Twilight

Meyers, S. (2005). Twilight. New York, NY: Little, Brown, and Company.
ISBN-10: 0316160172

· Plot Summary
When Bella Swan's mother remarries, this time choosing a minor league baseball player, Bella decides to move back in with her father so that her mother can go on the road with her new husband. A lover of sun, and having been living in Phoenix, Bella is ill prepared for the cold, rain, and snow of Forks, Washington. As the new girl, she becomes immediately popular, but is more interested in the local Cullen family than anything else. This is especially true of Edward Cullen, with whom Bella has a tumultuous relationship at the onset, but with whom she falls in love by the end of this first installment of the teen series. Edward's secret, and the reason he cannot stay away from Bella are intertwined, the Cullens being a family of vegetarian vampires. Bella's mother is supposedly kidnapped by the leader of a gang of non vegetarian vampires that come to the area, and when the Cullens kill the leader to save Bella, it sets off a chain of events that will go through into the next novel.

· Critical Evaluation
Even as a teen novel, this one could have been much better with small additions to the content, and had Meyer's writing style been more developed. Instead, her writing is simplistic, and her heroine goes from being her mother's self-proclaimed guardian and protector, to someone that can barely think for herself.

· Reader’s Annotation
Not recommended for teens that might have self esteem issues. Bella is not a strong central character, and Edward comes across as something of a control freak/emo.

· Information about the author
Stephenie Meyer was one of five children, and born two days before Christmas of 1974, in Hartford, CT. Like Bella, however, she grew up in AZ, and attended Chaparral High School in Scottsdale. She received a B.A. in English from Brigham Young University in 1997, and is a member of the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints. She and her husband, Christian, have three sons.

The Twilight series was the result of a dream Meyer had about a girl in love with a vampire that thirsted for her blood. The dream would become something more, when Meyer's sister insisted she submit the draft she'd written in just under three months, to literary agents. Before becoming an author, Meyer had only ever worked as a receptionist, but for 2008 and 2009 could claim to be the biggest selling author worldwide. Time magazine named Meyer one of its "Most Influential People of 2008". Currently, two of the Twilight series novels have been made into films.

· Genre
Fantasy, Fiction

· Curriculum Ties
Popular Reads

· Booktalking Ideas

· Reading Level/Interest Age
Grades 8-9/Ages 15-16

· Challenge Issues
Some parents might have issues with the vampire content in the novel, as many of these types are deeply embedded with sex or sexual overtones. Meyers has intentionally stayed away from that type of material. I think more serious debate should be had over Bella as a heroine, a sixteen year old that loses her ability to think for herself, when a one hundred and seven year old vampire falls in love with her. Edward reads as more of a supplemental father figure to Bella's own father, Charlie, who is unused to having a teenage daughter in his house. This increases throughout the series, and problems such as actual mind control, possible near suicide attempts, teen pregnancy, etc enter into the books by the end.

· Why did you include this book in you’re the titles you selected?
I included this novel, because a friend gave me a gift certificate to a local bookstore, and I wanted to know if these novels would be suitable for my daughter at a later age.