Before our much-anticipated discussion of Twilight next week, I urge you to read "Bite Me! (Or Don't)," a feminist reading of the series done by Bitch Magazine (WARNING: the article covers all four books in the series, as well as Midnight Sun, so there are spoilers). It's an interesting article, but please do not take my agreement with certain criticisms of Twilight as any sort of call to arms to take the book out of our libraries. Instead, I suggest that Twilight can be used to open up a dialogue with teens to find out how they read the series. Young adults are capable of being critical readers, a fact that adults often forget, so it is unfair to assume that they read the books and suddenly their brain becomes semi-comatose while they wait for a vampire or other mythical (possibly less attractive) being to save them (I'm looking at you, Jacob). Whether you or I think the books are good or bad (or very bad) should not be the discussion. The point is that a lot of young adults connect with them and libraries have to use them to connect with teens.
(For the record, when I read Twilight, which was before I read the article, all I could think was, "We get it. She'll literally die if they have sex. Sex=death. That seems like a good alternative to reading this book.")
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