Comments on: Tween Literature Touches on Teen Topics

By: Shannon

Shannon — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:26:03 +0000

My fourth grade daughter got the book Pig Tale from her elementary school library – it contains a group rape scene in the first third of the book. My daughter was (understandably) disturbed and had lots of questions, including why a boy would take his pants off to hurt a girl. Thankfully, she came to us with her questions and her school took the book off the shelves. My children are voracious readers, but I think reading about rape at age 10 is a bit much. While it did prompt conversation, I’m not sure I wanted those images seared into her mind at such a young age.

By: Daria

Daria — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:05:03 +0000

I believe that it’s very important to talk to tweens about sex and sometimes a book plot can be a great conversation starter. My mom began to speak to me about sex when I was very young, as well as speaking to me about having respect for myself and not needing a boy to be interested in me in order to feel validated as a girl. She also let me read whatever I wanted, including books by Rita Mae Brown and Tom Robbins when I was in 4th grade. I ended up being a responsible teenager and a voracious reader. If I could get either of my boys to read at all, I wouldn’t care what books they read. The important thing is that they are reading and that we parents are talking with them about what they are reading. If they are old enough to be asking about the sexual stuff rather than just skipping over it as boring, they are old enough to be having these conversations.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 06:16:57 +0000

Is it so wrong for children to get immersed into our Sex-driven culture? For starters, your biggest problem is not books. With books it requires the child’s imagination and if they don’t know what they are reading then that won’t be a problem. And if they do, then it is to late, your child is mature enough to know what Sex is but the fact that at 12 you haven’t talked to them about this topic shows that you are leaving it up to the child’s point of view. Believe me they are going to find out, you should just tell them what it is and what you think about it. And those books that are on the shelves are what people care about. There needs to be turns in the plot or it is not worth reading and in a world where TV is just as easy and faster and requires less work, there needs to be some big turns.

By: Leah

Leah — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 04:25:07 +0000

Amen! Middle school lit is a challenge, because the kids’ reading level is often far above where the content actually needs to be.

By: Alissa

Alissa — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:50:25 +0000

I couldn’t agree more. I find it unbelievably frustrating finding a library book for my 12 year old daughter. All jacket covers begin with either boyfriend dilemas, deceased parents or simply, topics that assume my daughter only cares about the most materialistic and mundane issues. Don’t get me wrong ,my child is neither a super intellectual or restricted to a closed minded world but a good soild book that could teach some thing new , warm your heart or is just a fun read is sorely missing from the library shelves.

By: Dale Evergard

Dale Evergard — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:28:56 +0000

I heartily agree. Why let publishers, who have their own profits more in mind than they do the well being of our daughters, decide what and when it’s time to read about sex? It’s easy to think that if it’s out there and if our kids have access to it, it must be okay. But then, look what they serve at McDonald’s,or just turn on your TV–even network TV, even during the daytime–and you see that we have to be diligent and skeptical when it comes to the popular culture that our kids are daily exposed to. There’s nothing prudish about this attitude.