BAM!

Educated

TARA WESTOVER

GENRE: MEMOIR

RATING: 9/10

RATING: 16+, THIS BOOK HAS GRAPHIC VIOLENCE AND ABUSE.

Uneducated is raw, vulnerable, and honest. Tara Westover shares her story of triumph over the trauma and abuse of growing up isolated and alone in the mountains of Idaho in a family of extremists and survivalists. Despite the challenges of her circumstances, she finds the will and a way to rise above and triumph. Despite never having a formal education, Tara teaches herself and eventually studies at Bringham Young University, Harvard, and Cambridge. Not for the faint of heart, Educated is a brave memoir that focuses on hope, resilience, and determination.

REVIEW BY ANN MARIE LUCE

Sex Education

NETFLIX

GENRE: DRAMEDY

RATING: 8.5/10

TV-MA 17+, CONTAINS SEXUAL CONTENT AND DISCUSSIONS OF SEX RELATED TOPICS

In the third season of Sex Education, viewers are asked to consider the concept of trust through the experiences of teenagers in a British secondary school. However, as the show’s tagline states, “Experience is overrated.”

Sex Education (Netflix) was created by Laurie Nunn and is meant to be an homage to 80’s John Hughes films. Although it is set in England, the show’s creators intentionally use American high school imagery such as lockers and letterman jackets to engage international audiences and evoke films such as The Breakfast Club.

Each episode of the show starts with a scene that is intimate or relationship oriented. Netflix recently followed HBO’s lead and hired an intimacy coordinator to make sure all actors felt safe and comfortable while rehearsing and filming intimate scenes. This was a significant way to set the stage for the character’s experiences with trust this season. For example, there are myriad ways that trust can break down in relationships and these are portrayed in

School House Rock! Rocks

VARIOUS ARTISTS

GENRE: RANGE

RATING: 10/10

I loved listening to this album. All the songs were based on School House Rock! Songs. My favorite track of course was “I’m Just a Bill” by Deluxx Folk Implosion, a band that I had never heard of but I might check out later thanks to this album.

This album spans several different genres from rap to electronic making it an eclectic album. The artists featured in this album include: Better Than Ezra, Bix Markie, Blind Melon, Buffalo Tom, Chavez, Daniel Johnston, Goodness, Man Or Astro-Man?, Moby, Pavement, Skee-Lo, The Lemonheads, and Ween.

While not all the tracks are on Spotify you can track most of them down on Youtube or Sound Cloud. “Tale of Mr. Morton” by Skee-Lo is a bop that I will add to my homework playlist.

REVIEW BY JAMES THORNBURG

obvious and subtle ways. The usual examples of cheating abound: Otis breaks Ola’s by kissing Maeve, Isaac breaks Maeve’s trust by deleting the voicemail message in which Otis professes his love, Otis’ mother Jean breaks her boyfriend Jakob’s trust with a tryst with her ex-husband, Eric breaks Adam’s trust by cheating with a random dude in a Nigerian dance club.

A less obvious example of the importance of trust is what happens now that the school has shut down Otis and Maeve’s sex education clinic. Previously, his clients trusted Otis’ discretion when they came to him for relationship and sex advice, which is why they felt safe and comfortable seeking education. However, when Jean was the educator, she wrote notes in her journal, which were then stolen and copies plastered around the school. This is a good example of the showrunners created understanding of their audience. The model that Otis and Maeve had worked for their clients in their community. Adults judged that model, but it backfired, a strong reminder that the reason Maeve and Otis’ advice was helpful to clients was primarily that it met clients where they were - literally and figuratively.

Another complex but well-executed storyline plays out as Maeve is forced to break her mother’s trust by reporting her to child protection services because her mother has relapsed. Later, her mother shows that she trusts Maeve more than herself when she hands her child over to her for the child’s own safety. Similarly, Maureen trusts herself and her new identity when she turns down her estranged husband’s pleas to get back together.

All in all, this was a thoughtful and wellconceived season for Sex Education that raises many important issues.

REVIEW BY MAYA CRSOBY