Age - rating books?

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Some people believe books should be offically labeled as suitable for children and adolescents of various ages or not.

What are your opinions? And yes... it is a spin-off the 'sex scenes in Bioware games' thread .

 

Some people need to be quiet and keep their notions of what's suitable for who to themselves. They've done enough damage.

 

Any child that is young enough that it shouldn't be exposed to some things should have parents who took enough interest in their child to be able to decide for themselves what is appropriate or not.

 

Interesting thread. As a parent of a 14 year old I often find myself asking this exact question. Teen Snook is a very good reader and enjoys curling up with a good book. However, most of the books he reads I think would be classified in the young adult section of the bookstore as opposed to more meatier works. Although, there are times that he surprises me as he is currently reading "The Shining" after seeing the movie.

He is a fan of fantasy and science fiction (imagine that with me as a dad). I know I've posted threads here in the past trying to get opinions about series that I've read wondering if they would appropriate for him and a little bit of guidance from the public/publisher/author/etc. would sometimes be very helpful to a parent.

I agree with Joacquin that it should ultimately be the parent's decision, but parents do need help occasionally as we only appear to be omniscient.

For the record, next time he asks me what to read I think I'm going to give him Magician- Apprentice by Feist.

 

Good Call. Great story-line for his age.

 

You can feed Star Wars pulp novels to him.

 

Glad you people replied; I agree with you all. It seems that the majority of parents and caretakers find sexual content most worrying, controversial and inappropriate. What are your opinions? Can a written sex scene have negative impact on an adolescent's development?

 

I'm going to say no, and that is only because I think I developed quite nicely

In all seriousness, I believe kids skip over the parts that they don't understand. When I was a youngster I was loved the "Horseclan" books by Robert Adams (RIP). I think I reread them at some point in my twenties and was shocked by the graphic sex in the books. I'm sure when I read them as a teenage virgin I read "They are having sex" and moved on. When I read them as a more worldly adult I better understood that the author was going into detail of "how they were having sex".

On a side note a book dealer told me that my horseclan paperbacks actually have some value.

 

Just saying - young adult books can be pretty meaty and also pretty hardcore when it comes to content. I think the current trend is extreme social realism with messed up teenagers (The Perks of Being a Wallflower etc.). Even before this when I was reading YA fiction it was hardly rainbows and butterflies. I think I read The Tomorrow Series by John Marsden when I was in about grade four or five - lots of very realistic violence and sex there along with heavy themes. YA doesn't mean it's toned down - it just means that the writing style is accessible and they think teenagers will read it.

(The Tomorrow Series is awesome and you should get your son to read them quickly before they're ruined by movies. They're pretty much essential teen fiction in Australia but no idea if anyone in other countries has ever heard of it)

 

My thoughts exactly. A written sex scene cannot be explicit. It would be if the young reader was somehow able to imagine it properly. If he or she actually can do that, it simply means that they have been looking at graphic depictions of pornography, which is an entirely different problem.

In exemplum: as a twelve year old, I had no idea what Nicolas Urfe and Lily de Seitas were doing to each other in 'The Magus', but reading good sir Fowles had surely caused me to turn my interests towards antiquity... not to mention the protection from D.H.Lawrence fascination a few years later. All is well that ends well.

 

I loved the Robin Cook books when I was younger but I only had a childs library ticket. One day the librarian wouldn't let me take the RC book I wanted until she spoke to my mother.
Mum went in to see her and said that no, she had never read the books but she was fine with me reading them because if I didn't understand something then we had an open enough relationship for me to ask. Plus, if I was old enough to enjoy them then I was old enough to make my own decisions.

 

My instinctive reaction would be a protective one, however, it really comes down to the person. For example, some 'young adult' fantasy books include graphic depictions of torture, rape, sodomy, etc. which many 'young adults' are -not- ready for. These books are not labeled as 'porn' or even in most cases 'graphically intense.'

Personally, Silvery, I think that librarian did the right thing; it should be up to the parent to decide when their child is mature enough to handle mature themes and topics. Moving past that, I think fantasy novels are great places to first encounter these mature topics. They really make you think, something that most young people don't seem to do today.

I read tons of fantasy novels at a younger age and the vast majority of them were light-hearted. However, when I was 11 I started reading Piers Anthony's Adept series, which deals with some serious topics (pedophilia, caste-systems, torture, dehumanization). My parents had already read what was out his Adept series. They thought I was ready for them, and so they were the ones who recommended the books to me. I ended up enjoying the books greatly and the main character was good role model for a young adult.

Some people haven't read every fantasy novel out there; I have no qualm with putting a small indicator of 'rating' on the back of a book that prohibits people for buying those books without permission. People who permission from parents will still readily have those books, people without will not. If a parent denied their 11 year old the ability to read Matthew Woodring Stover's "Heroes Die," I would completely understand. You don't need an adult mind to comprehend (or have nightmares about) how sewing maggots into your leg would be unpleasant or to ask questions about why the sociopath antagonist murdered the girl after he had sex with her.

 

I wasn't saying that she was wrong

 

Haha ^_^ I wasn't trying to imply that you were implying, my apologies. I think it is a good way to handle it, and a valid reason why books could be rated like movies. That's all I meant.

 

There's a part of me that wouldn't mind having some stuff to help busy yet caring parents make semi-informed decisions. However, that said, if they had had such a system when I was a kid, my Dad might not have let me read over 40% of the stuff I read -- Mack Bolan, Horseclans, Stephen King's stuff, etc. etc. All a sticker means is that someone somewhere using his/her interpretation of a code has decided to express their position on the content.

But I wouldn't classify it as the fascism some are insinuating. Movie ratings have existed for decades and have not ended freedom of conscience or thought.

 

I first thought the title was "Age - Rating Boobs" and was very disappointed in the topic.

On topic I believe there are some books which are inappropriate for young readers for a variety of reasons ... which is why there is a children's section in most book stores and libraries; and adult only sections (along with adult only book stores). However, once a person is able to read and comprehend the material it is really moot as to whether or not they should be allowed to read such material.

 

Well, we are mammals, ergo, boobs ARE appropriate for all audiences.

To the people who said choosing books for an adolescent should be up for the parents to decide - are you absolutely sure it is for the best? Not all parents of 'bookish kids' are bookish themselves, and if they happen to be close-minded as well... .

 

You see that a lot. Parents in a book store, with a kid along, looking at the shelves as if it are beings from outer space.


Perhaps some of the older stuff. J Vance The devils-princes was one of my first. Perhaps the Robot series.

 

I see paraents being put into a "Catch 22" situation -- if they are engaged with their children's lives and care enough to draw some boundaries, someone's gonna call 'em "fascists" or "closed minded". If they back off and don't engage enough, someone else is gonna call them "lazy, uncaring capitalist pigs who care more about money than the development of their kids"

I say that until a kid is 18, that kid should abide by the rules laid down by his parents while living under their roof. After 18, if they so desire, they can step outside the boundaries set by their parents. I know that some parents are somewhat repressive, but being strict doesn;t make them evil, and it's really unfair and inaccurate to accuse parents of being poor parents just because they have a different (or -- gasp!--religious) value system.