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Books should have some kind of rating system not only to help parents pick age appropriate material for their children, but so that older children can make informed decisions about their reading material. I speak from personal experience, I've been an avid reader all my life and although my mother tried to monitor my choice of reading materials when I was young, the sheer number of books that I would read in a month made approving every one impossible. If books had had a rating system that had brief content descriptors on the cover (similar to video games), I would have know that IT by Stephen King was not a good choice for a ten year old. I don't view rating systems to be censorship because they are not meant to force conformity to certain standards. There is no rule that says that a company cannot make a video game that is rated "Adults Only" (AO), most don't though because very few retailers stock them because they don't sell well. I don't believe that a book rating system should be as rigid as either movies or video games because rating the written word is a much more subjective process. I don't think that ratings should require you to be a certain age to purchase a book, but I do feel that a rating system should provide some basic age guidelines, based on the complexity of the story and on the subject matter. A rating might read, "Suggested for age 13 and up. Contains scenes with explicit violence, moderate use of foul language, and implied sexual behaviors." I don't think that a rating would need to be displayed on the front cover, most people read the synopsis that appears on the back cover or inside flap and that would probably be a good place to put the rating box. Ratings would be most useful in young adult fiction because it has become such a broad classification, the target age group goes from around ten to early twenties and the classification includes everything from Bridge to Terabithia to Gossip Girl. Ratings would break down this large and confusing classification into more easy to understand groupings and help parents choose books that are age appropriate for their children.

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