Twilight

A chance discussion between the 11 year old and a friend led to an interest in the book "Eclipse" by Stephenie Meyer.

The interest, fueled by a quick trip to the library, led to the book being borrowed and placed in the 11 year old's greedy hands. The child, who previously had to be bullied into reading for 15 minutes daily, suddenly lost interest in television and computer. At any given moment, she could be found with the book in her hands. And she wasn't simply carrying it, even though carting the item would constitute excellent weightlifting exercise! Nope. She actually read it.

In fact, a visit to her grandmother's on the weekend happened to fall precisely when the 11 year old was reaching the last 30 pages of the novel. The 11 year old usually chatters endlessly, sings, dances, takes up space but on this particular visit, she squeezed herself into the couch and read with that mix of eagerness and sadness one gets when reaching the end of a particularly good story.

"What's wrong with her?" Asked her grandmother. "Why is she pretending to read?"

Simone assured her mother that the child was indeed reading and that her engrossment explained the girl's lack of bubbliness.

"Hmph," grumped Simone's mother, put off by her grandchild's unusual quiet. "I hope she gets over it."

Surely there are worse things than escaping on the wings of a vampire to visit a werewolf bound for Canada?