Oh, dear.

[conuly]

I'm trying to pick out an inexpensive gift for somebody's kid. Naturally, I thought of books. (I have a great trouble picking out random gifts that aren't books.) Specifically, I thought of Drama - this kid isn't a big reader. If you click the link, you'll find that the top few reviews are all one star reviews, for a one star reason - OMG THERE ARE GAYS IN MIDDLE GRADE FICTION!

Now, I would never tell people to spam the upvotes. I'm just saying, if you find yourself personally moved to upvote a positive review or downvote a negative ones, you should follow the dictates of your conscience. Or, if you or your kid has read the book and feel personally moved to leave a review, you can do that.

(And no, Scholastic isn't going to concede to their little agenda and start putting content warnings on that book. Thank you, but no.)

Comments

[kyrielle]

*snicker* "Is your third-grader ready to explore the idea of bi-sexuality?"

...maybe, maybe not, but I wouldn't think a middle-grade book would be the way to do it. 3rd is not middle, people.

(Then again, I have no problem with introducing my kids to the basic concept of bisexuality. It's not like I expect middle-grade fiction to detail the actual act, and I'd be concerned about that whether it was heterosexual or not. But I wouldn't anticipate that a middle-grade reader was aimed at third graders, because hi, no.)

[conuly]

...maybe, maybe not, but I wouldn't think a middle-grade book would be the way to do it. 3rd is not middle, people.

Oooh, tough definition issue - I would consider third graders and definitely fourth graders to be able to read "middle grade fiction" - all that means is "somewhere between Magic Tree House and Twilight". I don't think it means "suitable for middle school", per se, although in Drama's case it is suitable for middle school, being written about middle school.

Part of the trickiness there is that graphic novels tend to get artificially low "reading levels" due to having fewer words per page, so Drama comes in at a 2nd grade reading level. Of course, Of Mice and Men, using the same leveling system, comes in at about a 4th grade reading level, which goes to show how stupid it is to think that reading levels have anything to do with age appropriateness. They're an imperfect measure at best.

With that said, the only act in Drama is a kiss. Which, you know, I'm okay with. It's just not that hard a conversation even if you're a bigot - "Most adults and older kids like to kiss and date people, and eventually get married. Most of them prefer to kiss and date people of the opposite sex. Some prefer to kiss and date people of the same sex." There, done.