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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]So I was at the library the other day and a girl who looked about 11 years old came in with a woman who was presumably her mom. She picked out a book for school her and brought it to her mom and her mom kept insisting the book is inappropriate and wouldn't let her check out the book. Just why. What the fuсk was she afraid of her kid reading? It's not like she was checking out a porn magazine.[/quote]

When I was in 8th grade at a small private boarding school, I read a short story by W. Somerset Maugham and  loved it and went to library and checked out The Razor's Edge by Maugham.  Another teacher was talking to the Librarian as I was checking out and grabbed it from me and told me that I should not be reading this book.  The librarian took it from he, handed it back to me , looked at the teacher and said, "There are only two kinds of books, well written and poorly written and she has chosen a well written book by a distinguished author.  There may be subject matter that she may not understand but it is still a good book and there is no reason to stop her from reading it."

She was right. At 13, I didn't understand all of the subject matter and I read it again when I was 30 when I did understand all the subject matter.

I introduced my children to Maugham with a paperback of all his short stories on their 13th birthday.
My favorite of his short stories is "The Verger."
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I think most of us are restricting our children’s access to porn, not well-written material with complex themes. [/quote]

+1 And some of us are restricting our kids' access to poorly written material about vapid, simple themes. A lot of books geared toward tweens are poorly written and focused on appearances and being popular. When a preview material for my DD, this stuff goes in the "no" pile because there are so many better options out there and I don't want to reinforce those toxic ideas for her. I'm fine with books about friendship and typical tween/teen problems, but it needs to be well written and have some substance to it. [/quote]

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