For years, I have tried in vain to get my oldest daughter to read.  I did all the things a good parent is supposed to do. I read to her starting when she was a baby.  When she was three and four, we'd read book after book at naptime and bedtime.  She always enjoyed being read to, but when she learned how to read, she never wanted to read to me or to herself. 

It was extremely frustrating to me as a parent because I love to read. I don't even watch television; when I have downtime I can almost always be found with my nose in a book.  I could not figure out why she didn't like to read at all.  

I tried everything to get her to read. I begged. I bribed. I forced. I bought every book known to man.  Nothing seemed to work.  Until she saw one of her cousins reading Twilight by Stephanie Myers.  She asked me for the book, and I ran out and bought it, setting my slight concerns about her reading a book about vampires aside.  

Then an amazing thing happened.  My daughter, who never read anything in her life that I didn't force her to read, read this entire BIG book in two days and asked for the next book in the series.  She's read the  Twilight Saga a couple of times now.  

What's even better is that this series has made her realize that she actually likes reading and she's read all kinds of other books as well.  Finally, I had to know what was so great about this book that it could change my daughter's entire perspective on reading.  I don't like anything remotely sci-fi so I thought it would be tough for me to get through the Twilight book, but I actually loved it and read the whole series in a week.  

I'm not sure what it was about that book that made her decide that reading was a pretty cool way to pass the time, but I'm indebted to Myers for the rest of my life!  If you have a teen that hates to read, see if this book might change their opinion - the author has become quite popular with millions of kids - and adults too!