Twilight Zone: Give This Woman A Hand!

Why should the stars of the Twilight movies be the only ones having fun?  What about Kimbra Hickey, whose hands grace the original cover of Twilight?  Without that awesome cover, featuring those awesome hands, would Twilight have become the phenomenon it is?

I think not.





Thanks to Leila at bookshelves of doom for the link.


The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Twilight Zone: The New Supreme Court Litmus Test: Team Edward or Team Jacob?

It used to be about a nominee's views on Roe v. Wade.  Now it's about Edward v. Jacob.

Twilight Zone: Twilight Novella Coming This Summer

Batten down the hatches and prepare for another Twilight storm to hit libraries and bookstores this summer.  Stephenie Meyer has written a novella entitled The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner.  Written from the perspective of Bree Tanner (one of the newborn vampires who is around in Eclipse for about 10 pages before dying), the novella should help to stave off the Twilight withdrawal that occurs between movie release dates and video release dates for the existing novels.

The novella will be available in bookstores/libraries on June 5th, for a mere $13.99 and it will be available online for FREE from June 7th - July 5th, at www.breetanner.com.

Thanks to EarlyWord for the head's up.

Kibbles n' Bits (and Gravy Bits!)

I haven't had the chance to read much lately, and that's caused a lack of things to blog about.  Happily, there's enough going on in the YAlitosphere that I can bring you this post, filled with bits o' news from around the interwebs!

• As you may be aware, Betsy Bird has been counting down the Top 100 Chapter Books over at her blog, Fuse #8.  What you may not have noticed is that just yesterday she quoted yours truly in her description of #35, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
• This isn't news to me (or probably you either!) but I guess the rest of the adult world can sometimes be slow to catch on to things teens (and people who work with teens) know instinctively.  What I'm speaking about specifically is that YA lit is awesome. 
• Is there a YA book that you feel is under-appreciated? If so, nominate the title for the Nerds Heart YA tournament, and give it the chance to shine! Nominations must be submitted by March 31st.
• Opening Ceremonies got underway yeaterday, brackets are posted and the books are ready to battle to the death!  Check out SLJ's Battle of the Kids' Books.  The first contest is on March 15th.
• And finally, what good would an update be without an entry from The Twilight Zone? Summit Entertainment has released a teaser trailer for Eclipse, which releases in theatres on June 30th.

That's all for now, but I'll be back once I get a chance to read some of these paper things lying around the house.  Take care!

Twilight Zone: The Real Qulieute

Turns out that Jacob's Quileute tribe in La Push, WA is real.

I guess I just figured it was something Stephenie Meyer had made up. Sadly, while everyone else in America is making boatloads of cash off of Team Jacob and the whole Twilight phenomenon, the Quileute people have been left out in the rain. While MSN camera crews trespass on their cemetery and Nordstrom makes money off of their Quileute hoody, the real Quileute people go about their everyday in poverty.

I feel like something is owed to this people, whose history, land and culture has been pilfered. They deserve to profit from Twilight's success too.

Thanks to my friend James for pointing me towards this Op-Ed.

Twilight Zone: How It Should Have Ended

I agree.



Except maybe I'd have her kill Edward.

Twilight Zone: Copy Covers are Getting Out of Hand!

Whilst browsing in Barnes & Noble the other day, I was overcome with the number of Twilight copy covers that publishers are creating.

I've previously posted about the Wuthering Heights redo. That one seemed natural to me, since Wuthering Heights is Bella's favorite book.

But Romeo and Juliet? Does Shakespeare really need a boost? Will this cover really sell more copies of a book that basically every student is already required to read at some point in his/her

education?

And V.C. Andrews? Whaaaaaa? If anything, the original cut-out covers are the reason why people read those books in the first place. It certainly wasn't the intricate storylines and crafted language.

I didn't even see Pride and Prejudice firsthand, but I know it's out there...getting a sparkly vampire redo.

The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Twilight Zone: New Moon Recap and Team Bella?

First off, if you haven't spent the $10.75 that I did to go and see New Moon in theaters (or if you have and are looking for a good laugh) check out New Moon in Fifteen Minutes*.

Second, there's been a bunch of talk lately about the lack of character development in Bella and also how her relationship with Edward is abusive. One blogger even analyzed Bella and Edward's relationship according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline's "signs you are in an abusive relationship" and came up with 15 signs that point to abuse. In response, someone (and of course I can't remember who at this point) questioned why it's always "Team Edward" or "Team Jacob" and why there doesn't seem to be anyone on "Team Bella." And I think that's because even Stephenie Meyer doesn't want you to be on her team. She wrote a purposefully vague character as a means for her readers to see themselves in Bella and get drawn into the story.

And I guess it worked.

* Thanks to Bookshelves of Doom for the link.

Twilight Zone: Mooning over New Moon

At this moment, across the country, millions of screaming theatre-goers are watching the opening credits of New Moon. And yes, most of them are female. But a lot of them are male. John Green knows what I'm talking about.

In anticipation of today's release, the Washington Post ran a piece about the shameful female obsession with Twilight. No news there, the Twilight obsession is growing more fast and furious every day. And as a librarian and reader of Twilight, I have no shame in saying that I have taken it upon myself to spread this obsession to my students*, friends and colleagues.

Whenever someone asks about Twilight, I tell them the truth: "It's not quality literature, but it's a good story. You'll get sucked in." They shake their heads, laugh disbelieving and go merrily on their way thinking "Yeah, right." Then they come back two days later, begging for the next book and confessing how they ignored their partner, children and other responsibilities because they were so absorbed in the story. Told you so.

My favorite quote from the article:

"Twilight" came for the tweens, then for the moms of tweens, then for the co-workers who started wearing those ridiculous Team Jacob shirts, and the resisters said nothing, because they thought "Twilight" could not come for them. They were too literary. They didn't do vampires. They were feminists.

So if you haven't already, go ahead. Buy the first one. While you're at it, better get the rest, or you'll be kicking yourself that you have to wait for their arrival.

Don't make me say "I told you so!"

* They didn't really need much help.

The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from here to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Twilight Zone: The Easy Way to Get Edward Cullen in Your Pants

That title was totally inappropriate.

So are these.

Especially because of this.

Belated thank you to Best Week Ever for alerting me to their existence, and Bookshelves of Doom for not letting me forget.

Oi.

Twilight Zone: Overheard on the DC Metro

A conversation between two late teens/early twenties males, one with dreads and the other with some cool facial hair, both kinda thuggish looking...

Guy #1: Oh man, you know what movie's coming out that I'm looking forward to?

Guy #2: What?

Guy #1: New Moon.

Guy #2: Yeah man, Twilight was awesome.

Guy #1: Yeah.

Guy #2: I liked how she [Stephenie Meyer] kinda changed the vampire lore.

Guy #1: Naw man, she got it all wrong. Her vampires were wrong.

Guy #2: The way she made her vampires makes more sense to me. Like how when they go out in the sun, they don't burn up and die, but you can tell they're different. Their skin is like crushed diamonds.

Really? I mean, I expect this from tween girls. But guys with facial hair who are trying to keep a tough image? On the Metro? Loud enough so that everyone can hear?

Wow!

Twilight Zone: Bella and Edward Turn into Pumpkins

It's not exactly like when the stage coach in Cinderella turned into a pumpkin at midnight. Rather, the celebrity pumpkin carvings are actually kinda creepy. Artistic sure, but creepy.

And in an unrelated bit of Twilight news, Twilight will be re-releasing in theaters in anticipation of New Moon's release. Should be a big money maker, but I'm hearing frustration from librarians who purchased special one-time performance rights to show Twilight at programs this fall and recently learned that Summit pulled the public performance rights for November and December. I've been searching around for any official notice about this, but none to be found (at least by me).

Twilight Zone: A Makeover for Wuthering Heights

Back in the spring I posted about the abundance of teenage girls coming to the reference desk looking for literary criticism on Wuthering Heights, a book which many of them decided to give a whirl after becoming infatuated with Edward Cullen Twilight.

Well, it seems that Harper noticed this trend as well, and went ahead and redid the cover for Wuthering Heights, modeling it after the Twilight covers*. Inevitably, when a book turns into a movie, the publisher goes ahead and makes a hideous movie tie-in cover that nobody likes and everyone wishes would go away so that they could buy the "real" cover. The new cover for Wuthering Heights may actually be the first classic novel to be "recovered" NOT because it was made into a film, but because it is the favorite book of a character in best-selling book/wildly popular movie.

I personally find the "Bella and Edward's favorite book!" a bit demeaning to be stamped on the cover of a classic work of literature. And Leila over at Bookshelves of Doom wisely pointed out that, contrary to the cover's claim, Edward does not like Wuthering Heights. But, I suppose you can't have Bella without Edward, right? And I have no doubt this cover will sell copies of Wuthering Heights like never before. I am anticipating large book displays of all the Twilight titles/merchandise and this version of Wuthering Heights to be unveiled in November in anticipation of the New Moon movie release and the Christmas shopping season. It will be the go-to gift for teenagers whose parents are desperately hoping their children will read classics outside of school.

*There's a UK version that's similarly Twilighty as well.

Twilight Zone?: Shiver Me Timbers

Back at ALA one of the publisher booths was handing out ARCs of an upcoming title. I wasn't really in the mood to carry more stuff around, but the woman at the booth was practically forcing everyone who walked by to get a copy. So I took one, feeling no sense of urgency to read it until it got a mention at Early Word...and then it made it to the top of my TBR list.

The book: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

The story: As a child, Grace was attacked by wolves. She miraculously made it out alive, and ever since has had a fascination with the wolves in the woods behind her house. Now a teenager, Grace is particularly captivated by one wolf in particular - the one with the yellow eyes. When another student at her school turns up dead, the wolves are fingered, and a hunt ensues. Grace runs into the woods in an attempt to stop the hunt and comes face to face with those yellow eyes - on an injured human.

The verdict: Twilight, but with a werewolf and better writing. Absent parents and unimportant friends? Check! Teen inexplicably in love with supernatural being? Check! Changing the rules everyone knows about said supernatural being? Check! Teen girl anxious to "just do it" while supernatural would-be mate hesitates? Check!

But...but...but...Stiefvater's writing makes the difference. Both writers know how to tell a good story that grabs readers and doesn't let go, but Stiefvater finds a way to convey the story with more "show" and less "tell." Alternating narration between Grace (human) and Sam (wolf/human) is amazingly effective at telling the story without it getting too sappy or overwrought. While Grace is fairly two-dimensional, Sam is more than just a shape-shifter, he's a musician, and music helps him make sense of the world.

P.S. I love that Maggie's last name means "stepfather" in German and that she includes a passage in German in the novel!

Twilight Zone: Bella and Edward Get Graphic

Get your filthy mind out of the gutter!

You know that those pan-camera-away-from-the-action-and-hard-cut-to-the-next-scene-just-as-it-was-getting-good sex scenes of newlyweds Bella and Edward are just about as graphic as Stephenie Meyer is willing to get.

Just when you thought you could escape Twilight Mania (they STILL have those huge displays at the bookstore, but thankfully MJ and Jon & Kate have taken over the covers of US Weekly, OK!, etc.), Stephenie Meyer announces on her blog that Twilight will now be a graphic novel!

I echo Tina Jordan's happy observation that the characters in the graphic novel aren't just drawings of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, both of whom I thought were mis-cast. Instead, they are a just a 'lil bit closer to what you might have been picturing while reading the book.

Twilight Zone: New Moon Trailer

You've probably seen this elsewhere already, as it's been on the interwebs for at least a good 24 hours, which is like weeks in back in the 20th century, but...



The Acting: Still pretty bad (at least on RPatz and KStewart's behalves)
The Budget: Cleary improved, even from this short trailer
The Jacob: From cute to hot (and now shirtless)
The Verdict: I'm still going to see it opening weekend

Twilight Zone:...And After the Breaking Dawn There Was a Russett Noon?

After the twilight, a new moon is obscured by an eclipse. Then a breaking dawn threatens to end it all. But, after the sun leaves the dawn behind to rise to its zenith, a russet noon begins with a new adventure...

So fanfic writer LadySybilla wrote her own book, Russet Noon, which continues the Twilight saga from Jacob's point of view. She went out and got herself an ISBN and started pre-selling the novel, complete with "accidentally" stolen cover art (see image, copyright Charli Sieger, 2004, on left) on the Internet back in early March for the low, low price of $9.99.

But oops! Seems nobody explained the finer points of copyright law to LadySybilla. She was under the impression that it was perfectly permissable to take Stephenie Meyer's characters, put them in her own book, and make money buckets of money. Once it was brought to her attention that that's now how it works, she seems to have consulted with some lawyers who basically said "Um, duh!" and she pulled the book and now plans to release it for free on the Internet, one chapter at a time, beginning in September.

I don't even know what to say about this other than:

1. How did I totally miss this until Leila over at Bookshelves of Doom brought it to my attention?

2. Did LadySybilla really not think there was anything wrong with this?

3. Does LadySybilla really think that Stephenie Meyer would be ok with this and that "she laughs at the whole situation," as she stated in this interview?

4. Is anyone else so intrigued by this controversy that they're actually looking for to September and the chance to read the first chapter

For more on the Russet Noon controversy, check out:

...the "Official" website, which sadly, has mostly been taken down due to that pesky copyright thing.

...the history of the controversy as extensively chronicled and footnoted on fanhistory.com (and where I did much of my research for this post).

Twilight Zone: Looks Like Somebody's Been Hitting the Gym

(Cue teenage girls screaming and swooning and their mothers trying their hardest not to do so as well.)

What I find oddest? Edward is barely even in the book and isn't one to go around shirtless anyway. Isn't Jacob the shirtless star of New Moon?

Twilight Zone: Comic Relief

Sure, you could spend a whole weekend devouring all of the books in the Twilight saga. But if you're not so predisposed to that idea, you can check out this comic by artist/author Lucy Knisley where one reluctant Twi-hard who did the above kindly distills her experience and then summarizes the four-book saga into a quick (an amazingly accurate and thorough!) 16 panels. Impressive.

Seeing it boiled down almost makes me wish for those hours spent reading back, and most assuredly makes me more than embarassed at proclaiming to a room full of people "I would leave my husband for Edward Cullen*." But who am I kidding? Those were some good angsty hours. Except for most of Breaking Dawn; I'll take those hours back any day.

Thanks (again) to Fuse #8 for the link.

* It should be noted that this was immediately after reading the first book and that my husband was travelling extensively for work and I probably hadn't seen him in about a month. I was sad and lonely, and Edward was my only hope.

Twilight Zone: Twi Tour Coming to a Town Near You!

Now usually I don't do this (post just minutes after posting), but...

The Twi Tour is coming to my hometown of Parsippany, NJ, and I think that (aside from the whole Hunger Games movie) this is some of the best news I've heard all week!

Sure, the movie was fairly terrible, and the casting was off, (and the book itself not a literary accomplishment) but I can't help but feel a certain sense of giggly anticipation knowing that thousands of screaming teenagers will descend upon my hometown for two days at the of August. And while I don't see myself shelling out my hard-earned cash on any of the various photo opportunities or autograph signings, I might just have to spend $20 to get into the convention and take pictures of all the crazed Twi-hards (for blogging purposes only, of course).

And O.M.G., there's a Vampire Ball and costume competition! This just keeps getting better.

The good news is that by some miraculous circumstance, the actors coming to Parsippany's convention are actually the only ones who I felt were well-cast. No "stuttering and long pauses are how my character talks" Kristen Stewart. No "skinny kid who smokes, drinks, eats fish and chips, has never been to the gym, and hunches his shoulders, yet somehow is a hunky strong vampire" Robert Pattinson. Thank G-d. That would only bring pandemonium of the very bad sort.