That Bites: 'Twilight' Series Ranks High on List of Books Criticized by Parents, Educators

The article states: "The "Twilight" series is sandwiched between the iconic tomes "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee and J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye," so it's not exactly in bad company."
Yes, and quite unfortunately! Don't attempt to compare the "Twilight" series to either of these books ever, please.

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i agree. the book is creative and clever, but not well written. it reads like a teen blog. still, i read the series. guilty pleasure : )

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Sadly, this has yet again come to light. I am a younger parent who has read all those "bad for you" books. I also read many so called "good for you" books as well. I must tell you that in English class after having to muddle through Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath where I had 2 different book marks, the one where we were SUPPOSED to be and the one where I actually was (10 chapters behind as it was sooooooooo boring) and then going onto Of Mice and Men or Romeo and Juliet I must say when a book catches the mind of a child, LET THEM READ THE DARN THING!!!!!!! Why force your opinion onto someone else's child when they have parents for that reason. I have read everything from Roots to No One Here Gets Out Alive (Jim Morrison's life story for those of you who don't know) and I find that when I am NOT forced to read something I like it better and when something is controversial then it's ALL the more better! I read the Harry Potter series when it got bad press but I must say I was only able to muddle through half a chapter of the first book of the Twilight Series as the vamps in this series are just not my cup of tea. I am proud of the fact that my daughter is an avid reader just like me and I will never tell her what she can or cannot read within reason. Keep your opinions to yourself and I will raise my child just fine on my own. Stepping off my soap box now and going back to reading my other vampire novels without the sparkly ones in them!

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My biggest problem with the "Twilight" series, other than the fact that my 18 year old daughter has shoved them so far down my throat I regularly sport a t-shirt which reads "...and Buffy staked Edward. The End!" is that Stephanie Myers has totally DESTROYED the Vampire Legend! Oh Come On! Vampires Simply DO NOT go out in the sunlight. They DO NOT show up on film (Bella's photo of Edward), they cannot reproduce sexually (which is not to say they cannot HAVE sex) and THEY ARE NOT SPARKLY! Simply sign me "Team Dracula!"

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I have read books ranging from Jane Austins classics to harlequin romances and I have to say this is ridiculous! Freedom of speech, freedom of press, hello?!?! The most ridiculous part of this is most of the women who are complaining about these books probably have Harlequin books with "soft Porn" in them and they have a problem with this because it teaches even if society believes you to be evil you can make the choice to be good? HMMMM idiots

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Love Love Love this series of books. It's entertainment, folks.

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The reason that these books should be banned is because there are parents like you who let their twelve year old children read the series. The fact is, a majority of parents are complacent about stopping their kids from reading trash. I know: my mom let me read Amber Brown. Now that I'm eighteen, I wish she would have forced me to read something more substantial so that I could have built up my vocabulary and my writing skills. Twilight is one such book. The mere fact that kids like it, certainly doesn't mean it's good for them. It's horrible! It teaches girls that having a perfect boyfriend is the only thing that's important. Bella basically throws out her entire life (notice how she doesn't go to college. How she marries Edward right out of high school so that she can sleep with him. How classy... not) for Edward. Is that really what we want our daughters to value??
If the schools want to ban it, I'm all for it. I've never been for banning books before. I'd normally be of the opinion that parents should have jurisdiction here. But if there are so many copies of this book being sold, someone needs to stop it. She ruined vampires, she can't write, and comparing her to Grapes of Wrath (which, I confess, I hated reading in high school) is just cruel. I would say that one could safely compare her to the likes of Meg Cabot.
Here's to you, all the people who can understand this.

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Here's my two cents:
Any thing that encourages children to read more, I'm on board. The Twilight books are not THAT badly written, and there is some decent vocabulary in there and a sophistication in language greater than that which I hear many high school-ers speaking, if you're looking properly. Anyone who speaks with words longer than that of the narrator is just trying to sound smart but in fact looks like an idiot (coming from a college-educated person with above-average vocab). People read stuff like this for the same reason they watch a movie--IT'S FUN! They read it for the story, not for how well-written it is. If anything, the Twilight books are not accountable for a dumber generation, but actually open youth to reading more, just like Harry Potter did and still does, and this is never a bad thing. This improves the ability to articulate thoughts more clearly, making better writers in the process.
Reading makes people smarter. Period. Reading more makes them even smarter.
And if someone thinks these books are a bad influence, he or she really need to disillusion themselves from their perception of adolescents. Teens have sex anyway, get over it. Bella makes questionable choices, sure, but I hardly believe this will cause young people to make bad choices in life; they find role models in actual people, not characters.

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I love to read and I graduated high school just as Twilighters were getting really rabid (including all of my best friends, sadly). I could never stomach them (sorry, the writing is just too atrocious) but I don't try and enforce my opinions. However, it's understandable that the books are challenged, since they glorify teenage pregnancy and Bella is the weakest female character I've seen in a while. Who wants to encourage their daughter to be a doormat for her boyfriend's emotional abuse, neglect and stalker-like tendencies? That's not an okay role model in my mind and I hope my cousins with young girls agree and ban them from their households. There are so many better books for that age group, many of which I still read even though I'm 20 because they are legitimately well written.

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it continually amazes me that some people complain about sexuality in the Twilight Saga books...obviously they have not read them...or they have very dirty minds! The books actually promote abstinence and waiting to consumate love until you are married. Edward and Bella's love is extremely chaste; they admit to their desires but Edward insists on waiting until they are husband and wife...and they do...the (limited) 'love scenes ' in Breaking Dawn are PG-13 (or perhaps PG-10) Nothing is graphic/explicit. Stephanie Meyers did a beautiful job of portraying a true love and great romance without any salaciousness at all.

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Don't ban books - ban book banners

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I think it is absolutely stupid that parents wish to ban the Twilight Saga. I am currently a junior in high school, and the only reason my friends read books is because of Twilight. It is sad, really, but at least now they like reading. I, on the other hand, have read Shakespeare's major works, Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, etc. But I have also read the Twilight Saga, the Vampire Diaries, the Hunger Games, all that "tween garbage" that parents seem to denounce. But FYI, a lot of those books are well-written and invoke an interest in reading for teenagers.
If parents want to blame someone for the fact that their young children are reading such "inappropriate things", they should blame themselves. These books (Twilight, the Vampire Diaries, etc) are marketed for TEENAGERS. People my age: 16 and up. They are letting their underage children read a book that is not marketed towards them and when the children pick up on something that they shouldn't, the parents blame the books. Parents should take responsibility for their children and allow them to read books appropriate for their age level only.
And I have one more thing to say: if parents think that Breaking Dawn was inappropriate, with its' topics of sexuality, they should check out this website called www.fanfiction.net. It is a website for people all around the world for people to send in stories about their favorite book, movie, video game, etc; and believe me these people are pretty imaginative when it comes to their favorite subjects.
I checked out the Twilight archive, and found that besides the 'G' and 'T' rated stories, lots of people had submitted 'M' rated stories. These are so graphic that when I read one, just one at random, I was so nauseated by the rampant sexuality that I fainted. And swore that I would never get married.
Oh, and guess what? There are no restrictions on the website, so if your child is literate, they can access these stories too!

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