Yep. I read in 8th grade so 1980ish. A lot of folks my age said their parents wouldn’t let them read it, but my mom read it herself and liked the way certain topics were handled.
Once, my sister met a new BFF in Law School. They stayed up late sharing drinks and swapping stories. Coincidentally, they loved the same YA trilogy by Tamora Pierce.
The friend was like, “I am so glad she didn’t marry the prince.”
And my sister said, “yeah”,
“…and she married the other guy instead”,
“What?”
“…You know, in the 4th book.”
"WHAT?
Turns out there was a bit of sex in that one.
I’m really late to this thread, and skimmed through it a bit.
I believe that while books shouldn’t be banned, there should be things in place to make things age-appropriate. Compare it to a kid going to the movies - technically, a kid can’t get into a movie that’s rated R unless they’re accompanied by a parent. Why can’t the same hold true for books? I don’t think libraries should lend books to kids that have certain types of content, unless the parent gives consent for it.
Schools definitely shouldn’t be teaching books that aren’t age appropriate. Does that amount to banning? I don’t think so, it’s just a question of teaching the proper material to students.
The uproar about certain books being used when teaching about trans individuals, where there were explicit pictures and instructions in it, were fully warranted, IMO. The book was being used to teach kids under the age of 10 in some areas. Kids that young should not be seeing pics showing oral or anal sex.
I am ok with an age rating concept for books in school with the option for parents to approve their kids checking out books that are rated above their kids age (I think most schools have a version of this). I am very much NOT OK with parents being the ones who make decisions about the age rating of a specific book or which books can be made available generally. That is a slippery slope that has been and will be abused.
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I’m not comfortable with the government rating specific books, either. We’ve seen excessive government regulation getting things like dictionaries and encyclopediae banned. The Bible bounces between being banned and allowed in some areas for being sexually explicit and violent. And of course, we see books that happen to feature gay or trans people being banned in the push to consider “trans” and “gay” as inherently sexually explicit.
So, I agree with @The_President that I don’t trust random unqualified parents to rate books, and I don’t trust the government to not push an anti-human rights agenda with their rating.
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Dumb Americans want this, though, so they don’t have to read for themselves. Cuz reading.
So go to the library WITH your kid, or just talk about what they’re reading?
I’m pretty sure most school libraries have guidelines for what is ok for elementary/middle school/high school. But again, talk to your kids.
The one book I thought my kid was reading too young was in the YA section of the public library. I naively let my 4th grader look for books in that section without considering the content might not be appropriate (for HER at that age). That’s my bad, not the library’s. And not my kid’s either bc the movie “based on” the book was suitable for a 4th grader.
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My local library has sections for baby books, young children, young adults, and adults.
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My local library built a whole new wing for youths.
When kids come to my wife’s school library asking for more-mature-themed books, she tells them she doesn’t have it and to go to the public library. It’s a middle school, and it’s somewhat liberal SoCal (not, say, Huntington Beach), so she does have some slightly more mature books there.
I just remembered a book series by Piers Anthony I devoured as a kid. There was some pretty sexually explicit material in there that I probably first encountered around age 9. I recall oral sex being described in detail.
Thankfully I survived, but I’m in therapy today. Coincidence?
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Either go with them, or build some kind of system for approval - maybe the parent can give an ok through an app or something for certain types of content.
Do they stop kids who want to check out a book that is above their age level?
Your stress (on HER) is the main point. Know your children, and what’s ok for them. Some kids may be ok with a book that describes something violent, others might not be. You have to know what each kid can handle.
Ah, just let them play video games. Reading, and feeling human emotions due to it, is for suckers!
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The key is to pay attention to your kids. As you say, go with your kids to the library, or otherwise look at the books they check out. It’s always possible if you let your small kid go to the library themselves that they’ll find a book about sex and read it while there.
I’m not terribly concerned. Porn is readily accessible to anybody with a cell phone or unsupervised access to a computer. Pearl-clutching over somebody reading a description of gay sex doesn’t even hit my radar.
In my childhood, I just went to the library and got whatever books I wanted. My parents had the ability to rifle through them. I’m ultimately glad that they didn’t censor my reading. It let me continue my love of reading, including higher “levels” than my age, and I sincerely think I learned many things faster for having that experience.
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Um, where I live elementary/middle/high school libraries are at their respective schools. So an elementary student isn’t going to the middle school library to check out books bc that’s not where they attend school.
It’s been a while, but I do think in elementary school kids were encouraged to choose books at their reading level. And the librarians were generally pretty good about knowing what books a kid might like.
I get what you’re saying. I live in the Bible Belt and my oldest was growing up in the Harry Potter era and it was a whole thing. That may have been what started me down the path of reading what she read. I wanted to know what people were objecting to and all I found was a kid’s story that included magic.
It turned into a thing where she would bring home books and say, “Mom, you have to read this one,” and we’d talk and it was fun. But yeah, maybe I was a little over the top with that one book. She read the whole series in middle school & I bought them for her on audible. 
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I am trying to decide when to let my son read a couple of books and read some comments online. There are people with cray cray beliefs about what books are inappropriate, e.g., thinking the Hunger Games should be for 18+.
What books 
My kid always checks out hot garbage from the elementary school. Kids books in general suck, and if you encourage them to pick what they want, it will suck even more.
Basically the same with TV. Let them pick and they zero in on brain melting drivel.
Not sure if this is directed at me, but it was The Princess Diaries series. The first book has girls sitting around talking about certain sexual acts and which boys might be worth giving up their virginity. It just wasn’t something I was comfortable with my 4th grader reading.
Ha! My husband was the SAH parent and had way more control over their TV watching than I did. He wouldn’t let them watch Rugrats or Sponge Bob, but he figured TLC or the Discovery Channel was fine.
This lead to my 4yo asking me if I had an epidural when she was born. I said yes, and how did she know that word. I think it was a show called Baby Story. 20 years later she still wants kids so I guess it didn’t scar her too badly…
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