Skip to main content

The Twilight Hype


I have not talked to too many teen girls in school who have not seen the Twilight movie. Even my high school son saw the movie with his girlfriend and she was watching it for the second time. She is reading the books, however, and he is adamantly NOT.

Do movies like this help to encourage reading? I must admit that I have a list of students that are waiting for my Twilight series and they include both girls and guys. But after Twilight, like the Harry Potter books, the books tend to grow in size. These books with their black covers have been mistaken for Bibles. They are not light reading. I finished four of them in a week, but I didn't sleep much. Still, if kids are reading, it's a good sign, even if I REFUSE to pay $9.50 to watch the movie, I do like that it gets kids to read.

My true test of a book's worth is whether or not it gets stolen from my classroom. New Moon has already been stolen from my classroom. Other books that were stolen in the past: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Saturday Night at Pahala Theatre by Lois Ann Yamanaka, Tattoo by Chris McKinney and my original hard cover of Twilight that I purchased in 2005 when it was sitting on my book shelf and collecting dust until last year. I think for three years I had only 2 girls read it, and once the fourth one was about to be published, it became a hot commodity. Love the power of author sites like Stephanie Meyer.comas well as fan sites, author tours and big bookstore hoopla.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
I will have to support your thesis that the best books are the ones that are stolen from the class library...over, and over again. I am sure that the kids don't really mean to steal the books but they get go into them and then they forget to return the books. I am wondering how many of my books are sitting in other people's houses with my name/address label on the cover of the book? It is a small price to pay if the kids read the book.
December 12, 2008 at 2:06 PM
Cathy Ikeda said…
Yes, I don't think it's ever on purpose, except for the student that was trying to sell my books on eBay. If they take the book, they needed the text to be in their life more than I needed to have the book in my possession. I just have to get another copy.
December 12, 2008 at 2:20 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kino (an indigenous logic model): post 1 of 4

Passion I have. What I need is to practice my elevator speeches, those short informative program synopses that can be done in the time it takes to ride the elevator.  Of course it will take me 4 posts. Post 1: The honua: building on solid ground The Alana culture-based education course is graphically depicted by the above logic model. The honua (green box), the earth, represents the mo'ok ūauhau, the geneology of this program that informs and guides the building of this course. Dr. Shawn Kanaʻiaupuni and her team lay the foundation for culture-based education (CBE) modeling and immersion within the course. Dr. Walter Kahumoku and Keiki Kawaiʻaeʻa, in consultation with Dr. Bernice McCarthy (4Mat) bring to the geneology the work of moenahā, a curriculum planning concept based on the way kupuna taught. Makawalu, literally eight eyes, is a concept practiced by Kaʻimipono Kaiwi and her teachers at Kamehameha Kapālama to encourage multiple perspectives in the standards-b...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Last Teacher

  6/4/24 Anna's last day was Friday, May 31, 2024 She collected all of her gifts and notes from her students Took pictures with her seniors who she had as freshmen four years ago Turned in her keys and walked away from her Georgia classroom made up of predominantly  black and brown students  who needed her to stay. She is not (really) leaving because of the constant shift of politics/policies/procedures of her school district She survived that. She is not (really) leaving because she suddenly lost her colleague and mentor last year, her marigold. She survived that. She is not (really) leaving because of the overwhelming needs of her students  Who continue to need her even after they have left her class.  She did this tearfully because she was both too empty and too full to stay another year. She is going to graduate school for counseling in the fall Her next dream is to do horse therapy for children and young adults. She sees this as a failure on her part. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Battle of the Sexes

Ok, it's not a battle, but after being married for 20 years, I realize that there are some things that fall into the "mom's job" category, and there are some things that are strictly dad's domain. Mom's job is to find things. For 20 years I have lived in a male dominant household. The fact that the majority of the toilet seats in my house remain in the down position is a testament of the power of the one and only alpha female. However, what I can't do is teach my children (and my husband) how to do what I call "mom looking" versus "man looking." I don't need to explain this for the moms. They know exactly what I'm talking about. The guys are slower to catch on. I'll type s-l-o-w-l-y. Here's a typical "man looking" conversation: "mom! (or Cat!), where's the ______ (insert anything from socks to the car)?" "It's in the _________ (insert my instructions like refrigerator, garage, o...
3 comments
Read more