i love the whole series of this and i did not even think about those issues until i read this thread.
what i load of rubbish wanting to ban it . if they do that then the kids will just want to read it more. and if the parents are ok then it shouldn't be an issue.
lol, its pathetic really that they would ban twilight which is really aimed at tweens, there is no SEX blatantly spread across the page etc, they are quite tame in comparison to say virginia andrews "flowers in the attic" which was available from my private, catholic, all girls school library!
Oh my the flowers in the attic series and her other books had soo much sex! Incestual too wasn't some of it? I read alot of those books in highschool - Mum didn't know what i was reading! In the end VA books are basically all the same. I've not read the twighlight books so can't comment there.
The virginia andrews books definitely shouldn't have been for primary school reading though!
I gave the series to my niece after I finished them because she is an Edward fan. I'm not sure if she read them or not. I'm not sure if they're appropriate for primary age or not. I would have thought they're better suited to teenagers.
I'm a big advocate of encouraging reading by allowing children to choose their own books.
That said, if a parent thinks that a book inappropriate or not in keeping with the values that they're trying to instill in their children then they have my full support. If I didn't want my children to read something I would like to be supported in that - after all they will be able to read it as adults if they want.
I always figured Twilight was an early teen thing and less a pre-teen thing? Could be totally wrong though, not having read it myself.
I guess I interpret these decisions as a control thing. If there is a school where some/many parents want to discourage their children from certain books until they hit high school, then perhaps asking children not to bring those books to school is sensible. I mean, we're always talking about parents taking responsibility for the media/content their children interact with, so if a parent decides their child shouldn't read something til year 7 then I guess that needs to be respected.
Yes I agree - it should be the parent's choice, what they believe is acceptable for their child to read. I think there is a big difference to the books being available in the library (though the age probably should be limited for certain books) than say, if the teacher were using it as a class novel that everyone had to read.
Quite frankly, I don't mind if the library at school is banning them. I think it is a parental thing to determine what books are appropriate and if the child wants to read a certain book and it is not available at the school, then ask their parents and surely mum or dad could take them to the local library or purchase the book if the child is that interested.
TBH I very rarely read books from my school library as they didn't appeal to me. My mum would take me to the local library at least once a fortnight to exchange the books I had checked out. It was a great mother/daughter experience as it always turned into a coffee/hot chocolate chat session.
I think banning books is quite controversial in any regards. But I have to say I don't really think it is suitable for primary school children mostly due to the amount of sexual references, but also due to the violence in the book although I wouldn't pinpoint it just to violence against women but there is certainly detailed violence in there. Although I wouldnt support banning I also wouldn't go and recommend it to a pre-teen. Just my opinion.
Years ago they banned the book Puberty Blues for the very same reason, even though Puberty Blues is about as close to real teenage life as you can get - it's a book that resonates through the generations. Same thing with harry potter - fair enough a lot of the 'argument' with those books were the witchcraft v religion issues but personally I think it's because a lot of the issues and themes that are in these books are just too complicated for young kids kwim? Personally I think books are fine so long as you know your kids are fine with reading them and understand the difference between fiction and reality.
Trillian - Yep totally know what you mean. The way the people in this other forum were talking it was like girls (mainly) would take away with them that it's OK for a man to bash them up because they are the sexy girls that turned them on...KWIM? HA Puberty Blues was on here the other day...DH had never seen it before but he was transfixed! It's real life....exactly...Twilight is nothing but a fantasy and I like to keep it that way!!
Well actually my dfaughter commented on the violence to women in this book! I haven't read all of it - but I could see what she meant. I am not sure where DD14 has got her feminist leanings...
I was happy she could identify what was happening - that it wasn't taken on subliminally as being okay...
I know! it's absolutely riveting watching it it. When I first saw it I was 10 and so many of the concepts just went right over my head, but when i saw it again in my late teens it just *clicked* and it made complete sense. I have it on DVD and will make my own kids watch it when they are older.
Anyway I digress LOL. I think the Wowsers who carry on about this a bit too much just don't give the people reading these books the benefit of the doubt that they can differenciate between what goes on in the books and what goes on in real life - I mean for a start it's about vampires!
ETA - missed your post Deb I think girls who read it wouldn't be able to miss the violence but they aren't going to let it be acceptable behaviour IRL.
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