Censoring Children's Books

Neil Gaiman posted a link to an article about a book written by a children's novelist that has a sex scene right at the start.

I'm very pro-censorship when it comes to children, but not complete and total leaving them in the black. I think having children's books that deal with more adult situations are acceptable if they are not graphic or written in a way that makes children want to/comfortable with bad situations. (A Clockwork Orange, Lolita, Crap Books etc.) In order for ANY book to have bad things in them, I think they should be set in a horrific light.

Now, here's the author's response. It seems that she was quite open about the adult nature of her books, and there was even a warning inside the jacket of the book. If that's the case, I don't understand why journalists are prosecuting her via media. If she didn't write the book for young children, made it known that it wasn't for children...Then it's the parents fauts. Don't be an idiot, parents. If you don't want your child to be exposed to the more awful things in the world, then you should put forth effort, doncha think?

Whatever the case, the book looks decently interesting. It's called Tender Morsels and is a play off some Grimm fairy tales. I'll investigae it some more, make sure the author isn't Devil Ruining Children Incarnate as some people think, and then report back.

Reporting Back: After reading some reviews etc. it does look like it's a dark book, but the recommended reading ages are 14-up.... Fourteen makes you a freshman in high school. I'd read some pretty shifty stuff by the time I was that age, though I can understand that a good deal of people read less and therefore encounter less.

The deciding factor for me would be rather or not it's just non-stop graphic awfulness. Obviously that would be a fail.

If there was a moral/redeeming quality to it, then that's a different matter.

Deerskin by Robin McKinley for instance deals with a girl being raped by her father. But McKinley, tactfully has the character be mostly unconscience for this. This is a take on a tale of Grimm's that is pretty upfront about that going on. She also is completely open about the adult quality of the book. It has Deerskin's (main character) recovery and ability to move on from the experience and is ultimately one of my favorite books. It's a book about living, not rape. That, my friends is the difference.