ESL middle aged parent need help on "twilight"

Parent Cafe
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<p>OK, I finished the first one, didn’t skim.
There are cell phones, but appeared as novelty item/ emergency purpose. Edward use it again a bit, afterward to let us know its there.
Wall full of CDs, stereo… super retro !! and VCR!! VCR to watch home movies!! The author thought about writing this book back in 2003. Were there VCR still around back then? Funny bit is the bad guy somehow set up TV and VCR in the place unless it was already there for unforeseen reasons! Evil Vampire carting and hooking up bulky appliances in the dance studio!! wuss!! Of course he voluntary tells every detail and kindly explains everything to the victim before going for kill, as legal villains always do.</p>

<p>Baseball!! a lot of it!! Phil plays minor league and Cullens play pick up game, like young Derek Jeeter’s family in Kalamazoo!! I’d hoped they would play quidditch or something.</p>

<p>They are still juniors but Bella has never been to Atlanta, Chicago nor NYC. No college visit trip, high profile summer courses, nothing, despite her familiarity of the airport by going to Forks every summer. </p>

<p>Not only Bella has one jacket but one skirt - long khaki drab. She washes her hair before going to bed and wake up as haystack-do.
She won’t leave her toothbrush in there because she shares one bathroom with her dad.</p>

<p>Is 20bucks cab ride something of extraordinary in Arizona circa 2003? You couldn’t get to Manhattan from none of NY airport with that much when I came here, like, 20years ago.</p>

<p>Of course there is the prom!!</p>

<p>Everything and anything seem pointing to how things must have been for the author (food, money, toothbrush) and never had been but dreamed about, wished for (boys, date, Cullens’ wealth- cars! mansion! ball gowns!! ) </p>

<p>For sexy bit, Edward asked if Bella is a virgin, well, indirectly. Bella imagined trapped in a hotel room with Edward would be a heaven… I totally dig if you are a stay at home mom with young children, how much of catalysis it was to write this amongst pacifires, training diapers and mounds of laundry.
Now as a reward, she got no worry sending those offsprings to any colleges they want with cell phone, ipod, tuxido/gown volvo a piece.
I know I know I am jealous.</p>

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<p>Love the book report! Here are some comments for you:</p>

<p>“I’d hoped they would play quidditch or something.”</p>

<p>Too true! I think that this is to show how very normal they are despite being vampires.</p>

<p>"VCR to watch home movies!! The author thought about writing this book back in 2003. Were there VCR still around back then? "</p>

<p>We have a VCR. Happykid was watching old Pokemon videos with it last weekend. As far as I know, all of her friends (like all of her cousins) still have VCRs. But I’m with you that it makes no sense for the bad guy to drag all that stuff to the dance studio. Even if he was an evil genius.</p>

<p>“They are still juniors but Bella has never been to Atlanta, Chicago nor NYC. No college visit trip, high profile summer courses, nothing, despite her familiarity of the airport by going to Forks every summer.”</p>

<p>These are normal kids. Normal kids spend their vacations visiting family and hanging out. They barely think about a college list until about October of their senior year. They think about boys and girls and cars and prom and how to get out of cleaning their rooms. If they visit Chicago or Atlanta or DC or New York City it is with a once-in-a-lifetime school trip or for a band competition. Half of the kids I grew up with never got farther than two hours from home until they went to college or were drafted. The young people that you meet here at CC are only one peculiar sub-set of American teenager-hood. </p>

<p>For more fun reading about American teenagers, try “Dairy Queen” by Catherine Gilbert Murdock. Nice regional flavor, good look at rural America, not as wildly popular as Twilight, and not as depressing as a lot of other teen-lit.</p>

<p>Other ideas for your book-gift list include anything by Richard Peck and the series starting with “Sorcery and Cecilia or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot” by Patricia Wrede and Carolyn Stevermer. Happykid likes all of this stuff too - way more than “Twilight”.</p>

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<p>Happymon
I just bought books from Amazon, took your word and picked the princess diaries. I had to do it now to make delivery without spending extra dollars for the shipping.
I trust you.
OK OK I could have checked it out from the library and read it myself before sending but I am too busy with new moon right now.</p>

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<p>Drafted!
My heart goes to everyone everything to do with that word, I would not have related if I did not come here.
Honestly, not because I wish I were Natalie Portman but it kills me to think while I was worrying about what to have for dinner, kids dad moms are hurt, dead, damaged in somewhere so I could cook dinner in peace. Thank you</p>

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<p>I have done four books.
The last one was the riot.
After five years since book1, technology now reached there, daily cell phone use by hoodlum and Edward gave his infant/toddler daughter MP3 thing for her first christmas.
Finally some mention of current world issues and the weapon of mass destruction, well, not exactly how the evil emperor-star wars-sh guy said it but yeah, as I was wondering if Carlisle decided to come clean and ask US force to step in, couple dozen foreign mass murdering criminals could be squashed like the Tennamon Squaresque.
How in the world did they all get there? ( the baseball field, of course) swam and run while wearing ridiculous cloak, is that why it took like a month from when Alice saw the vision, to gave ample time for Bella to gain super power and all that?
The copy I read was from the public library and someone penciled in words “to” and " the" where it were missing from the sentences, also circled the word “cereal bowl” that Charlie was staring after Bella supposedly served him pancakes, “duffel bag” where Bella was to be packing tiny backpack, “chicken coop” with a big question mark in the Esme’s vacation house since the word seems came out of nowhere.
It must have been total rush delivery and rapid growth for the author, editor, rep, publisher, whoever involved in this endeavor as much as the way Bella carried her daughter.<br>
End note, the author knows the human pain of pregnancy and giving birth, and the joy that come with it. At least she did write what she knows here, and yes, about the tooth brush in the toiletry pouch that is long gone for Mrs. Cullen with wad of cash. I almost liked Bella in the end.
Wish I were somewhere in between dreamy unpopular pre teen to sexless childless clueless youngish adult. This could have been my “To kill a mockingbird”.
Thank you all, thank you USA. I now have strength to get up and go do honest day’s work.</p>

<p>PS. the six grader I was worrying about had already read them and loved it, so I heard. Gawk.</p>

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<p>“PS. the six grader I was worrying about had already read them and loved it, so I heard. Gawk.”</p>

<p>Gawk indeed.</p>

<p>Thanks for the final book review!</p>

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<p>bears and dogs, your review made me laugh, especially the part about the editing done in your library copy. And I salute you: I only made it through a book and a half before I couldn’t take it anymore. My 6th grader, however, has read them all. Twice.</p>

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<p>means you are normal.
I do not know why I did but it sure made ice breaker for boring holiday openhouses, naturally taking reaction surveys in age groups/genders/ life styles/education levels.
We laughed rolling together with teen girls I barely knew pointing out the cheesiest bits.
" Then Bella goes, like, “he is … gooonneee…” Book 2 (and the movie- I got to do that, too, I haven’t seen any)</p>

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<p>My 18 yr old daughter read the first two or three after listening to fellow camp counselors and their charges talk about it all summer.</p>

<p>She had no desire to see the movie though and hasn’t read other similarly themed books.
A friend of mine read them, to see what her 16 yr old was reading and was sucked in despite saying that they had a very bad message for girls/ young women.
Not empowering at all, but the opposite.</p>

<p>There are so manyother books for middle school kids that are fun yet without the messages in this series, that if I had a 6th grader who was reading them I would follow it up withlots of Anne of Green Gables, Madeline l’Engle and Tamora Pierce.</p>

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<p>One quite otherwise well read (or should say well AP lit-ed) respected teen poster was obsessed over Tamora Pierce and made fun of by other kids in some forum which I followed. It went on and on and I was mildly intrigued to look into her book then saw the author’s photo in some website and gotten scared, like, " I don ever wanna know what HER fantasy is… yikes!! "
Stephenie Meyer is scary in her own way with the clay make up and the props (pillows, the couch, the draperies that seems in her wad of cash-ed living room)
Once middle aged biased and twisted, it is hard to reclaim innocence enough to appreciate teen lit.</p>

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<p>?^^^^^?
I just googles her bio on her site & Ms Pierce looks like a Sunday school teacher.
Although I understand that could seem a bit terrifying in some circles. ;)</p>

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<p>thank you for understanding.
Brrrrh (chill)</p>