Customer Rating: 
Summary: It is a very educative book for teenagers who like popularity
Comment: I read this book in a college class. Although I am not a teenager, I think that teenagers in the class learned a lot. They learned things such as what to wear, how to spend their money when choosing what to wear, and how culture affect our life style.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Snapshot of American Pop Culture and You
Comment: MIRROR ON AMERICA is a text book composed of various essays examining the impact pop culture has upon modern American society. Some of the areas examined include fashion, marketing, television, movies, music, sports, fast food restaurants, theme parks, and the Internet. Various social issues are also examined including gender identity and self-image, race, and ethnic backgrounds. The essays are taken from a wide variety of sources including newspapers, magazines, popular journals, song lyrics, and websites. Most of the writings are quite short, between 2-3 pages, and are easy to understand.
The book is often used in introductory college lit classes as a way of introducing to students how to critically examine their culture and the media. Even though I read the book and found it very easy to read (I finished the entire book in 3 days), I think that it would work well for teaching students who haven't had many critical thinking classes before. I also think it would make a good text to use while teaching a high school media literacy class. Overall, though the book isn't spectacular, it does a decent job at doing what it was designed for.
Customer Rating:
Summary: good, but a bit simplistic
Comment: I considered using this book for the college freshman composition course that I teach. I decided against it, however, because the book lacks depth and the reading level is a bit too low. There are some good sample essays that make for fun out of class reading, but they don't really push the envelope. The study questions are high-school level, and the book is riddled with footnotes defining words that college students should already know. The result is patronizing and distracting. If I use this book, it would be for a class that focuses solely on pop culture and advertising issues, but it would still need to be supplemented with another text, other examples or just a lot of in-class discussion to go beyond the shallow treatments here. Also, many of the "hip" references are already woefully out of date for today's college freshman.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Textbook on American Culture
Comment: As a developmental compostion teacher, I have used this text for several years, and without question, the students have not only praised it, but strongly recommended it for future classes. That kind of praise has never happened to me with any other textbook. Students love the readings--they are lively, challenging, yet very pertinent to real issues and not watered-down versions of those controversies. Additionally, I love the readings because they blend real-life experiences and observations with real in-depth critical analysis, but still, at a level that is both accessible and challenging.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good Lit. Class Book
Comment: This book was used in my college English Lit. class to help students be more critic of things that they read, whether it be a textbook or a magazine article. Most of the essays in the book have major flaws. The one that I remember the best was written by Dick Clark and was about Elvis Presley. Clark makes the comment that Elvis didn't write his own songs, which is untrue (as blanket statements tend to be). Anyway, Elvis wrote at least 2 hits, one with Vera Matson (Love Me Tender) and another with Otis Blackwell (Don't Be Cruel).Though many of these essays are poorly written, this is a good textbook for developing with critical reading skills.
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