knocking her front teeth out, one completely falling out while the other is jammed up into her gum. Embarrassed and humiliated, the story spans four years, the crucial years of middle school and transitioning into high school. If orthodontia wasn’t her biggest problem in this novel, Raina grows up realizing her friends are bullies, facing rejection of boys and the ups and downs and the struggle of becoming a young adult.

            When it comes to reading at a young age, it is very common that children don’t find the pleasure of reading. They are being forced to read in school and at home, this is where I think graphic novels become a good thing. For children who don’t naturally pick up books and read for pleasure, Graphic Novels are a great way to get them to start reading. With illustration and graphics, it may be easier for kids to start taking interest in reading. Helping children find an interest and encouraging them to find graphic novels or comics is an easy way to fix that “I don’t want to read” phase for children and young adults. Finding stories like Smile, that deal with day to day life and struggles of being a young adult is certainly more entertaining to children who can relate to the story.

(images via pinterest)  

The Book Thief

The Book Thief

            A particular story, The Book Thief written by Markus Zusack is set in Nazi Germany and is told from the perspective of death who has a secret fascination with a little girl named Liesel. It begins in a small town right outside Munich where Death chronicles the life of many but focuses on the life of a peculiar little girl. An interesting approach at storytelling, Zusack does an fantastic job at telling the story from this particularly different point of view. The Book Thief starts with on a train looking in at a young and frightened girl who has a mother and a brother. On their way to live with foster parents, Liesel arrives at her new parents home with a brother who has passed away and never hearing from her mother again. On her way to her new family, her brother is buried and in shock of his death Liesel takes her first book, it is in fact a book on how to properly bury the dead. Throughout the story, Liesel’s book thievery is used in many ways to comfort her even though she knows she can barely read. In a world where death surrounds her and she must salute a dark power she doesn’t believe in, her books become her friends. It was a source of comfort, a piece of her brother that she would always have. Throughout the story, Liesel comes across many friends like Rudy and the Jew that is hiding in the basement of her foster parents home but through time the stories, the ones she kept and the one should write remain an important part of how she overcame so many hardships.

            This book received The Michael Printz Award and has been nominated for several others and remains to be a national best seller as well as recently being adapted for the big screen. Like most awards, the criteria is simply looking for literary excellence. Zusacks does an incredible job at painting an extremely visual story through his profound text in The Book Thief and is definitely a story that readers can remember in great detail. The profound use of death as the voice and narrator is an excellent source at grabbing the attention of the reader and the characters he creates are truly unforgettable. I think one of the reasons why this novel is so engaging, beloved and unforgettable is because it deals with a child’s experience during war time and her trying to make sense of the world and her place in it especially as an orphan living with parents who are not her birth parents. Although Liesel grows to love her foster parents and the friends she makes throughout her life, it’s really about her growing into a woman during an incredibly dark period in her own life and around her in a Nazi occupied village when she despises what Nazism stands for.    

(images via pinterest)