Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch
I suppose I can see SOME Marion Zimmer Bradley as inappropriate for pre-teens, and some tweens. However, the Pern series is pretty damned innocuous, other than the whole "the dragons rule" in terms of sex. And even THAT is pretty much entirely off-screen, throughout. (At least, through, in the order of publication, "All the Weyrs of Pern," IIRC). There's nothing in there that would traumatize a tween/teen, IMHO. And frankly, I think a "kid" (assume 10-12) would skim right past the Queen's mating ritual bit. And certainly, her YA versions--the Harperhall trilogy--are absolutely aimed at the tween market, with NOTHING in them that I could possibly think any normal kid could find upsetting. I'm surprised to hear someone say so.
Hell, there's more violence, I think, in Narnia, than in the Pern books--unless, of course, ALL we're talking about now is SEX?
Hitch
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Marion Zimmer Bradly wrote Mists of Avalon which is recommended all over but is seriously inappropriate for pre-teens and many teenagers iirc (it's been a while since I dealt with these issues regularly).
You're also wrong about MacCaffrey - gold dragon riders being pressured to sleep with the riders of dragons who mated with their gold dragon was actually one of the problem areas (I forget what book it was in). MacCaffrey generally had problematic pressure / lack of consent around sex iirc? The YA versions of her books are probably OK - it's the adult ones that
look YAish due to cover design or back blurb that were typically problematic.
The Pern books have more violence in them than the Narnia books unless I'm wildly misremembering. Narnian violence is often implied, summarized briefly, or takes place off screen, while the Pern books actually describe the details of fights/Thread encounters or have detailed description of the aftermath, from what I remember.
It's just so varied - Night of the Baskervilles gave one kid nightmares for weeks, but other kids were fine with it. It really depends on what each kid's triggers are.
TL;DR Different people react differently.
There is no one size fits all for art. Content you find entirely reasonable will give others nightmares. Content they enjoy will give you conniptions. Blaming and shaming people for their differences is not cool.
Knowing the people in question and having appropriate tools to mitigate or address individual issues is the most important part of determining what content is appropriate. Which is why local librarians are a vital resource for getting kids interested in reading, but that's a whole other topic...