Twilight

Title: Twilight
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Publisher: Little, Brown and Co.
Copyright: 2005
ISBN: 9780316160179

Reading Level/Interest Age: Grades 9-12

Genre: Paranormal and Horror--Monsters--Vampires

Reader’s Annotation: Bella's sleepy new home town turns out to be more interesting than she thought--it's also home to a family of gorgeous vampires.

Plot Summary
When 17-year-old Bella’s mom moves to Florida with her new husband, Bella decides to try living with her dad. He’s the police chief of the tiny town of Forks, Washington, where it rains all year round. Bella is shy, but the kids at her new high school are friendly. One boy, though, won’t stop glaring at her. He is Edward Cullen, one of the five ethereal Cullen siblings. Some mystery surrounds them, and they hold themselves aloof from the other students. Fascinated by Edward’s beauty and intensity, Bella is determined to discover his secret. With the help of stories from a flirtatious Native American boy, Jacob, and following an amazing display of speed and strength by Edward, she learns that he and the other Cullens are vampires. Noble vampires, though—they feed only on animals. Edward admits that his staring was not hatred but attraction. (Bella’s blood smells irresistibly good to him.) Soon the two are mooning over each other, though Edward maintains that he can’t trust himself not to hurt Bella. The other Cullens somewhat grudgingly let Bella into their lives. All is well until another vampire pack comes into town and gets a whiff of Bella, forcing her to leave Forks immediately.

Critical Evaluation
Though I’ve seen the first three movies, Twilight is the only one of Meyers’s books I’ve read. I was put off by the amount of sighing the characters do. It seems that every time Edward and Bella speak their words are preceded or followed by “s/he sighed.” Though there are compelling elements in the story—the Cullen family’s history, the hatred between vampires and the local native people, the star-crossed lovers motif—there isn’t enough of it. A large percentage of the book’s 500+ pages is taken up with moony descriptions of Edward’s beauty and Bella’s feelings about him. The pacing is slow and the plot is thin. By the time the action finally kicks in, the book is almost over, and the resolution comes too quickly and easily. Furthermore, the main characters are boring. I found it hard to be interested in Bella’s thoughts because she has very little personality. What does she do for fun? What does she find funny? These questions go unanswered. The same is true of Edward. He may be beautiful and powerful, but he doesn’t have anything interesting to say. Though I’m not invested in these books, I consider myself “Team Jacob” because when Jacob and Bella are together they have actual conversations.

Curriculum Ties: N/A

Booktalking Ideas
Explain "star-crossed" love and why Edward and Bella's relationship is in this category.
Read Jacob's story about "the cold ones."

Challenge Issues: Sexual tension, mild violence

In the defense file, I will include my library's selection policy, ALA's Library Bill of Rights, ALA's guidelines on free access to libraries for minors (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries.cfm), and ALA's strategies and tips for dealing with challenges to library materials (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips/index.cfm). I will also include my library's reconsideration form, in case challenges to this book cannot be defused with "tea and sympathy." I'll include positive reviews from School Library Journal, Kliatt, and Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices and mixed reviews from Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, and The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Book.


About the Author

Stephenie Meyer's life changed dramatically on June 2, 2003. The stay-at-home mother of three young sons woke up from a dream featuring seemingly real characters that she could not get out of her head.

"Though I had a million things to do, I stayed in bed, thinking about the dream. Unwillingly, I eventually got up and did the immediate necessities, and then put everything that I possibly could on the back burner and sat down at the computer to write—something I hadn't done in so long that I wondered why I was bothering."

Meyer invented the plot during the day through swim lessons and potty training, and wrote it out late at night when the house was quiet. Three months later she finished her first novel, Twilight. With encouragement from her older sister (the only other person who knew she had written a book), Meyer submitted her manuscript to various literary agencies. Twilight was picked out of a slush pile at Writer's House and eventually made its way to the publishing company Little, Brown where everyone fell immediately in love with the gripping, star-crossed lovers.

Twilight was one of 2005's most talked about novels and within weeks of its release the book debuted at #5 on The New York Timesbestseller list. Among its many accolades, Twilight was named an "ALA Top Ten Books for Young Adults," an Amazon.com "Best Book of the Decade...So Far", and a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year.

The highly-anticipated sequel, New Moon, was released in September 2006, and spent more than 25 weeks at the #1 position on The New York Times bestseller list.

In 2007, Eclipse literally landed around the world and fans made the Twilight Saga a worldwide phenomenon! With midnight parties and vampire-themed proms the enthusiasm for the series continued to grow.

On May 6, 2008, Little, Brown and Company released The Host, Meyer's highly-anticipated novel for adults which debuted at #1 on The New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. The Host still remains a staple on the bestseller lists more than a year after its debut.

On August 2, 2008, the final book in the Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn was released at 12:01 midnight. Stephenie made another appearance on "Good Morning America" and was featured in many national media outlets, including Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, People Magazine and Variety. Stephenie headlined the Breaking Dawn Concert Series with Justin Furstenfeld (lead singer of Blue October) to celebrate the release in four major markets across the US. Breaking Dawn sold 1.3 million copies in its first 24 hours.

The Twilight movie, directed by Catherine Hardwicke and starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, was released on November 21, 2008. Twilight debuted at #1 at the box office with $70 million, making it the highest grossing opening weekend for a female director.

Stephenie lives in Arizona with her husband and three sons.

http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/bio.html

Why is this title included?
The first book in a wildly popular series, Twilight is bound to be in demand for some time to come.

Tantalize

Title: Tantalize
Author: Cynthia Leitich Smith
Publisher: Candlewick
Copyright: 2007
ISBN: 0763627917

Reading Level/Interest Age: Grades 9-12

Genre: Paranormal and Horror--Monsters--Vampires

Reader’s Annotation: Quincie's family restaurant needs a new chef and menu to go with its fresh vampire theme. But when she finds one she gets more than she bargained for.

Plot Summary
Quincie Morris is devoted to her family’s restaurant. Though she’s still in high school, she takes a lot of the responsibility for running it—she has to, since everyone who used to do the job is dead. Her parents died a few years before, and in the third chapter of the book her old family friend and chef, Vaggio, is brutally murdered in the kitchen. Only Quincie’s young uncle Davidson remains to care for the restaurant and her. Together, they’re planning a massive renovation and rebranding, changing the place from family-style Italian into a fine-dining vampire theme restaurant called Sanguini’s. The problem is that after Vaggio’s murder, no one sane wants the job of head chef. Eventually they find a suitable replacement in Johnson, whom Quincie takes to calling Bradley, a seemingly mild-mannered guy who at first cooks solid but uninspired Italian. Quincie takes on the job of prepping him for the role of the diabolical Vampire Chef while he works on designing the new menu. Meanwhile, Uncle Davidson’s creepy girlfriend Ruby wants the part, and Quincie is on the outs with her best friend/would-be boyfriend Kieren, a half-werewolf. People keep turning up dead, and more and more characters are revealed to be werepeople of various kinds. Quincie is developing a serious drinking problem, and Bradley/Johnson is turning out to be more than she can handle.

Critical Evaluation
Smith’s writing is engaging—funny, occasionally creepy, and sometimes sexy. Quincie has moments of originality and charm, as when she tastes a soup and thinks, “Blessed Mother of Minestrone.” The tone of the book is more campy than scary. After one gruesome murder Quincie chides, “ ‘You ate the police?!’ ” The settings, an affectionately described Austin, Texas and the realistically detailed restaurant, add a unique flavor.

Unfortunately, the characters are not as well fleshed out. The chapters are very short, and the dialog is routinely broken up by action, Quincie’s thoughts, and scene changes. The short bursts that remain are not enough to provide insight into the other characters. Motivations are often obscure or unrealistic. Ruby, for example, is a powerful werecat. Why would she be interested in dorky Uncle Davidson? And Uncle D himself, who’s always been a good guy, suddenly decides to let a vampire take seventeen-year-old Quincie as his bride. Similarly unclear are the rules of this fantasy world. The process by which vampires are created is never fully explained, and there are discrepancies in the time it takes people to turn.

The plot, too, stumbles. The fact that Bradley is a real vampire is obvious from early on. The ending is a headlong rush of revelations, though much important information is frustratingly left out. On two separate occasions Quincie and Bradley nearly have sex—or perhaps actually go through with it. It’s impossible to tell. Finally, there are several important plotlines left unresolved at the end.

Curriculum Ties: N/A

Booktalking Ideas: Read Sanguini's grand reopening menu.

Challenge Issues: Language, underage drinking, sexual content

In the defense file, I will include my library's selection policy, ALA's Library Bill of Rights, ALA's guidelines on free access to libraries for minors (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries.cfm), and ALA's strategies and tips for dealing with challenges to library materials (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips/index.cfm). I will also include my library's reconsideration form, in case challenges to this book cannot be defused with "tea and sympathy." I'll put in positive reviews from Booklist and The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, a mixed one from Kliatt, and a negative one from Children's Literature.

About the Author
New York Times best-selling and award-winning author Cynthia Leitich Smith writes fiction for everyone, but she has a particular affection for young readers, from kids to twenty-somethings. Cynthia's fiction is noted for its diversity, humor, lyricism, imaginativeness, compelling action, and mid-to-southwestern settings.

Cynthia was named one of three honored authors by “A Gathering of Readers,” an International Indigenous Youth Reading Celebration during the week of April 18-22, 2005.

Throughout summer/fall 2005, she was a visiting faculty member at the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program. She became a permanent faculty member in October 2005. Due to her heavy publishing schedule, Cynthia is currently on an extended leave from the faculty.

Her website at www.cynthialeitichsmith.com, offers articles, interviews, reading recommendations, publishing news, and annotated links. It was named one of the top 10 writer sites on the Internet by Writer's Digest, and it was recognized among "Great Sites for Kids" by the American Library Association in the "Authors/Illustrators" category.

Cynthia has worked as a popcorn popper and cashier in a movie theater, a waitress (in a Mexican chain restaurant, and at a country club restaurant and pool), an attendant at a gas station, a receptionist at a law firm, a telephone operator at a bank, a law clerk (for a legal aid, for a small firm, for a government agency, and for a federal appeals judge), and an English tutor for students of migrant farm families. She has also worked as a reporter (for small-town and big city newspapers) and in public relations (for a non-profit agency, for a greeting card company, and for an oil company). In addition, Cynthia has taught legal writing and writing for children and young adults.

Cynthia was born in Kansas City, Missouri. Her previous states of residence are: Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Michigan, and Oklahoma. She is a tribal member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.

Today, she lives in Austin, Texas, with her four cats and her husband, award-winning children's book author Greg Leitich Smith.

http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/CLS/about_cyn.html

Why is this title included?
Paranormal romance is a popular genre. Tantalize will appeal to fans of Twilight and/or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Peeps

Title: Peeps
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Publisher: Razorbill
Copyright: 2005
ISBN: 9781595140838

Reading Level/Interest Age: Grades 9-12

Genre: Paranormal and Horror--Monsters--Vampires

Reader’s Annotation: Cal has a mission: hunt down his ex-girlfriends, whom he's infected with a parasite that causes vampirism, then find the woman who gave it to him.

Plot Summary
Cal Thompson moved from Texas to Manhattan for college, and within days lost his virginity in a drunken stupor to a mysterious woman. She infected him with a terrible parasite--the parasite that causes vampirism. In fact, vampires are known in Cal's world--the shadowy Night Watch organization for which he now works--as "parasite positives" or "peeps." Westerfeld cleverly explains the legends surrounding vampires as resulting from the parasite's symptoms--anathema, or hatred of things loved before the time of infection, is the reason behind vampires' supposed aversion to crosses. The short even-numbered chapters tell the stories of real-life parasites, bolstering Westerfeld's case for the vampire parasite and sneaking lessons on evolution into this otherwise fluffy read.

Since his infection, Cal has become a hunter. He is a carrier, so he is immune to the worst of the parasite's effects--cannibalism and anathema--but he does have heightened senses, super strength, and unusually good reflexes. He also suffers from heightened horniness, since the parasite is sexually transmitted and he must not act on his desires. His mission is to hunt down the ex-girlfriends he unwittingly infected and then to find his "progenitor." In the course of tracking her, he becomes involved with an attractive college student, Lace, who is too interested and clever for her own good. Cal and Lace learn that there's a conspiracy afoot among New York's clannish old families and that there may be something worse than vampires lurking beneath the city streets.

Critical Evaluation
Westerfeld’s witty first-person narrative and the creepy mood of the novel keep the reader turning pages, but the plot gets bogged down with twists, revelations, and explanations in the final chapters. The engaging combination of humor and horror is established in the first chapter, when Cal finds his ex, Sarah, lurking in an abandoned building with a horde of rats and the skulls of her victims—yuck—and uses Elvis paraphernalia, Sarah’s former passion, to trap and subdue her. “I took advantage of my slow ascent to leave a few items from my backpack on the stairs. A sequined cape, a miniature blue Christmas tree, an album of Elvis Sings Gospel” (p. 5).

The science in this book is refreshingly solid. The chapters on real-life parasites are not for the weak of stomach, but are factual and surprisingly captivating. The vampire-parasite premise is convincingly explained. Coming up with a new take on the done-to-death vampire genre is an accomplishment in itself. Characterization is competent, but the characters aren’t especially memorable.

Problems arise as the climax nears. For the first several chapters the book seems to be on track to be a satisfying stand-alone novel, but it veers off toward the end into setup for a sequel (which has yet to appear). There are too many revelations in too short a time, so the story must be put on hold for explication. The creepy mood is undermined when it turns out that the bad guys aren’t really bad. The final revelation is not as scary as it should be after all the buildup, and the final confrontation is somewhat anticlimactic. Who needs monsters when you’ve already got parasites and vampires?

Curriculum Ties: Biology--parasites, evolution

Booktalking Ideas: Read one of the descriptions of real-life parasites. Icky but interesting and witty.

Challenge Issues: Occult content, mild sexual content
In the defense file, I will include my library's selection policy, ALA's Library Bill of Rights, ALA's guidelines on free access to libraries for minors (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries.cfm), and ALA's strategies and tips for dealing with challenges to library materials (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips/index.cfm). I will also include my library's reconsideration form, in case challenges to this book cannot be defused with "tea and sympathy." The reviews a will include come from Booklist (mixed), VOYA (negative), Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices (positive), and Kliatt (positive).

About the Author
Scott Westerfeld is me. I’m the author of eighteen novels. Five are for adults, and the other thirteen for young adults.

I’ve also been an occasional ghost writer, which is like driving someone else’s car really, really fast for lots of money. (I could tell you what famous authors I ghost-wrote for, but then I’d have to kill you. My name can be found on three Powerpuff Girl choose your own adventures, however.) In my artsy days, I wrote music for artsy downtown New York dancers, some of which can be found at the bottom of my video page.

I’m best known for my four sets of books for young adults. The most recent is the Leviathan trilogy. It’s a steampunk retelling of World War I, illustrated by the incomparable Keith Thompson. It features adventure, walking machines, and living airships!

My most famous works are those of the Uglies series, set in a future where cosmetic surgery is compulsory when you turn 16, making everyone beautiful. Of course, there are some people who want to keep their own faces . . . and that’s not okay with the government. The series consists of a trilogy—Uglies, Pretties and Specials—as well as a companion novel, Extras.

I was born in Texas, and split my time between New York City and Sydney, Australia. (I have more frequent flyer miles than you do.)

http://scottwesterfeld.com/about-the-author/

Why is this title included?
Westerfeld is a very popular YA author. Peeps is on the YALSA Best Books for Young Adults (2006), YALSA Teens' Top Ten (2006), and School Library Journal Best Books (2005) lists.