And now we come to what I believe is the most grievous problem with the Twilight series: the tween Twilight reader. The following is a real conversation I had with my 11 year old recently:
Susan: One of the girls in my class at church read Twilight.
Me: Hmmm. I see.
{Pause for dramatic affect}
Me: And how old is this girl?
Susan: I’m not sure. I think she’s ten.
Friends, Twilight is a YA novel. As in: Young Adult. Emphasis on the adult. The pre-teen reader is too young for the complex relationships, love triangles, make-out bedroom scenes, and Bella’s hot and heavy pursuit to bed her vampire boyfriend. Twilight is not for young kids.
I suspect my opinion is not the majority. Unfortunately, I think a lot of parents mistakenly believe that as long as their child is reading something, anything at all, then it’s better than nothing. We all want our kids to read. I get that. Remember how excited I was when Susan discovered the world of a page-turning novel? I love it that she loves to read.
But no way do I want her reading Twilight – or any other fiction with a heavy emphasis of sexual passion and pursuit – no matter how G-rated it is for a YA novel. And Twilight certainly is mild when it comes to those bedroom scenes. Twilight has nothing graphic that I can point to as evidence to say, “Ah-ha! See! Bella and Edward in bed with detailed description of fornication!!” No, there isn’t anything like that in the series.
And yet . . .
The problem isn’t so much what’s IN the book, it’s more who’s READING the book.
This is the problem with American culture; we expose our children too early to adult ideas, concepts they are not mature enough to handle. It’s in the music, television, movies, advertising, Internet, and books. Human anatomy and biology is fine, I’ve no problem with teaching our children how their bodies work, babies made. My concern is for the young reader being exposed to sexual desire, sexual passion. These are concepts our tweens need to hold off on until more mature.
Answer me this question: Why the rush to end childhood innocence?
Think about what the tween – the 9, 10, 11 and 12 year olds – are reading, and thinking about, if they read the Twilight series.
Bella’s continuous attempts to bed Edward – what does that teach the tween about dating relationships and sex?
What about Bella’s poor self-esteem?
And I shudder at the tween reading these books without any parental input. Bella is a horrible example for an impressionable tween girl.
What say you? Do you agree with my conclusions or am I way off the mark? Let’s discuss.
Up next: Final Twilight thoughts
