The fourth (Tehanu) is an exceptionally well done, and appropriately done IMO, look at child sex abuse, but the first three (to me the classic three) should be 'safe'. In recent years LeGuin expanded the trilogy and there's now well more than three. A drunk poet i think, but that kind of figure has a safe spot in my cultural heritage.Īs for fantasy, i remember loving the Wizard of Earthsea series, which i read when i was a 12 or 13 year old boy. If for some reason one doesn't want any mention of sex and drugs (hey, to each their own), i think A Canticle For Leibowitz is probably one of the best SF books i ever read, and i don't remember there being sex or drugs in it. Snow Crash, from memory, made good use of sex and drugs, well integrated into the plot. I think a distinction should be made between something like Snow Crash which includes sex and drugs as part of the plot, and works which sprinkle them out meaninglessly or for simple titillation (i have fond memories of reading those as a 13 year old). Kids his age need to have reading of their own without Mommy picking it out for him. I could just make him stick with the classics, but that would suck. I think it's really sad that I have to read books before giving them to him. I guess I'll re-read the book before I give it to him.

It would be nice to have some sort of rating system for books too.

We have ratings on movies and video games and that doesn't hurt sales at all. While I am against government censorship and banning books and all that, I just think there needs to be some way we parents can determine what books are age-appropriate. It's almost as if writers throw it in because it's expected. (GAWD! I sound so darned old!) 99% of the time, it is totally unnecessary to the story. I never ran into sex in books like there is now. I don't even think there was such a category as young adult. I read a lot of science fiction and horror when I was a teenager. I read 'The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,' a young adult novel that looked like it would have boy appeal, but it was utterly depressing and talked a lot about drunk Indians and masturbation. It's like finding a needle in a haystack. There are a few books aimed at boys in there, but not many. When I go to the young adult section of the bookstore, 90-95% of the books are trashy and aimed at girls. I'm just getting really, really, really frustrated because he does have such a high reading level. When he gets home from his camping trip, we're going to have to discuss those issues. He did just read 'Little Brother' and when I read it, I found that it did have a fairly explicit sex scene in it as well as teenage drinking.

Books like snow crash