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Twelve-year-old Sarah Shipley-Powell hated to read - until a vampire came into her life.

It wasn't simply that the Bearden Middle School student disliked reading. She wasn't very good at it. She got tutoring to help and made average grades. But reading was a tedious, dull and often slow task.

Then last year she picked up the paperback book "Twilight," by Stephenie Meyer. By the time the heroine Bella discovers the boy she loves is a vampire, Sarah had discovered something too.

She was reading. And enjoying it.

One year and one month later, Sarah hasn't stopped reading. The seventh-grader has read more than 75 books, several more than once. Her bedroom bookcase holds her much-thumbed "Twilight" paperback and 62 other novels about vampires, werewolves and the supernatural.

"New Moon" is Sarah's favorite in the four-part "Twilight" series. She's read it seven times. She thinks the film "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," showing in Knoxville on Tuesday, "will be awesome."

Sarah, brother Adam Shipley-Powell, 9, and parents Robert Shipley and Tim Powell will attend the "New Moon" premiere at Regal Cinemas Pinnacle 18 at Turkey Creek. The Shipley-Powells received VIP passes to the film after a family friend shared Sarah's story with Regal executives.

The screening, held three days before the film's official opening, is a fundraiser for Variety - The Children's Charity of Eastern Tennessee. Kristen Stewart, who plays Bella, and Taylor Lautner, who plays the werewolf Jacob, will attend.

It was actually the first "Twilight" film that motivated Sarah to read.

"I went to see 'High School Musical 3' and I saw the (preview) for 'Twilight' and wanted to see it," she said.

Shipley told his daughter she could see the film if she read the book.

"I thought, 'I can live without seeing the movie,' " Sarah said. "But a bunch of my friends kept asking, 'Have you ever read "Twilight"? It's so good.' I decided to read it so I could go to the movie."

When she bought the hefty paperback, she nearly changed her mind.

"I was thinking I would never get through this book. I think I just put it down and stared at it for a while," Sarah said.

When she began to read, the book didn't grab her attention.

"I thought, 'This is kind of boring.' But I really wanted to see the movie, so I kept reading," she recalled.

And she became absorbed. She stayed up late reading. She took the book to school, hiding it behind her social studies and science texts to get in a few more pages. The child who had needed tutors finished "Twilight" in three days.

"I felt like I knew what I had been missing, that this (reading) was really fun," she said.

Before "Twilight," "she wouldn't read a stop sign of her own volition," said Powell. "I was so disappointed for Sarah that she didn't know that joy of reading."

Sarah's joy in reading brought academic improvement. She now reads college-level books. Her grades have risen from Cs to mostly Bs, with a few As, though math remains her nemesis. She's still not thrilled with some required school reading but no longer struggles with it. There are no more tutors or homework battles.

"I think I've improved a lot. I feel smarter now," she said. "When most of my friends are on the first page, I'm on the second. Before, when I was still on the first page, they would be on the fifth."

Sarah plans to be an artist and kindergarten teacher. For now, her goal is to collect the world's largest library of supernatural-themed books. When she wants another book during now-frequent trips to bookstores, she usually gets it.

"How can you say 'no' to reading?" said Shipley.

Amy McRary may be reached at 865-342-6437.

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel
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