I'm almost finished with Eclipse. :) And I am forever interested in vampire "myth and lore". I bought the new Lost Boys dvd recently.

Even though the books are intended for a younger audience, I've enjoyed them. You just have to accept them for what they are and go with it. I think they're fun.

yep, I agree Dawn - you will have fun when your boys get to this stage - as you will enjoy reading and chatting about the same books. Will and I had a blast reading the Harry Potter Series simultaneously, too. When he gets ahead of me, it kills him to keep secrets - LOL.

I read 'Silence of the Lambs' with my kid heh heh sick mom

Any other good vampire stuff out there? I'm tapped out on Anne Rice. I'll look at the Twilight series. I thought it was mostly for girls.

Hey Jessy? Want to read a parody of Twilight?
(Those who are big fans of Twilight may not be appreciative since the parody takes aim at the writing style of the Twilight author.)

Also, have you read The Historian? That might soothe the vampiric longing. I didn't read it (print was too small) but DH liked it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Xlormp - a parody

Bookmarked, Renee - and forwarded to the household adolescents.

Check out Christopher Moore's 'Bloodsucking Fiends' and sequel 'You Suck'. Light irreverant vampire reading. Good for older teens and up.

I got 1/3 into The Historian (headed for the big screen?) - just stuck it into my car to return to a friend - maybe I'll try it again. Too draggy.

The Historian isn't so bad if you skip all of the descriptions - they were a bit overdone. I can't get in to Twilight, although I took my daughters and two of their friends to the midnight prom book release.

I read Christopher Moore's Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal and nearly broke ribs laughing. I was all set to read his other books. Then a writer friend went to a conference where he was a guest speaker. She had the opportunity to tell him how much she loved his books, and he was a rude, obnoxious, arrogant twit to her. He basically mocked her compliments to her face. I crossed all his books off my reading list after that. Killed my budding fandom, right then and there.

But now you have me in the mood to rent Dracula (Stoker's) and scare the carp out of myself. :D

Reading Breaking Dawn now. Without giving too much away, the first few chapters deal with some pretty adult things, but not in detail.

I'm looking forward to being able to read books like Harry Potter and Twilight with Zane and Drake. Heh, when we're at the library, I look through the YA novels while they read books and play. LOL

I have Bram Stokers Dracula on the bookshelf. Read it as a senior in highschool, my boyfriend gave it to me *too bad he was not into nibbling...* Maybe I'll re-read it after I finish Breaking Dawn.

Or maybe I'll take a break from reading and catch up on chores! LOL

Thanks, Dawn. The woman who gave us the books to read also mentioned that about the fourth - but not until after Will was already engrossed in the first.

So what was I to do? I couldn't let him read the first three and then tell him to stop, that the fourth was too racy?!?! This was my inspiration for reading them - quickly - LOL. I sped past him, so that I can flag pages of the fourth that are - ahem - inappropriate for a 10 year old. He is still enough uncomfortable with the topic, that I don't think he'll read them...yet.

I'm on ch. 21 of Eclipse, so soon we shall see...

Stacy

At last year's book fair one of the 7th grade teachers gave me a hard time about having the Twilight series there. I hadn't read any of them before that but was intrigued because the middle school girls snapped them up. The librarian had taken a look at all the books and hadn't nixed anything (we already pull anything too graphically drug related or too graphically sexy since it's a religious school), so I kept them out.

So what do you think? Inappropriate for middle school girls? My 10 year old boy has no interest in them (whew..)

AM

Am. I finished the fourth. I don't think it's inappropriate for middle school girls at all. While there are allusions to "intimate acts" they aren't graphic. But considering a religious school...hmmmm. Would a teacher have a problem because they deal with vampires?

Speaking of inappropriate for middle school girls (and boys)

Our 8th grade reading list includes 'Memoirs of a Geisha'. If I allow my kids to read Silence of the Lambs and Dean R Koontz, I think its safe to say I'm no censor. BUT I think the material in 'Memoirs' is a bit to much for girls who are essentially the same age as the sexualized Geishas. Especially the details of the auction and the results. I really should find out if any of the teachers have read this book.

My boys have no interest in the 'Twilight' series because its chick lit :-(

DS #1 is reading Orson Scott Card, the 'Ender's Game' series. DS #2's favorite summer book was 'The Book Thief'. We got that from the Printz award list - definitely older kid materials, FWIW, but keep it in mind for the future.

Jessy - I'm no censor either, but I think 16 is a more appropriate age to read 'Memoirs'; in fact if you tell me someone is trying to censor a book it makes me go out and read it. I told my daughter that some of the material is too adult and she could read it when she was 16, but then she saw the movie when she was 15 and I didn't have a reason not to let her read it. She did and loved it.

I just finished reading the first four books in the Deltora Quest series and then had to order the next 4 (of course). This one is definitely appropriate for middle school fantasy fans both girls and boys.

A magic belt worn by the king/queen which unites the 7 tribes/territories of Deltora and protects them from the Shadowlord. The gemstones representing each territory (diamond, ruby, opal, topaz, lapus lazuli, emerald & amethyst) are scattered to the darkest parts of the land by the Shadowlord and the king and queen are forced to flee with the help of the king's childhood friend (who is now a blacksmith). 16 years later the blacksmith's son Lief begins the quest to retrieve the stones and restore the belt to save the kingdom with the help of a former palace guard and an orphaned 16-year-old girl they meet in the Forest of Silence. Each book is the search for one stone and the group having to defeat the "great evil" that guards it.

Jen

Stacy - I didn't get into it with her as she was sort of hostile in her approach so I was trying to end the conversation as quickly and pleasantly non-committal as possible, but in hindsight, maybe it was less the content of the book (I doubt she had even read it) and more that she considered it junk food reading. The school librarian, who I like very much, is of the opinion that reading is good, and better they read a lighter book than no book at all. In fact, she and I have been trying to get more graphic novels at the book fair, but we're running into some opposition.

Anyway, thanks for the info.

Right now, my 5th grader is reading Mike Lupica and my 2nd grader is reading the Hardy Boys.

AM
The Dinner Chronicles

Ugh - I just re-read my post and it seems like I'm also calling the Twilight book "junk food reading", and I don't mean that at all. They seem like great, interesting books. This is the same teacher that at first looked down on the Harry Potter books as junk food reading, so there you go...

AM