Twilight

Bibliographic Info

Title: Twilight

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Publication Date: 2005

ISBN: 978-0-316-03837-9

Plot Summary

Seventeen-year-old Bella Swan has just moved from Phoenix to the tiny town of Forks, Washington.  She’s not looking forward to the constant rain, or to being the new kid in a high school with only 57 other kids in it.  What she doesn’t expect is to meet Edward, an impossibly handsome, impossibly strong, impossibly wealthy vampire, who, despite really wanting to suck her blood, becomes Bella’s impossibly devoted boyfriend.

Critical Evaluation

This book has massive appeal for a wide audience.  The plot is fairly tight.  The world and its rules are well drawn.  It’s also corny, sometimes morose, and Bella has an unfortunate tendency to think of herself as worthless, while Edward is perfect.  Still despite the shallow lure of being near extraordinarily beautiful, wealthy, smart, uh, beings through the medium of fiction, at heart there is that universal desire to be loved, as you are, and even if, apparently, you don’t deserve it.  This may account for part of the book’s popularity.

Reader’s Annotation

Bella’s just moved from Phoenix to Forks, Washington, population 3,000 something.  Things are looking grim until she meets Edward Cullen, dreamboat of epic proportions.  When she finds out he’s a vampire, she’s immersed in a fairy tale world where real wonders and real monsters play hand in hand.

Author Info

Stephenie Meyer was born on December 24, 1973 in Hartford, Connecticut.  She grew up in Phoenix, Arizona with five brothers and sisters.  She earned a BA in English at Brigham Young University.

Before writing Twilight, Meyer had never written so much as a short story.  She was a stay at home mom, who had once worked as a secretary.  Meyer claims to have received the idea for Twilight in a dream.  She wrote the novel in three months.

Meyer lives in Cave Creek, Arizona with her husband Christian Meyer and their three children.  A novella accompanying the Twilight series is set to be released in summer 2010.

Stephenie Meyer (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephenie_Meyer

Genre

Vampire Romance

Curriculum Ties

None

Book Talking Ideas

Discuss: Author Stephenie Meyer says that she got her idea for the Twilight book from a dream.  Have you ever had a dream that you thought would make a cool book or movie?

Reading Level

14+

Challenge Issues

Some might object to vampire stories, also Bella’s boy-obsession is unhealthy.

Challenge Responses

Active Listening

Refer to library’s collection policy

Provide complaint form

Refer to book reviews

Selection

A coworker gave me the book.