Every book either has sex, talking about sex, sexual tension, longing for sex, reminiscing abut sex, drug use, violence, murder, family violence, rape, molestation, sex--did I mention sex? What the heck are these books even on the school library shelves for? I am horrified. I have pre-read the books my kids have read or really looked at them. But I have sent more books back to school because they are just plain old inappropriate and I don't want my kids reading smut! No wonder kids are growing up so fast when they are hit with this smut from all angles. UHHHHG! GEEEZE!!!
Can I ask what are these books?? titles and authors I mean.
Thats strange. Are they considered "classics"???
What do the teachers say when you send the books back??
Glad to hear at least your a parent that takes an interest in your kids, theres not enough of you.
That's true, the "young adult" books at the library are full of things like that. As an example, the VC Andrews books are considered young adult books...those don't just have sex, they have incest.
If your kids haven't read them yet, why don't you suggest the Chronicles of Narnia. Also, the Golden Compass and the others in that series don't have any sex in them that I remember.
It's pretty likely that no-one at the school has read quite a lot of the books that come in. If you went in with the offensive passages marked, the librarian might be horrified as well. Schools get many, many books into their libraries and while most librarians I know read a lot of them, it's humanly impossible to pre-read all books. They might appreciate your help.
edited to say, 'pre-read'.
Unfortunately, it's a case of which came first, the stuff in the books or the actions of the kids?
On the one hand, parents are livid that 'sex' is being taught and discussed with 12-14 year olds .... they dont' think 12-14 year olds are old enough to hear about sex. On the other hand, 14 year old girls are giving birth so they've done more than just "Hear" about it.
I know a guy who runs a mental health / drug rehab service. Every week, at an organization meeting we're in, he shares statistics on the drug use going on in our elementary and middle schools. We're not talking 10 or 15% of the kids .... we're talking 60-70 and even 80% .... drugs, alcohol.
My daughter has always like reading books that are stories about kids who spiraled to the bottom on drugs and alcohol. Some of the stories turn out ok, most end with a bleak ending. But she tells me as she's reading them, she's seeing the wrong decisions they make and how they end up on the bottom of the heap.
Perhaps these books can be a positive learning tool ... an illustration of what NOT to do.
i dont' claim to have the answer. It's a confusing Catch-22.
..the Golden Compass and the others in that series don't have any sex in them that I remember.
Uh, apart from the 12/13 year-olds falling in love, disappearing for an afternoon and coming back with an 'afterglow'!! Having said that, there's so much to love about that series, that I am actively encouraging my daughter (nearly 14) to read it. Not one for the religious though, since God does die in it, which some might find offensive or upsetting.
No sex in Harry Potter, although there is some humourous sexual tension, and Harry's 'chest monster'.
Personally, I have no problem with young people learning about sex in the right situation. I tend to believe that with proper and frank education, these kids are more likely to make good decisions than those who have been 'protected' and have to figure things out for themselves. The stats are interesting - Holland has a sex education program that starts at age 5, and their teens are much later to begin sexual relationships, and they also have a very low teen pregnancy rate.
I do know what you mean though. I consider myself fairly liberal, but struggled to find a book for my daughter recently. I wandered the book shop for ages and in the end gave up and took Lord of the Flies off our shelf at home for her. She loved it, although of course there is death, even murder, and it's quite dark.
That Twilight stuff is TRIPE - don't let it into your home!!
I agree with IndyDebbi that books can be a starting point for a discussion. I would rather my son read books that contain characters making bad decisions and talk about it with him than for him to make those decisions himself because he hasn't even thought through the possibilities of a situation.
Even some (many) of the Newberry Medal winners have really awful things happen in them. One that comes to mind is Bridge to Terabithia. I think that one bothered me more than my son.
My son has always grabbed my library selections off the bookshelf, so even if I kept him from checking out books about difficult topics, he'd read them anyway. (Unless I didn't check them out for me.) For some reason, he leaves the Dianne Mott Davidson and Tamar Myers mysteries alone.
I guess I see censoring much more than porn past the age of 13-14 is a complete waste of time. Even if you don't let them read/watch/listen/play video games at home that you object to it isn't likely that every parent of their friends are going to do the same so they will be getting it somewhere else. Telling parents what your censorship rules are doesn't work well either once they are old enough to be left alone since parents might not always be present.
I know that I was by the time I was 10, my parents fell for the Tipper Gore thing about music but our friends' parents weren't all so uptight and we listened to just about everything we weren't supposed to. They weren't really into censoring books but we also watched things at other people's houses we weren't allowed to watch at home.
I'd personally much rather know what my kids are being exposed to so I can talk to them about it than have my head stuck in the sand.
Every book either has sex, talking about sex, sexual tension, longing for sex, reminiscing abut sex, drug use, violence, murder, family violence, rape, molestation, sex--did I mention sex? What the heck are these books even on the school library shelves for?
Could you please provide a few of the titles/authors of these books? I'm curious now!
One I abbhor is Forever by Judy Blume. I read the book in 3rd grade as an eight-year-old. Nice.
Here is a site I found that give a heads up about content.
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews
I read the Twilight Series. All of my daughters(12yo) friends have read them and seen the movie.
It is not just innocent romance. I can not believe the lure and sexual longing portrayed in these books, the lying. Bella even bounces back and forth from Edward and Jakob. Really bad role models. It's like paper back romance for teens but kids as young as 8-9 are reading this stuff.
I do talk to my daughter about sex and she doesn't like the smutt in stuff either. We are a conservative family but hello hormones. And stuff like this just opens the door IMO. If a girl isn't interested in it yet she will be after reading it so romantically put with such curiosity.
We also take a close look at music and lyrics and meanings of unknown phrases in lyrics. The crap in outrageous.
TV and movies is pretty limited though Nick and Disney are putting a few more good ones out like: True Jackson, Jonas, Sonny with a Chance, Hannah, I-Carly, Wizards... So it's not like my kids are on total lock down.
But alot of their friends get to see TV shows I won't even watch like Vampire Diaries- that is sooo not for kids.
My kids read the Narnia books and several other innocent series over the past 3 years ago. And we are really running out of things to read..LOL
I read the Twilight Series. All of my daughters(12yo) friends have read them and seen the movie.
It is not just innocent romance. I can not believe the lure and sexual longing portrayed in these books, the lying. Bella even bounces back and forth from Edward and Jakob. Really bad role models. It's like paper back romance for teens but kids as young as 8-9 are reading this stuff.
The author is Mormon, a religion which requires no sex before marriage, hence all that pent-up sexual tension - as you say, raging hormones are gonna go somewhere! I believe that's also why Bella gets married so young.
Uh, apart from the 12/13 year-olds falling in love, disappearing for an afternoon and coming back with an 'afterglow'!!
I don't remember that part 
Sometimes I read too fast. But I read the Chronicles of Narnia to my kids over the summer (because Sophie wanted Kipling's Just So stories every day, over and over, and I needed to distract her so my brain could have a break) and we're going to read the Golden Compass series together next...kind of presenting both views, the extremely religious and the opposite.
I was thinking about it just now, and by the time I was 12, I was already reading books written for adults. Sometimes my mother would find it propped open somewhere and pick it up out of curiosity and find something she objected to (not difficult to do, we were Catholic) and then she would take my book away 
and I would have to finish reading it the next time I went to the library. I read about all kinds of things and I think I turned out fine 
It's only now as an adult that I've been going back and reading some of the young adult books that I skipped over as a kid.
Books aren't as bad as music lately...I had to tell my 7 year old that if I heard her say "disco stick" one more time I would wash her mouth out with soap...her aunt told us she's TTC, and Val said, "Oh, you're going to have to ride on Uncle Al's disco stick if you want that baby!"
Uh, apart from the 12/13 year-olds falling in love, disappearing for an afternoon and coming back with an 'afterglow'!!
I don't remember that part
It happens at the end of the third book. It's beautiful and heartbreaking, but it's all there if you're older and understand.
Books aren't as bad as music lately...I had to tell my 7 year old that if I heard her say "disco stick" one more time I would wash her mouth out with soap...her aunt told us she's TTC, and Val said, "Oh, you're going to have to ride on Uncle Al's disco stick if you want that baby!"
I must be getting old because I don't understand anything of that.
What? Am I understanding correctly that your 7yo said that?
Yes. She sits next to Mini-Thug at school and she was singing that Lady Gaga song and he asked if she knew what a disco stick was. She thought it was a dancing thing, but he wrote it out and then crossed out all but the first two and last two letters to show her what the song was about.
She already asked me all the facts of life, which we told her with no slang involved...got that book from the library that shows the chickens doing it, then dogs doing it, then two people in a bed under blankets, then pages with the baby growing 
Anyhow, she took that knowledge and applied the slang to it.
And I bought a couple of bars of Ivory soap just in case.
That Twilight series made me want to kick a dog. No kidding, Bella has got to be the stupidest twit of a girl ever portrayed in a book series.
lol
My daughter's read them (borrowed, thankfully - didn't waste her money on them!), so they were hanging around for a while. She soon realised what trash they were. I skim-read a couple and thought I'd have to gouge my eyes out with a spoon. Couldn't believe that people were comparing it to lovely, funny, deep Harry Potter.
That Twilight series made me want to kick a dog. No kidding, Bella has got to be the stupidest twit of a girl ever portrayed in a book series.
lol
My daughter's read them (borrowed, thankfully - didn't waste her money on them!), so they were hanging around for a while. She soon realised what trash they were. I skim-read a couple and thought I'd have to gouge my eyes out with a spoon. Couldn't believe that people were comparing it to lovely, funny, deep Harry Potter.
That's what I'm saying!
We LOOOOVE Harry Potter! I never go interested in the Twilight series and I see I didn't miss much. But, yeah, some books are a bit much for certain ages. But just like someone else said, I read a lot of books I probably shouldn't have either! For example "The Color Purple" when I was 10. Though not overly sexual, very age inappropiate. And by far the worse "Forever" by Judy Blume when I was about 10 as well! I had no idea. I was thinking about "Super Fudge" and her stories like that, but they were all grouped together.
Well I read all the Twilight books and loved them. I have also read all of Harry Potter books and loved them as well. I do think some of the stuff near the end of the fourth twilight book might be borderline for some ages though. But since it is not graphic my daughter will probably read also and she is 10.
Most kids know about sex and drugs long before parents would even consider talking to them about it. I think it is better for them to hear the truth from me and not some fantasy version from their peers. I was also exposed to most of this same stuff at a young age and I have never once done any drugs, never drank (till I was 18.) and I had already graduated and moved out of my parents house when I got pregnant.
Even though I was exposed to all the "bad stuff" very young, my mother taught me right from wrong and what kind of person I wanted to be and how to make my own decisions without falling into peer pressure.
i agree, it seems like more and more is creeping it's way to kids these days. everywhere you look/listen there is sex, drugs, etc. it's hard to keep kids aways from it all.
BUT i think the most important thing is the parents. i don't agree with people freaking out over all the "crap that is on t.v." or the "horrid music on the radio" etc because they don't want their kids to see/hear it. to me, that's what a parent's job is: protect your kids. teach your kids. don't cry and whine because something is out there. teach them what's right and what's wrong. teach them morals.
i'm glad to see that everyone here seems to be stepping up and doing their part as parents. i think it's important for parents to play active roles in their kids' lives. you're all protecting your kids. i'm glad that you're reading their books so see if it's appropriate. i'm glad that you're telling them that if you repeat that song their will be repercussions. to me, that's what parenting is!
oh, and in case you were wondering (which i'm SO sure you were 
) : yes, i'm completely enthralled with twlight, and i admit it. don't get me wrong, i do believe bella's an idiot, but, as i'm sure you've guessed, my heart lies with edward 
... hey, i'm old enough! robert pattinson? YES PLEASE! i have a thing for the moody, brooding types.
in my defense though, my top favorite books are: to kill a mockingbird, the great gatsby, and night (elie wiesel). see? i DO have a brain, just sometimes it gets sidetracked with handsome vampires.
as far as i can tell (i've only heard the song in it's entirety once... i don't "do" radio) it's part of... the male anatomy?
on another note: "night" was incredible. very moving.
how's THAT for diversity?
i've always said my brain was full of random, mish mash, (sometimes) pointless, fun, little tidbits.
Oh is that what they're calling it nowadays! 
I have a child that has been able to read since she was 4. You couldn't keep books out of her hands. She could read college level textbooks by the time she was in second grade. She would read whatever she could get her hands on. As she got older I found it more and more difficult to "censor" what she was reading because she could have a full book read in an afternoon. I tried to keep her from reading "Harry Potter" because our church discouraged it, so after much argument from my daughter about how she isn't so stupid to know the difference between fiction and reality I decided to read the book for myself. I personally didn't see anything wrong with them. If fact, I'd have to admit I enjoyed them myself. So, I finally gave in and let her read them. But she made a very good point. Every child is different. If a child is mature enough to distinguish reality from fiction, I don't think they should be treated like they are not. I quit censoring my daughters books when I felt she had reached that maturity level. My daughter is now in college studying to become a music professor and wants to double major in English Literature. Not too bad. Personally, I think more parents would be blown away if the knew some of the stuff their children were text messaging back and forth to each other. That is where I draw the line. I have both Pix and text messaging blocked on my childrens cell phones. Maybe if more parents did that it would cut down on some the violence we have in schools, because kids are starting fights to post them on youtube. Don't believe me, go to youtube and check out the teenage fights on there.
gosh, i guess you are if your brain doesn't automatically go THERE when you hear "disco stick"! jeeze, man! (please sense my sarcasm!)
i think it's safe to assume anything with the word "stick" involved with today's popular "music" is probably no good!
and can we talk about the word "lollipop"?! my 10 year old niece had that song as her ringtone!!!!!!!! yeah, i pride myself on being the "cool, hip aunt" but I AIN'T THAT COOL!
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