It pains me to choose Stephanie Meyer's Twilight books for this month's pick, as there is so much that I dislike about them, but there is no doubt that they are written in a compelling and talented way and that they have become the Harry Potter of preteen/young teen girl reading in the sense of encouraging kids to read big ol' humongous books. These books are about an idiotic teen girl who falls in love with a vampire who doesn't suck human blood. She also has a bit of a werewolf boyfriend on the side for awhile, who seems like a much more pleasant person than her over-controlling, bloodsucking beau...sort of. The worst thing about them is what my daughter calls the Little Mermaid Effect - the way the dumb girl is willing to give up everything for a guy. It's very vomit-inducing. That said, I couldn't put them down and neither could the Lone Star Girl.
9 comments:
I've avoided reading those books. I think I'll keep looking the other way even though they sound very entertaining.
found YOUR blog!
just linked to it from foggiest idea blog.
love, robin
Probably wise, Cloudscome. Hi, Robin!
My daughter is too young for these, thank goodness. I have a piece due out in the next issue of Skirt magazine. It's all about finding a good pop culture figure for my kid to latch onto. It is just soooo hard to strike a balance, isn't it? --yedwyn
Hey, Yedwyn! Definitely. For the little ones past two, I am content with Dora, Diego and Magic SchoolBus in reasonable doses, even if the first two get a little cloying at times, as far as TV goes. I much prefer Ramona and the characters we find in literature. I am a lot less strict with my almost-teen. We were extremely strict about media influences (absolutely no violence) up to the age of seven but have let up gradually since then. Since she can recognize and name that Little Mermaid Effect, I'm happy with how things are going. She's mainly into comic books rather than the mainstream pop culture icons, and she quickly points out sexism in comics, too, so I feel I've done my job with her. The little one is in her princess phase, though, so that is fairly sickening. I need to post about how that happened.
Ew, the princesses. You can see my take on them on MMO, title Girl + Bat = Happy. It's a pretty strong topic right now. You could write it up, flesh it out, and get it in print! Also, your older girl and "the little mermaid effect"? Now that belongs in print :-).
See ya over on Mamaphonic! --yedwyn
Oh, that was a great essay, yedwyn - you rock. My little princess started out as a Spiderman fan herself and still has lots of Spiderman toys and costumes, but her interest has definitely waned since abou the age of two and a half. She was then all about Dora and Diego until shortly after Christmas time when we entered the reign of the evil princesses. I blame my family. I'm sure that this, too, shall pass, however.
"vomit-inductin" YES. This is it exactly. I'm on book 2 and I can't put them down either. It's driving me nuts. I have such a vengeance on the main character, I'd be totally fine if she just up and got herself killed. Though I'm guessing since there's a book 3 and 4 that doesn't happen.
And beyond that it's badly written and has no real depth and if the author states how beautiful everyone is one more time...well I'll probably keep reading. *sigh*
inducing...I should type this early in the morning...
Post a Comment