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22 June 2009

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Elizabeth

A couple of weeks ago, I found a book in the Harrods Middle Grade/Teen section labeled "Not Suitable For Younger Readers" with a big purple sticker. That gave me a serious "Huh?" moment. (And then I bought the book.)

I would have said I am anti-book label, but you've got me with that Sherman Alexie example. A heads-up would have been nice before I attempted to read in PUBLIC. At a DOG WASH!!

SamR

Caution: Dog Death stickers ... I'm writing my congressman for this to be made a constitutional amendment. A law just wouldn't be strong enough.

But really, why should movies, TV shows and video games get stickers/labels/ratings and not books? Surely, it's not because the things portrayed on TV sets are "more real" than what happens in a book?!?!?!?

Kirstin

Content stickers are useful for audience information. I am the kind of audience member who thinks Sherman's "boner" clip is outrageously good (and useful for connecting students to the writer), but I can see why others would want to be informed about the content.

Or the sticker on Alexie's book could read CAUTION: AFTERMATH OF AMERIAN INDIAN OPPRESSION EXPLORED HERE, SO WATCH OUT.

Kirstin

PS (sorry): The high school students in NH probably don't understand "Hills Like White Elephants" in the first place, so why even use it when the "objectionable content" is so veiled?

Rachel

I definetly agree with you "bookshelves of doom"... where do you start and end when you start to classify child readability level with a sticker. So many books we consider classics would automatically be considered too racy for a high school student to read if this were the case. I hope we are not starting a virtual book burning.

Arlene Allen

Um.... one of the concerned parents made a comment about not hearing language like that in the hallways of high school filled with freshmen. Yeah, right. Is she still living in 1955? I have a high school freshman in my house. I KNOW how she talks in school. Give me a break. Not only do I find it offensive as a librarian, the thought of labeling books, I find it offensive as a parent. Oh, I can't even get started!

Sarah Lennox

I think this is a great idea. Had a book been labeled violent and sexual in high school it would have never made it back to the stacks. Its a perfect way to get kids to read good books. As for the parents in this town, have they read the "classics" on that required reading? I just go a degree in English Literature and Hester Pryne and Margaret Gardner are precisely who I want my little siblings to see as upstanding characters to follow. At least Alexie is relatable to the students of today!

Kyri

I want labels saying, "WARNING: BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO SMALL FURRY ANIMALS IN THIS BOOK." That would save me a lot of personal trauma.

Also, "WARNING: APPARENTLY INNOCUOUS BOOK THAT IS ACTUALLY A FRONT FOR EXTREME RIGHT-WING PROPAGANDA." This has happened to me twice lately, once with a psychology book that I had actually bought for our library, once with a historical fiction novel in which the 5th century Roman-British characters suddenly started preaching about the evils of government interference in business.

(j/k about the labels, mostly.)

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