I received a letter yesterday from a concerned parent. She said that her ten-year-old son has twice brought home books from the library that were not appropriate for children. Both times, he found the books in the juvenile section at the public library.<\/p>\n
The mother spoke to the librarian about this and she took the books home and read them. She, too, determined they were not suitable for kids and moved them to another section. She explained to the mother that books come to the library with basic information printed on them as to the type of book this is and its audience. This is how they decide where, in the library, the book should be placed. They also use reviews to make this determination. <\/p>\n
I started thinking about some of the many authors I know who promote their books as young adult novels because this is what was selling best in the marketplace at the time. Perhaps they didn\u2019t stop to think that there were scenes in their books that were inappropriate for certain age groups. <\/p>\n
The letter I received was a plea for organizations such as SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network) to band with other organizations in an effort to establish some sort of rating system for books\u2014in order to protect our young children.<\/p>\n
The mother pointed out that movies and video games have ratings, some music carries warning labels, why not books? Do any of you have an answer to this? We\u2019ve never had ratings for books, as far as I know. Has this always posed a problem? Or is the problem more wide-spread now that the publishing industry is in such chaos? What with so many authors publishing on their own and the rise in \u201cvanity\u201d or \u201cpay-to-publish\u201d companies, which publish indiscriminately, it seems that anything goes in publishing these days. There are no regulations as to the content in books, the writing abilities of authors or the identification key placed on the back cover of books. Authors\/publishers are free to represent their books in any way they see fit, sometimes confusing (or deceiving) librarians and consumers. <\/p>\n
I did a quick Internet search to see how others feel about the prospect of rating books. Some believe that warning labels on books would hamper the education of children. They call this censorship. Others would approve a system whereby the number and type of swear words, nudity, sexually explicit scenes and violence are listed on the book as a gauge to parents, teachers and librarians.<\/p>\n
Others say it is strictly up to the parents and others responsible for what children read to examine the individual book before making it available to kids. <\/p>\n
In one poll involving over 3,000 people, just over half were against a rating system for books. How do you feel about this?<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com<\/a> I received a letter yesterday from a concerned parent. She said that her ten-year-old son has twice brought home books from the library that were not appropriate for children. Both times, he found the books in the juvenile section at the public library. The mother spoke to the librarian about this and she took the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t
\n http:\/\/www.patriciafry.com<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"