In the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie a boy named Junior narrates his experience living on a reservation. The book starts by explaining some background information about Junior: He has a sister, loves to draw cartoons, plays basketball, and was born with “water in my brain,” so he has to
We invite you to read these Media reviews by teen writers for current and recent issues of KidSpirit Magazine, and welcome teen writers and readers around the world to submit their reviews to us!
Stealing Childhoods One Student at a Time Review of Race to Nowhere
The United States is currently faced with a great educational crisis. With the public school system plummeting, never before has our nation experienced such a fraught issue. Students are lost in a whirlwind of perplexing teachings and inadequate educational theories. Vicki Abeles’s 2009 film, Race To Nowhere makes an attempt to answer the baffling question
- March 5, 2012
- Comments (1)
- A Lens on Learning
-
Good and Evil in the Harry Potter Series
I’ve been a fan of the Harry Potter series for years. I’ve read each book over 30 times, and I’ve read a handful of them in Spanish as well. I was Dumbledore for Halloween one year and Hermione for another two. I’ve gone to the midnight premieres and I’ve joined a number of fan sites,
- February 13, 2012
- Comments (2)
- Ethics and Morality
-
A Look at Life Through the Paparazzi
Teenage Paparazzo, directed by Adrian Grenier, is a documentary that follows a young boy who has taken up the strange (for his age) profession of being a paparazzo. His name is Austin Visschedyk and when he starts his paparazzi work he is only 14. Through the film we see signs that he is a shallow,
- December 5, 2011
- Comments (5)
- Ethics and Morality
-
A Review of Inception: The Obscurity of Dreaming
Inception is a sci-fi, action, drama, thriller, suspense, fantasy, and mystery all in one. It is about a man, Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), who possesses the power to enter other people’s dreams. He and his team are sent on a mission to implant an idea into someone’s mind. This assignment, if it is successful, is
- November 15, 2011
- Comment
- Creativity and Imagination
-
Wish Upon a Time, The Legendary Scimitar: A Review
Eyelash is the protagonist in Nabila Jamshed’s first fantasy novel, Wish Upon a Time: The Legendry Scimitar. She is a fifteen-year-old who is described as having an “audacious eye for what was not meant to be seen” and as “the girl with a crazy sense of humor and a profound sense of peace.” Overall, she
- September 12, 2011
- Comments (1)
- Creativity and Imagination
-
A Review of: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a comic science fiction novel about the intergalactic adventures of two humans from Earth: Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect. This novel is the first in a series written by Douglas Adams. It was an adaptation of a radio comedy broadcast by Adams on the BBC and was later
- August 15, 2011
- Comment
- Exploring Humor
-
It’s Kind of a Funny Story Book Review
It’s Kind of a Funny Story is definitely a funny story. The novel follows the life of a clinically depressed teenager, Craig Gilner. He is under the pressure of an exclusive, demanding school in Manhattan, not-so-great friends and the ongoing sensation that he is a failure. You might think it would be depressing to read
- June 6, 2011
- Comment
- Exploring Humor
-
Review of Life of Pi: An Adventure Story about Adventure Stories
The four pages of blurbs in my paperback copy of Life of Pi, a novel by Yann Martel, though all adoring of the book, give scattered, bewildered, and generally unhelpful impressions of what it is actually about. The New Yorker calls it “an impassioned defense of zoos;” the Wall Street Journal likens it to “comic
Finding Peace in Yoga
The Yoga video Shanti Generation for Youth Peacemakers is relaxing, helpful, and a good tool for relieving stress. The video’s “main menu” has five separate choices, three of which are designed to help you relax and learn how to do yoga, and the fifth being “special features.” The first choice “Library of Poses” is, in
- March 7, 2011
- Comment
- The International Issue: Conflict and Peacemakers
-
