You can't judge a book by its cover

Micaela is working on some scrapbooking pages of the Twilight Saga and in a store the other day, this TeenBeat-ish magazine caught my eye. Robert Patterson, a.k.a. Edward Cullen, was on the cover, and as I'm always one to enable a scrapbooker, I got it for her. It looked perfect for a 12-year old girl: Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, Camp Rock and kids from High School Musical were all on the cover. There were even 2 "Best Friend" bracelets inside.

I had a few minutes before I needed to pick the kids up from school and decided to page through the Bravo magazine. Along with the many pictures of the aforementioned teen stars, there were articles about how to do better in school and how to be a good friend. Then, I turned a page and the world came to a screeching halt.

There were two pages of questions and answers on how bodies change during puberty, but I thought the featured question from a 16-year-old boy on how he is on his third sex partner now and is wondering why it "takes her longer" was a little much. The answer gave him hints on how to make it better for her. Gulp! Wasn't expecting that based on the cover of the magazine!

Then, I turned the page and there was the "Bodycheck" section. This is the section of the magazine where two teenagers or young adults pose naked and answer revealing questions about themselves. Totally naked from head to knees. Hello!!

I ripped out those pages and after double checking through the rest of it, gave Micaela the magazine. It was another moment where I realized that you can't take anything for granted.

But that's not all! Twilight just opened here a few weeks ago and Micaela had seen it with some friends at the foreign language movie theater in Frankfurt last week. Twilight was also showing this week for just a few days in English at our local theater, so yesterday Micaela and I went. We have both read the books and Micaela is a fan, but me, not so much. I couldn't help but compare the series to Harry Potter (as it is often referred to as "the next Harry Potter"), and found these books lacking. In a big way. But I had heard that the movie was supposed to be good, so off we went.

Beforehand, there were previews for Bedtime Stories and Inkheart. The powers that be obviously knew what audience to expect for Twilight: kids.

Then came a 3-minute ad for the German Film Academy. The first minute or so featured short clips from classic German movies. The second minute or so featured nothing but sex scenes. Graphic sex scenes.

I just sat there in stunned silence. I should have expected it. The week before I had seen Will Smith's Seven Pounds with an English friend and they showed that same ad. My friend leaned over and said, "Can you believe that? What would I have said to my son if I had brought him?" I just could not believe it when they started up the ad before Twilight. I froze and prayed that it would be a tamer version of the ad for this audience. Of course, that hope was in vain.

When it was over, I felt like I had to say something, so I leaned over to Micaela and whispered, "Well, that was an education, wasn't it?" She just rolled her eyes.