We’ve all been there. “Mom, can I read (insert book title here)? Jonah read it, and so has everyone I know.”
What do you do? Your child (or relative, or child you have custody of) wants to read this book. You don’t have enough time to read the entire book, but you also heard a rumor that (insert book) may have (insert moral issue or adult topic) in its pages. You want your child to want to read. You don’t want him/her to get teased by his/her friends because they aren’t allowed to read it unless absolutely necessary, or, you don’t want them to miss out on this chance if it turns out to be a false alarm.
I have been there. I was in my freshman year of high school. I had been reading Rick Riordan’s novels for years. The House of Hades had recently come out. I was with my friends discussing the novel. One of them mentioned something about a problem in it. My mom had me wait to read it until my friend’s mom had finished proofreading it. When my friend’s mom finished it, she let my co-op know about the details of the issue we were worried about, and told us the page numbers of when it was mentioned. My parents approved of the novel and let me read it, but not until we sat down and had a discussion about the problem Rick Riordan covers. I think my parents also wanted me to write something on it, too.
It is pretty much impossible to keep a child 100% pure/innocence in these times. Whether it is television, the internet, people on the street, etc…the world is just so impure. Sadly, when I write summaries and information about various books, there WILL be topics covered/mentioned that don’t go along with innocence, because of the content of each book. I can’t regulate the content of the books. I am going to hopefully be as blunt and to the point as possible. So I will pretty much give details about issues with the author’s book content (things some adults may not want their kids knowing about). I want to give parents a way to know about a certain book without having to read it to approve it.
I came across a blog a year or two ago about books. The person who had it would write on the books (she?) was reading. I think that was where my inspiration for this part of the blog came from. At one point this blog was going to be reviews pretty much until I evolved it into this blog you see here.
I am not perfect. I do not know each of you individually. I can’t promise the book will be just as I covered it, and that there will be nothing else that may bother you. Let’s face it, so many people have different ideas of morals, and different ways of raising their kids and teenagers. I can be used as a source to get an idea of what the book may have in it, but I should not be the only source you use when choosing books for your child.
Also, each book I am going to cover I have read or studied in school. This doesn’t mean I have read the book recently, or that my memory will be perfect, or that I have read the entire book cover to cover. I am hoping to be able to write in the beginning of each summary how I learned about the book. Most of the books/series I should have read fully.
I hope I somehow help someone with this big issue. 🙂
Words, Words, Words! 