Eleven Plus for Girls

I should imagine that every mother and daughter aged ten years and upwards has heard about "New Moon" by Stephanie Meyers. I need to hold my hand up - before New Moon I had never heard about Twilight and certainly had not understood the impact of romantic dread and terror that vampires appear to engender in the hearts and minds of females in general.

The blurb on the back cover of the book has the words: "irresistibly combines romance and suspense with a supernatural twist". The two final paragraphs read:

He got up slowly and came to put his hands on either side of my face as he stared into my eyes. "Forever," he vowed, still a little staggered.

"That’s all I am asking for," I said, and stretched up on my toes so that I could press my lips to his.

The Twilight series may provide reluctant girl readers with an exciting entry into books that seem to be able to appeal to any female age group. It is remarkably hard to see why every eleven plus girl should not have one in the Christmas stocking.

My understanding, and this probably highly erroneous, is that girls need equal measures of romance and terror. It is unlikely a mere eleven plus paper - in its present form - can cater for these needs. The only reason for mentioning this is that the eleven plus is a stressful journey for some mothers and daughters - and would it not be sensible to be able to combine business with pleasure? Can’t some eleven plus questions cater for what a girl wants and needs?