While the librarians at the Des Plaines Public Library have effectively dealt with the request to rate all children`s books, I`ve a suggestion for the distraught mothers.
Form a committee and spend two days a week at the library reading all the books in the juvenile section and creating your own list. Another person`s idea of improper material might not be the same as yours. If you get six people with similar sensibilities and each reads 20 books per day, it will only take 417 days to complete your list.
My own thoughts are that kids should be allowed to read anything and everything. If they have a sense of values and the security of knowing their parents support their choices, no one publication will ruin their minds for life.
How can you cherish ”good” books if you`ve never read any ”bad” ones? Labeling books as ”adult” makes them irresistible to kids. Let them read adult books; they`ll probably find them boring. Most of the really great literature is usually labeled for children (”The Velveteen Rabbit,”
”Charlotte`s Web”) but should really be read, and re-read, by adults.
