Comments on: Why Meg Cabot Can Kiss My You Know What

By: Melissa

Melissa — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:44:06 +0000

Someone just tried to post a comment on this entry. It was a very even-keeled comment, and would have been approved except for one thing: it was anonymous. I don’t approve anonymous comments of any sort. Try again, anonymous, and use your real name or real email address, and I’ll be happy to approve it.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 04:25:04 +0000

I’m happy for my child to learn about sex from an early age. That doesn’t mean she needs to learn about it from a badly cross-promoted Meg Cabot novel.

By: Purple Butterflies

Purple Butterflies — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 20:24:20 +0000

My mother mistakenly allowed me to read the Jean M. Aule books without knowing what was in those. I was an above everage reader and got a hold of these in sixth and seventh grade. Wowee what a education and yet you aren’t talking about savage sexual acts where people are hurt, raped or such, save one scene. The acts of love making in all but the first book was a matter of a true act of sensuality between people who loved one another. In a handful of books I learned what sex SHOULD be and how it SHOULD feel.
Somehow I’ve grown up and I’m just fine and I was just fine then as well. It is my experience both as a child and a parent that “they WILL find things out on their own” if you don’t talk about it with them or are open with them. The human is by nature a curious being and the young human even more so. Why not be there with them as they learn these natural and essential parts to life?

DW Golden

By: Patti

Patti — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 16:52:32 +0000

Okay, so it’s 11 books in a year. Well, the average kid of that age I’m aware of here (coworker’s daughter) is given four or five paper back at Christmas and two or three at birthday (usually of my suggestion). That’s six to eight books. Even if she read one a month, she’d finish those in half a year. So yeah, even the non-devouring book kid can get them done.

But yes, agreed. No one has an issue with Meg Cabot writing what she wrote (which is what she seems to think is the issue). It’s the cross-promotion of the books that is at issue here… a point that seems to have been missed in her reply.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 14:22:48 +0000

You don’t think a kid in love with a series would read the whole series in a year? Or in a few months? Because that’s certainly the case with the kids I used to sell books to. I’m not sure what the “average” kid means in your viewpoint, but an 11 or 12 year old is still mostly reading books with no “academic value.” These are middle school kids. They still get to read mostly for fun.

And there were a LOT of girls who turned 13 this year waiting for the last PD book to come out, and yeah, I think they’re too young for RMH, which very well might find its way into their hands.

Also, I was an incredibly above average reader and my mom paid attention to what I was reading. She flipped through books and skimmed and read reviews when she could get them and talked to the librarian and the teacher. I didn’t play pass-the-book until I was 15 or 16.

But none of that was my issue here. My issue here was an author’s incredibly snotty and mocking dismissal of a genuine concern that I have seen echoed in other parts of the internet.

By: Jenn

Jenn — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 06:54:44 +0000

Isn’t there an issue with your math, here? You’re assuming that if a child begins to read the series at the age of 11, they’ll finish the series, not only well before their 12th birthdays, but they’ll also read RMH before their 12th birthday as well.

11 books in one year. None of them with any academic value. That’s not something the average kid would undertake.

Above average readers have already found the adult section by that age anyway. Remember how old you were when you started playing pass-the-book?

By: michele

michele — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 23:17:00 +0000

Oops. You posted about the excerpts. . . sorry. I read too fast, sometimes.

By: michele

michele — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 23:15:48 +0000

You know. . . in Forever Princess there are excerpts from Ransom My Heart. . . and while in the excerpts, the characters aren't having hard core sex, there are references to things tweens/young teens shouldn't be reading about. Things throbbing, wetness, straddling. . . ect. Forever Princess hugely pissed me off. . . and I've been a huge fan of the books up until now. If I can get my child to stop crying for more than 3 minutes (gah! bad, bad week!) I'm going to write a LiveJournal post about it.

By: Patti

Patti — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:14:39 +0000

That blog is just strange. But I agree… a book should be marketed for the age it is appropriate for.

Write books. Write picture books. Write Harlequin-esque romance. Write hard core porn for all I care. But market it as it should be.