Clad in black “Twilight” T-shirts, St. Charles residents Molly Underwager, Rachel Rubin and Amanda Garbarz were among the first in line for the early evening showing of the new film at Charlestowne Mall Friday night, Nov. 21.

Less than 16 hours earlier, the 13-year-olds attended the midnight premiere of the film, which has made copies of the popular book series on which it is based scarce at local libraries and hot items at book stores.

Because of the surging popularity of the feature film, which raked in $70.5 million in its opening weekend debut, libraries are struggling to keep the books stocked. The St. Charles Public Library has 10 copies of each of the four books in the “Twilight” series and all have been checked out.

 “I haven’t seen one on the shelf literally for months,” said Marianne Weick, St. Charles young adult librarian.

Weick said the library has 17 holds on the books.

The books have been a popular choice for summer reading clubs at St. Charles middle schools. Thompson Middle School has six copies of each book, including some in Spanish, and all copies were checked out Friday 11/21/08  afternoon.

“(‘Twilight’) catches everybody’s attention,” said Molly, an eighth-grader at Haines Middle School. “It’s captivating. It makes you want to read on.”

Chris Sherman, head librarian at Thompson and head of the school’s reading program, said the books appeal to so many because author Stephenie Meyer’s stories have a different take on vampire legends, basing the series around a character who strays from vampire cliches.

“The whole vampire thing is very appealing; there are vampires and shapeshifting characters as well,” Sherman said. “You have a really eerie setting. The spin she has done with the vampire is different.”

The story centers around a teenage vampire, Edward, who romances a human, Bella Swan.

The Barnes and Noble bookstore in Geneva ordered extra copies to prepare for the film’s release. Kimberly Luthin, the store’s community relations manager, said about 300 people attended the recent release party of the fourth book in the series, “Breaking Dawn.” She said the book has been the store’s top seller several times.

Librarians said teenage girls aren’t the only ones checking out the popular books. Adult women and teenage boys are starting to take interest in the series.

“We’ve had a reserve list on all of them since they first came out,” said Lee Blakley, reference librarian at the Batavia Public Library. “We have multiple copies, but there are never enough for all the kids who want to read it.”