Actually there is a system that enables parents to check out those kinds of materials for their children. The parents simply looks through the books the child has checked out,decides what they find inappropriate and then return it. No litigation required.

jfmoyn is right - also, you can decide whether your child has a restricted library card or not. If you restrict the library card they cannot get a book from the adult section. And, as far as purchases from stores, most younger teens do not have $ unless you give it to them. You should be checking what they buy.

Oh noes! Those kids these days will be reading books that talk about sex as though it were actually a part of what kids deal with when they are growing up! Or, ahem, maybe we have this debate every single generation and each generation of kids finds smut if they want to, and find books that deal with sexual issues in a way kids can relate to, whether the books are “banned” or not. Haven’t we been talking about this issue since Judy Blume was writing in the 70s? The Gossip Girls has just been updated to more accurately reflect the times.

`Affect’ or `effect?’ Aren’t we talking about the end result here, so shouldn’t the word be `effect?’

I think today’s kids are probably way beyond this anyway. Come on, they’re texting body parts to one another. Likely, this stuff — at least the sexual content — is lame by comparison.

The Gossip Girl books are classified as teen literature. They are written about teens for teens and based on the real life experience of the author as a teen. That said, it’s not just the Gossip Girl books that feature that sort of topic and perhaps rather than preventing your teen from reading anything of that nature (I would estimate roughly 50% of the teen books I’ve read in the last year have dealt with one or both of those issues), you encourage your teen to talk to you about the books and questions that arise from reading those things. (I would personally be more worried if my son or daughter decided to take after Nate and live on a sail boat instead of attending college.)

Didn’t we have this discussion last year? Maybe it was a different author, but the content was the same.

There is no harm moving these books to the adult section of the library and making a kid get permission from an adult to check them out. I do NOT agree with special labels or covers for these books though. It is a parents job, if they so choose, to decide what is OK and not OK for their kid to read. We have parental controls on TVs based on the rating of a program, we have parental controls on the internet based on content. Why should libraries be any different? If you are a parent that doesn’t have a problem with these books, tell the library the kid can check out any book they want.

Jennifer stole my thoughts regarding Judy Blume, as well as others about various aspects of teen sexuality in teen literature.

What is obsene about the Gossip Girls books are probably the flagrant displays of wealth. Of course, desire for money is good. Sexual desires, not so much for some people.

So I say to the Liz Stoevers and Dixie Fechtels of the world: Be a parent. Be invested in what your child read if sexual content upsets you. But, please, please stop asking for back-door book banning by moving teen topics into adult sections (frankly I don’t want them crowding out the books I do read) or “labels”. Lord, if we labeled every book in the library for every little thing one might find objectionable we would have to pass a new tax just to pay for stickers.

“It seems odd to place the Gossip Girl series next to books like the Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter and Eragon that are supposed to serve teenagers from 12 to 18.”

You do know that there are folks who object to the “magical” storylines of the Narnias and Harry Potters of the literature world?

Designated child and young adult sections at the library are helpful, but parents still need to pay attention to what’s in them. Personally I don’t think the Gossip Girls are appropriate for kids that age unless you want to use them as an abject lesson in what not to emulate.

I hate people who feel their sole purpose in life is to be a hall monitor for the rest of the world. If you don’t want your kid reading the books, then tell your kids not to read the books. Other than that, MYOFB. This is America, Land of The Free. Not Land of the Free unless it’s objectionable to you. This is supposedly a free country, if you don’t like your city’s library, Dixie Fechtel, you’re free to move to somewhere in the bible belt or Utah that shares your sentiments.