Reading for Pleasure Middle School/High School: Twilight by Stephanie Meyers

Title:
Twilight

Bibliographic Information:
Meyer, S. (2005). Twilight. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

Weekly Requirement:
Reading for Pleasure Middle School/High School

Plot Description:
High school student Isabella "Bella" Swan reluctantly volunteers to move from sunny Phoenix to depressing and rainy Forks, Washington to live with her father Charlie. She thinks she will be miserable there but tries to make the best of the situation. On her first day of school she meets a handsome and mysterious boy named Edward Cullen and she is instantly attracted to him. He initially does not seem to return her feelings and seems to want nothing to do with her, but slowly they begin talking and Bella realizes he has unexplainable powers that only she seems to notice. Bella finds out he and his family are vampires and he tries to convince Bella to stay away from him for her own safety, but she refuses to leave him. Bella's life is put in jeopardy when they encounter another vampire who wants to hunt her down and kill her. Edward and his family must try to protect Bella and her loved ones before it is too late.


Quantitative Reading Level:
Lexile 720

Qualitative Reading Analysis:
The text is written in American English and told in the first person from Bella's point of view. The book is told in chronological order from the beginning of the story to the end, except for the preface which describes a later point in the book. It adds complexity to the text because it describes the moment when Bella is about to be hunted down, which foreshadows what will happen to her later. Another level of complexity is that readers will need some understanding of the American vampire stereotypes to understanding why Edward's vampire behavior is not all that Bella expected.


Content Area:
High School English Language Arts Reading Literature Grades 9-12

Maine Common Core Content Area Standard:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.3
Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.5
Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.3
Analyze the impact of the author's choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.5
Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.

Curriculum Suggestion:
This is a great option high school teachers can present to reluctant readers, especially those who love vampire stories. Teachers can also compare the romance in the book to a classic work like Pride and Prejudice, the book on which Twilight is loosely based. Teachers can also compare the role of vampires in Twilight to the role of vampires in the classic novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.

Series Information:
Twilight is the first of the four books in the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. The other three titles are New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn.