The Director in the Classroom is a unique book/CD-ROM package that looks at the process of filmmaking and how it inspires learning in the classroom. Rather than focusing exclusively on the technology of digital video, author Nikos Theodosakis (a Canadian filmmaker) offers an in-depth analysis of the construction of visual storytelling. He explores both the 'how' and the 'why' of filmmaking, and its importance as a visual literacy tool promoting every aspect of 21st century learning. The book includes rubrics and detailed explanations of how the filmmaking process meets SCANS goals; the accompanying CD-ROM offers numerous production forms and checklists in PDF format, plus links to Web resources for filmmaking support. This is the best production handbook for teachers that we've seen!

An excellent complementary resource is Making Movies Make Sense, a hypertext introduction to the visual language of filmmaking for Grades 4 - 12, on one handy CD-ROM. Using easy-to-follow video/audio clips, photos, and text, it clearly explains camera, lighting, color, sound, and editing terms and techniques. It not only teaches the technical process of filmmaking, but presents the concepts fundamental to reading and breaking down movies as visual texts, using example and how-to clips featuring kids as actors and filmmakers. Created by media educators in Wales, it is available in the US exclusively from CML/GPN.

Books abound on gender stereotyping in the media but Sex, Love and Romance in the Media, by Mary-Lou Galician, PhD, provides a collection of 12 unique units critically analyzing the many myths and misperceptions about love and romance perpetuated by media—from sitcoms and soap operas to greeting cards, advertising and magazines. Using checklists, quizzes and creative wordplay (e.g. the "Stupid Cupid" Awards), the book, designed as a college text, would also be useful to high school teachers and counselors as well as youth ministers, coaches and adult mentors.

A companion reference for college and high school teachers is Tom Reichert's The Erotic History of Advertising—which, don't be fooled, is a scholarly but accessible review of sexually charged advertising from the 1880's to today. Well-illustrated with examples, he accompanies his history with incisive commentary on consumer responses, marketing strategies, and the consequences of sexy ads—and their subtext of stereotyping—on young audiences.

The three-video series Body Talk offers self-esteem and body dissatisfaction counseling to kids by teaching the Health at Every Size philosophy. Kids learn to love themselves, be proud of their natural bodies, eat well and exercise because it feels good and makes them happy and healthy. Each video features kids of diverse backgrounds honestly discussing their feelings about self-image, and the messages from media and society they get about body ideals. Body Talk 1: Teens Talk About Their Bodies features ages 12 and up; Body Talk 2: It's A New Language talks to ages 9-12; and Body Talk 3: My Special Body offers help to kids 6-9. Engaging, pithy films are perfect for use in classrooms, afterschool programs, or church/synagogue/mosque groups. Available separately or as a complete set. Facilitator's Guides included for each video.

In Deadly Persuasion: The Advertising of Alcohol & Tobacco, Jean Kilbourne, creator of the Killing Us Softly film series, looks at the ways the tobacco and alcohol industries use business tactics and manipulative advertising to keep Americans hooked on their dangerous products. Illustrated with hundreds of advertising examples, she makes a powerful argument that these industries know just what they're doing when they create and feed consumers' dependency on their products.

Spin the Bottle explores the role alcohol plays in college life, especially its increasingly documented abuse in 'binge drinking.' Kilbourne and media critic Jackson Katz examine the relationship between media, gender, and alcohol in a popular culture that glamorizes and normalizes excessive drinking, while campus health professionals comment on the impact of heavy drinking on the lives of students. Throughout the video, college kids address the issue honestly, describing both their own enjoyment of and the negative consequences of drinking on campus.

From talking drums and smoke signals to body language and telecommunications, Media and Communication is a lively large-graphic picture history of media for Grades 4-7. Not just a history of technology, the book covers advertising, mass marketing, news, and visual image interpretation, in addition to alphabets, printing, and electric/electronic communications. An excellent starting point for teaching critical thinking about the way media are constructed and manipulated. Engaging, accurate, and highly recommended for middle school classrooms, libraries, and home use, as well as use with ESL/limited language students.

Small but powerful, Meeting God in Virtual Reality: Using Spiritual Practices with Media offers a guide for those who want to do just that. Using six established Christian disciplines of prayer and study, authors Teresa Blythe and Daniel Wolpert offer accessible and inspiring instruction on how to combine media literacy and spiritual expression to find the divine in TV, film, music, video games, and the Internet. Full of examples and activities, it's a great resource for worship planners, spiritual directors, teachers at religious schools and afterschool or community programs, and any Christian interested in looking at media from a new perspective.

Media, Home, and Family provides a fascinating analysis of how parents make decisions regulating media use, and how their media practices relate to other aspects of contemporary family life. Based on more than three years of extensive ethnographic audience research, authors Stewart M. Hoover, Lynn Schofield Clark, and Diane F. Alters look at a broad cross-section of American homes to see how families define their identity, and how the media plays a significant role in that process. College text makes a very good backgrounder for counselors and administrators in schools, afterschool or community programs, and religious institutions, plus a great addition to any media library.

Updated: The New Media Monopoly revises and updates Ben Bagdikian's classic analysis of mass media and consolidated corporate control. Seven new chapters include a re-examination of the media industry, and a detailed look at the Internet and other new technologies. With all the media consolidation currently going on, this is a must-have reference for all in the media literacy field.