A young lady moves to a remote rainy area in the United States and encounters a clan of Vampires and Werewolves, one of which she falls in love with.
General Information:
- Series: The Twilight Saga, Book 1 (Book 1)
- Price: $9.49
- Paperback: 544 pages
- Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (September 6, 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0316015849
- ISBN-13: 978-0316015844
Plot:
Twilight book 1 follows the story of a young high school girl who moves to the small and rainy town of Forks, Washington to live with her father as her mother remarries. Her name is Isabella (goes by Bella) and she meets and befriends a boy in new school named Edward Cullen who she ends up falling for in a romantic sense. While all of this happens she finds out that Cullen and his “siblings” are actually all vampires and shortly after gets saved from being crushed by a van by Edward. Bella is a little different from normal humans and this is expressed between her and Edward. Later on in the story there is another Vampire outside of the Cullens who gets a hint of Bella and wants her and almost succeeds in killing her before he decides to turn her into a Vampire. The Cullens however get there just in time and Edward manages to control himself enough to drain the toxic blood from Bella without killing her. That is the end of part one of a trilogy.
Evaluation:
Twilight part one is a fantasy novel that caters to the high school audience, in particular females. This book is all about teen angst and romance, however it does support many themes and messages throughout its storytelling which separates it from your cookie cutter vampire romance novel. It is a rather easy read with none of the writing being overly difficult to understand or get through. In the end it does extremely well in reaching its target audience and though it may not be for everyone it hits certain demographics extremely effectively which makes it an effective and worthwhile inclusion in any teen collection.
Reading and Interest Level:
Twilight is marketed for grades 10-12 and for ages 15 and up. I agree with this age group and later on in some of the challenges against the book I think some of the challenges come from younger readers reading this series prematurely or before they are ready to.
Bibliotherapeutic Value:
The bibliotherapeutic value of Twilight was something that I would have said did not exist years ago when the books (and the movies) had originally come out. However, now my perspective has changed (along with the fact I actually read the book) and I truly do believe that it is of value to its target audience. It touches upon the differences of desires and lust and our abilities to control them, it touches upon young romance and teen angst that comes with it within our high school years. It also touches upon having a dysfunctional family but overcoming it by finding new friends and making the most of the change (even if those friends happen to be vampires). Most importantly though it discusses the changes that happen in this time of our lives and the natural want to speed through everything or make life-altering decisions rashly and in this book they clearly explain the importance of patience and to slow down and think. This is shown repeatedly through Bella with issues such as premarital sex, turning into a vampire, marrying Edward, etc.
Issues Present:
The issues present within this book that are commonly presented through challenges levied against the book are the fact that it is sexually explicit, forces religious viewpoints, and is unsuited for the age group that it is being marketed for. All of these issues are rather common in books that are frequently challenged which makes it no surprise that Twilight is one of the most frequently challenged books.
Defending the Title:
Defenses for Twilights “issues” are relatively straight forward. The first two issues that come up quite frequently are contradictory in nature as the book clearly pushes no premarital sex, yet the first complaint tends to be about the books being sexually explicit. The books are considered sexually explicit in the regards to the high levels of sexual tension between the main characters Edward and Bella, however this sexual tension is nothing new to high school students where hormones tend to run wild and is a common occurrence. The second issue of it pushing religious viewpoints comes from the contradictory information of no premarital sex (though remember it is sexually explicit at the same time). This viewpoint has strong underlying themes though again this message though steeped in religious overtones is not openly advertising that you follow a certain religion (as many have no premarital sex as a rule) and in that regards is a relatively weak argument. The last issue that it is unsuited for the age group tends to be a catch all phrase and with the writing style and the subject matter the book supplies it is definitely within the parameters of the marketed age group.
Book Talk Idea:
The book talk idea that I have for Twilight would be the idea of following Bella’s growing interest with Edward Cullen as the more she interested she gets the more intertwined their lives become. This starts off really early within the novel when Bella first sees the Cullens in the High School Cafeteria sitting off alone with an odd aura about them in addition to being strikingly attractive. The pages that you can find this topic on are too numerous to count but some include: 25, 40, 59, 103, 148, 203, 264, etc. There is a lot of pages where they can pull information from which is part of the reason it is such a great book discussion as the amount of material and different viewpoints from everyone can play a great role in pushing the discussion.
Genre:
The genre of Twilight is Teen fiction, more specifically fantasy with sub themes of romance and supernatural. The main subject matter is the growing love interest between Bella (a human) and Edward (a vampire).
Similar Reads:
Author’s Website:
Awards Won:
Wisconsin Battle Of The Books Award Nominees 2005-06 (And Ongoing)
Tennessee Volunteer State Book Award Nominees Young Adult 2004-05 (And Ongoing)
Indiana Rosewater High School Book Award Nominees 2003-04 (And Ongoing)
Missouri Gateway Readers Book Award Nominees 2004-05 (And Ongoing)
Iowa High School Book Award Nominees 2004-05 (And Ongoing)
South Dakota Young Adult Reading Program 1998 (And Ongoing)
South Carolina Young Adult Book Award Nominees 1997-98 (And Ongoing)
Illinois Abraham Lincoln High School Book Award Nominees 2005 (And Ongoing)
Rhode Island Teen Book Award Winners 2004 (And Ongoing)
Nebraska Golden Sower Award Nominees Young Adult 2003-04 (And Ongoing)
Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Book Award Nominees Young Adult 2004-05
Illinois Abraham Lincoln High School Book Award Winners 2005 (And Ongoing)
Arizona Young Readers Book Award Winners 2004 (And Ongoing)
South Carolina Children’s Book Award Winners 2003-04 (And Ongoing)
Missouri Gateway Readers Book Award Winners 2003-04 (And Ongoing)
Tennessee Volunteer State Book Award Winners Young Adult 2004 (And Ongoing)
Iowa High School Book Award Winners 2004 (And Ongoing)
New Jersey Garden State Teen Book Awards 1998 (And Ongoing)
Washington Evergreen Young Adult Award Winners 2005 (And Ongoing)
Indiana Rosewater High School Book Award Winners 2005 (And Ongoing)
Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Book Award Winners (All Grades) 2003-04 (And Ongoing)
Nebraska Golden Sower Book Award Winners 2004 (And Ongoing)
Wisconsin Golden Archer Book Award Nominees 2003-04 (And Ongoing)
Wisconsin Golden Archer Book Award Winners 2005 (And Ongoing)
YALSA Teens Top Ten 2004 (And Ongoing)
Professional Reviews:
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/stephenie-meyer/twilight-7/
https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-316-16017-9
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/twilight-the-twilight-saga-book-1
Why did I choose to read this book?
I chose to read this book for this project based off of its overwhelming popularity. As I work in a popular materials library this book is checked out a lot even though it is now a relatively older book and all the movies have been released. I thought it would be prevalent to read this book as it is still frequently challenged. I also really disliked this book just to dislike it when I was in high school (thought it was just a typical romance book) though after reading it and studying different meanings of books through this class I learned a lot about the importance this book can have on its intended target audience. It was a much better read than anticipated and I truly do believe that it should have a spot on the shelf in most teen collections.
Librarianship 