NEED to rate childrens books?

[Reece10]

Hi Everyone,

I came across a story in the UK's Daily Mail about Dr. Rona Tutt (a national officer and former president of the National Association of Head Teachers) who believes childrens books now NEED to be rated as:

"because growing numbers of children's authors are tackling 'adult' themes such as suicide, murder and sex as they aim for the older market"

What do you think?

You can read the whole article at:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=359110&in_page_id=1770&in_a_source=

[AnneMarble]

What do you think?
I think the URL didn't work.
:cry:
This one (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=359110&in_page_id=1770) should work instead.

Hmmm. While I can see how this would help parents, I can also see how it would be a real can of worms. Even if there were a rating system, not everyone would agree with the decisions. Who decides what gets the rating and what doesn't? What about parents who want a label for themes they disagree with, such as magic or books that discuss different faiths? If you listen to everyone, after a while, there will be no room for anything about the story on the back cover. ;)

Also, there will be a major difference between a book aimed at younger kids but with serious themes (there are lots of books like that) and one aimed at teens. Will a children's book that is about a kid dealing with a loved one's suicide automatically end up with a "warning" on the cover? And who says that younger readers don't need to read about certain themes? Kids who have suffered losses often turn to books about those themes to find some sort of comfort.

Interestingly, she's talking about children's novels, but all of the novels she specifically mentions are clearly YA novels (by Melvin Burgess, whose sales may increase because of this article). YA novels are, of course, already aimed at older kids to begin with -- although I'll admit that not all stores keep the sections separate. It is possible that parents will buy age-inappropriate books for their kids. (My mother accidentally bought me an underground comic book by R. Crumb when I was about ten years old! :eek:) But does the publisher always have to bear the burden of that, when there are booksellers and librarians and the like willing to help? Oh, well. At least a rating system will help older kids find the cooler books they want. ;-)

Another oddity about this article is that she acts as if this is new. Where has she been? There were children's and YA books with dark themes this back in the Stone Age, when I was reading Judy Blume and "House of Stairs" and all sorts of children's mysteries and the like. I'll admit that there are more outright children's books with with darker themes, but the concept of dark themes in children's books is far from new.

[Christine N.]

I think the cover blurbs do a good job of telling people what the book's about. Parents should be policing this, based on their own values, not government.

Even movie ratings tell you why the movie is rated that way - ie: nuditiy, violence (I've even seen Creature Violence) scary scenes, etc...

Parents just need to read the book jacket.

[Tish Davidson]

Why not simply move the YA section physically distant from the children's section (now they are close together in bookstores and libraries). This discourages kids too young for the dark themes fro picking up books they aren't ready for without ratings or censorship and clues parents in to the fact that YA is a different genre from children's.

[Torgo]

I once had an irate letter from a parent who had decided to read our 6+ retellings of Greek myths to his 6-year-old as a bedtime story. Apparently things like Pandora's Box were too depressing.

OK, so we had an age rating on it, but it doesn't absolve the parent of his responsibility to use the book in an intelligent way. We never intended the book to be a bedtime story book; we had an idea it would probably find its niche in the classroom, as indeed it did. And if the guy thinks the stories are depressing, he could easily have found that out be reading the book once through before he sprung it on his daughter.

Most books that children own are not child-purchase, and if adults are buying them for children without bothering to find out what's in them, I don't think it's the publishers' fault. They would be unlikely to do that with movies. It reminds me of this woman in Scotland who bought the latest Grand Theft Auto game for her grandson, despite the fact that its 18 rating clearly put it seven years out of his reach, and then complained about the fact that you could hack it to show a cartoon-like sex scene. Barmy.

[Zolah]

Hi Everyone,

I came across a story in the UK's Daily Mail about Dr. Rona Tutt (a national officer and former president of the National Association of Head Teachers) who believes childrens books now NEED to be rated as:

"because growing numbers of children's authors are tackling 'adult' themes such as suicide, murder and sex as they aim for the older market"

What do you think?

You can read the whole article at:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=359110&in_page_id=1770&in_a_source=

I think Dr Rona needs to grow up herself, if she honestly believes that suicide, murder and sex are exclusively adult themes. Children are affected by murder, suicide and sex - not to mention everything else in the world, bad and good - just as much as adults are. If we put a big red sticker on books that dare to tackle the real world, what'll happen? The sort of adult who actually needs a rating system (the sort of adult who doesn't bother to read what they buy for their kid to check that it's appropriate and then complains if their child has nightmares) will either take one look at the red sticker and ban their child from reading anything with it on, OR (more likely) they won't know or care about the big red sticker system and their kid will read whatever they want anyway. Pah!