by Allison Umsted

Created on: October 15, 2008

Ratings on books?! Absolutely not! I think that takes away an important freedom of children. Parents these days depend too much on society to assist them with parenting. Parents should be more involved and aware of their children's interests. Reading in my opinion is not encouraged enough today. Literature, whether it be science fiction, inspirational fiction, or nonfiction, is a freedom of the mind. It allows children and readers to expand their vocabulary, grow with creativity, and at times step away from the hubbub of reality for a while. Books are not the same as movies, they are so much more! Books require much more thinking and can have greater depth. If a child has the intellectual capacity to read, understand, and analyze books of their choice than why stop them? Blocking them from movies that are inappropriate is one thing, but discouraging them from reading things that require using their mind, imagination, and new vocabulary is what is wrong with our society. Creativity, imagination, and analytical thought should be applauded. Let them learn to form their own opinion, its inevitable, let them gain the right tools to do it right! Kids are our future. Forcing them to conform to "what is right," is just cutting short their ability to believe in themselves and make a difference in this world. Rating books to "help parents," will not change much of anything as far I'm concerned. Parents who aren't involved won't pay attention to what their child reads, and parents who do, well maybe its time for you to pick up a book. If parents want to shelter their children by not letting them read books about witches, wizards, or whatever folklore and fantasy, so be it. But they are not helping their child, they are showing them not to use their imagination. We all know that those are fictional things of the imagination, parents should be the ones to make light of it instead of making things seem so serious and evil. Literature is such a wonderful exercise for the mind. Every child should be aloud to explore the adventures of reading a great book. We already rate books for children, teens, young adults, etc. This is for the level of reading to match the age. If a kid is ready for the next level, let them decide, they know what their brain is capable of. Don't rate books for level of appropriateness, who's to say what is appropriate? Parents do your job, and let your children use their minds bravely.

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