Teenagers & Adolescence

Leisure suits, big hair and the Bee Gees are just part of the draw of a new book, Bar Mitzvah Disco. With essays from Jonathan Safran Foer, Sarah Silverman and others, the book documents bar and bat mitzvahs from the 1970s through the '90s.

Paul Feig is the creator of the cult classic TV series Freaks and Geeks. His new book Superstud: Or How I Became a 24-Year-Old Virgin, is the follow-up to his 2002 book Kick Me: Adventures in Adolescence. Feig was an actor before moving on to writing for TV and film.

Writer, actor, lawyer Edwin John Wintle has written his first book, a memoir about what happened when his 13-year old niece came to live with him. His book is Breakfast with Tiffany: An Uncle's Memoir.

The new film from director Todd Solondz, Palindromes, begins with a funeral for Dawn Weiner, the memorable, much-maligned 11-year-old from the 1995 Solondz film Welcome to the Dollhouse. The main character of the new film is Dawn's cousin, but she's played by seven different and distinct actors.

Her new movie, which she wrote and directed, is The Ballad of Jack and Rose, starring Miller's husband, Daniel Day-Lewis, along with Camilla Belle and Catherine Keener. It's about an aging hippie father and his daughter who are living on an abandoned commune but come face-to-face with the contemporary world. Miller is the daughter of the legendary playwright Arthur Miller.

Miriam Toews has written her third book, A Complicated Kindness. One reviewer called it "a kind of Catcher in the Rye for Mennonite girls."

Film critic David Edelstein reviews Mean Girls. Saturday Night Live's Tina Fey wrote the screenplay, based on the book Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and other Realities of Adolescence.

The stage actress and acting coach died Wednesday at the age of 84. She taught for more than 40 years, training actors including Jack Lemmon, Sigourney Weaver, Matthew Broderick and the late Geraldine Page. She and her late husband, Herbert Berghof, founded the HB Studio in New York. This interview first aired Nov. 4, 1998.

His new novel is Screaming With the Cannibals. Maynard has been an assignment writer for Reader's Digest for over a decade. He's also written for many other magazines and newspapers. Screaming with the Cannibals is a sequel to his 1988 debut novel, Crum.

The Pernice Brothers' album, Yours, Mine & Ours, was one of the most acclaimed of 2003. Joe Pernice's new book, Meat is Murder, is part of a collection of short books inspired by music albums. The book's title comes from the album of the same name by The Smiths.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews Thirteen, starring Holly Hunter and Evan Rachel Wood.

Maureen Corrigan reviews Breaking Her Fall by Stephen Goodwin.

Shields died July 17, 2003, of breast cancer. She won a Pulitzer Prize for her best-selling novel The Stone Diaries. Her books are often about middle class people leading quiet lives. Her other novels include Larry's Party, which won Britain's Orange Prize, The Republic of Love and Swann: A Mystery. She also wrote a biography of Jane Austen as well as plays, poetry and story collections. In 1998 Shields was diagnosed with breast cancer. At the time of the interview, she was in stage 4, a late stage of the disease. Her most recent novel, Unless, was written after her diagnosis.

Film critic David Edelstein comments on the DVD release of Donnie Darko, starring Jake Gyllenhaal.

Filmmaker Burr Steers is making his feature film debut with Igby Goes Down which he wrote and directed. It's about a disaffected teenager from a well-heeled but financially strapped family.

Paul Feig is the creator of the now-defunct TV comedy series Freaks and Geeks. He's just written a new book Kick Me: Adventures in Adolescence (paperback, Three Rivers Press). Feig was an actor before moving on to writing for TV and film.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews Igby Goes Down.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews the new memoir, Teacher: The One Who Made the Difference (Random House) by Mark Edmundson.

Mexican film director Alfonso Cuaron. His new film Y Tu Mama Tambien is set in Mexico and is about two teenage boys and an 'older' woman who set out on a journey. The film has been described as a 'smart and sexy new road movie' and one that transcends the usual teen road-trip genre. Cuaron previously directed two Hollywood movies, A Little Princess, and Great Expectations.