A good article in the opinion section of the New York Times on Sunday by Ann Brashares, author of the "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" series, on whether we need a rating system for young adult fiction. At first I was worried that she was endorsing such a system:

"'Rainbow Party' is not contraband in any obvious way. It's published by a children's division and sold in bookstores' young adult sections, which are usually in or adjacent to their children's sections. By its look, title and placement in the bookstore you would have no idea what you were getting. And you should at least know.

So what's the best way of telling you? Should publishers put a ratings system in place? It seems to work effectively for movies and electronic games. It's a fairly simple solution. If a book has obscenity, sexual content, drugs and drinking and violence, publishers could put an M for "mature content" on the cover."

But read a bit further and you'll find that she discusses the implications and how impossible to it would be to do it. Her insights and suggestions are good ones, and I'm glad she's not caught up in the hysteria sparked by this one book, "Rainbow Party."