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All children's books already have a built-in "rating" system unless they are self-published and purchased only by the author's family and friends.

Editors have in-house standards when they publish, knowing that educators and librarians as well as book store owners are extremely careful about what they purchase. Then parents/relatives/friends buy all the books for children until they are at least 8 or 10 years old.

This does not mean to say that every parent will approve of all the books an editor, educator or librarian chooses. The Harry Potter series, for instance. Personally, I think they are wonderful, and I know they turned two non-reading grandkids "onto" books, but not everyone approves of the Harry and his friends even if the "good" always wins out. And hey, kids have always known what is fantasy and what is real. Today's children know that witches and wizards aren't real even if some of their parents don't seem to realize the fact. Fantasy can be engrossing, entertaining and, yes, moralistic. Although the best morals aren't ever stated in fiction - they are shown, just as they are shown within the Potter books.

However, if parents don't approve, they can forbid these books. And, like Harry and friends or not, I do believe that parents do and should hold control of what their children read. I just hope that parents who object to any certain book (including the "gay" topics that are causing the current uproar) explain to their children why they object to this particular book - at whatever level the child's development is at. "We don't believe what is said in these books," at a very young age level to more advanced explanations for older children.

As for "older" level age books which good readers will find, parents need to be real. Anything you truly disapprove of can be stated as, "Read them when you are older and have control of your own life."

Children will read the books, of course, whether parents approve or not. I was older than the Harry Potter beginner age, but I can still remember getting caught with "Peyton Place" beneath my mattress. But I'd read it all first. It wasn't even that good. Not near worth the fight true literature (much of Nabrokov) was worth. But my mother's willingness to let me read something actually approved by instructors might have kept me away from some of the garbage.

I also had "Lolita" under that mattress since my mother insisted it, also, was "nasty!" I'm not even sure where she got her information since she swore she'd never read it. "Lolita," of course, is best understood by slightly older readers than I was at the time, but it is a classic novel and an excellent study of one aspect of the human condition - an aspect all too prevalent in today's society. None of my "mattress" books did me any lasting harm. From two of them I actually gained insight into the human condition.

"Lolita" was about as close to pornography as I could have imagined in those days - until a boyfriend showed me a little "comic book" he'd bought at a pawn shop that did under-the-counter porn in those days. Now THAT was porn and even then, I agreed with my mother. "Nasty."

So long as children aren't reading actual porn - and I know there is worse out today than that long-ago comic book -some things simply won't hurt them. "Peyton Place" was no great novel, but it was mostly what we now consider "real life" versus fiction. Parents can (and should) control what their children read, but they should also know the differences between the good, the mediocre and the "nasty." Most kids can learn a lot from the first, not be harmed by the second and protected from the third.

Learn more about this author, Margaret Shauers.
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