Danette's always wishing!!
Here I go again. Wishing and wishing. I wonder if I overuse the word?
I love to read and I am guessing most of you do too. But I don't want to pick up books that have a lot of foul language. I've made a choice that I am not going to read that in a book; I hear enough of that kind of thing all around me. Do I need to read it too? NO!
I would love to know when I choose a book what the rating is beforehand.
For example:
No cuss words= 1 rating
1 cuss word= 2 rating
2 cuss words & some sex= 3 rating.
etc, you get the picture..
What about you? How do you feel about ratings?? Share here:
I think book ratings are a fabulous idea--we should pitch that to Goodreads!
ReplyDeleteMy problem is that I feel like I'm always compromising somewhere. I'm willing to deal with a movie or book with some of the less "bad" cuss words because the book doesn't have bedroom scenes. And I'm willing to let my kids read Lord of the Rings & watch the movies where there is a lot of violence (and in the movies, some pretty graphic violence), because there is no swearing or bedroom scenes/sexual content.
So it's really nice to be able to pick up a book, like "On the Edge of Wishing," and know I just don't have to deal with any unpleasant surprises in the form of language, graphic violence, or sexual content.
Or watch a movie, like Gifted Hands (the Ben Carson story, I think?) that is much lower on the cussing scale, and has a wonderful moral.
I often ready YA literature at around the 6th grade level because it's still
1) Clean
2) Has strong morals/true north principles
I have issues with Hunger Games because of the disturbing nature of children killing children, even though as an adult I appreciate the reality of the book (the heroine is not a heroine, but a survivor) and all the social commentary on the ills of society, from the ugliness of reality tv & plastic surgery, to that of a dystopian society. But I have requested Bryce NOT read them at the tender age of 13. I do not think they are good YA books.
I feel the same way about the Divergent rage. I read all three books, and then when Bryce wanted to read them, I read them again, and while I was personally ok with the violence not being too bad, the the themes of the ugliness of dystopian societies (wherein our agency is forced/removed), but the love story between Four and the heroine is way too adult for 12-14 yr olds to be reading.
Which is why I love the City of Ember stories, and The Alliance. And Princess Academy.
I still love books like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and yet I know there's "junk" in there.