Teen Lit

         I am a big fan of teen/ young adult lit. Why would a not quite middle aged (I am not middle aged) mom like teen lit?  It's easily digestible and manageable. As a mom, I have a limited amount of time to read. When I get horizontal at night, I can read only a few minutes before I pass out. Have you ever tried to read a grownup novel five minutes at a time?  It could take years.  And, if it’s a good book and really sucks me in, I become the worst mom ever.  When I am on a book bender, the house gets dirtier and everyone gets to watch more TV.   Anything goes.  (Hope my kids don’t see this, they will be leaving bestsellers on the nightstand.  What I call bad mom, they call opportunity!) With young adult lit, the writing is lighter, the print is bigger and there are fewer pages.  All equaling the possibility of a good read at a great speed.  If I’m lucky, it’s a great read and my bender is very short lived with no negative household affects.

         When I was a kid, I loved Sci-Fi and Fantasy.  I devoured Madeline L’Engle, Ray Bradbury, Anne McCaffrey and books about magic and witches.  But there weren’t many to choose from.  As a mom stuck in the kid’s room of the library, I started with the Harry Potter series.  Excellent!  Not only was the story terrific but also was exactly what I had liked as a kid.  And once Harry Potter took the world by storm, there were many more authors jumping into the genre.  Some great, some not so great.

         When my daughter was in fifth grade, all the girls were reading the Twilight books.  She was curious but I didn’t know how appropriate they were.  I kept asking around but decided I should just read the book myself.  Complete drivel. (When I told my daughter it was all romance, she said “Ug, forget it.”)  Pages and pages of “he looked at me.”  Somehow it was both chaste and trashy.  So of course, I read the whole series. [Chagrin]

         I couldn’t help it.  And apparently I was not alone.  There is a phenomenon called Twilight Moms.  Moms who were checking into their kids reading habits got sucked into the Team Edward vs. Team Jacob debate.  There are even websites and forums! (No, I don’t do that!)  Okay, trashy as they are, I can see getting sucked into the books.  In the day-to-day life of a mom, there is little in the way of romance.  Supermarket flowers on Valentine’s Day, flannel PJs, considering it sexy when your husband does dishes.  Face it, after 10-20 years, married folks are not on their best behavior anymore. 

         So it’s fun to dumb down the book club for a month and pick a team over wine but no one over 25 (and that’s pushing it) should be wearing Twilight merchandise! It’s a little creepy.  Especially once the movies came out.  It’s one thing to read a book about teenagers and love it or the characters because we are all kids in our heads.  But to go to a movie and sigh over someone who is young enough to be your kid?  Eeww.  Seeing the first movie made me feel a little dirty for even picking a team.   It was a fun-sucker.      

         It reminded me of when I had a huge crush (mostly based on looks) on someone in school that I adored from afar.  Then, when I actually met him, eeew.  Dullsville.  He was soooo much better in my head.  Most books are better in your head as well.  Sometimes it is fun to see someone else’s interpretation and see how your ideas compare.  But, I think when you are a grownup enamored with a teenage character it may be better to skip the movie!  Which leaves me in a bind for a movie that’s out now…

To Be Continued…