Good. As a teacher, if I saw a student reading, I didn't give a flying fuck if it was "age appropriate" at all; I was all "Get on with yer bad reading self!"
I had a coworker who really wanted to ban Zane novels from classrooms (high school) and I was flat-out "No. You can do what you wish in your classroom, but if they're done with work, and reading a novel (I DID ban manga with nudity), it is up to their parents to determine what is appropriate."
Books that I knew were glorifying gang life and violence, espcially with kids I knew were mixed up with gangs, I would read, and talk with the student about what was and was not realistic and/or biased, and had some great talks with kids on some very tough subjects. Same with the Zane novels. I had a 17 y.o. girl use one as a book report and she delivered a really thoughtful analysis of relationships.
I think I was twelve when I started with true-crime and I turned out...well, never mind.
Although I also read a lot of Lois Duncan.
Me, too, erika. For my 7th grade history class, I wrote my term paper on Leopold and Loeb.
At that age I was mostly readinf trashy romance novels, and I was never told not to.
sf, see that's what my 6th grade teacher wigged the hell out on. @@
I got into my mother's Wambaugh novels and freaked her out with homely little nuggets like "Do you know people try to get high off pencil lead? Of course, it doesn't work."(I really should have changed more, don't you think?)
Kathy, considering Law&Order still continually dips in that well, you've got decent taste in mayhem.
When I was thirteen, I think I read "Wifey", sj. More women's fiction than romance as such, but...
Heh, at 10 I was all up into "Clan of the Cave Bear." At 12, it was "Valley of Horses" and I was EXTREMELY popular for being able to turn right to the sexy parts and do dramatic readings by the pool in our apartment complex that summer for the girls.
IOAmazingLiteraryN, Edna Ferber just sent me Cialis spam.
Huh.
I can vouch for the Spiderwick Chronicles being fine for a 5 year old. They are pitched a little older than that (protagonists are 8-10) but my 5 year old was not scared (beyond a little happy-scared), and there's nothing for normal parents to object to. (Parents who object to anything supernatural on principle would have trouble, but if you're okay with fairies, you're good.)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory may not be gothy per se, but it certainly put a certain way of thinking in my head that isn't far from it, IMO. And a good Edgar Allen Poe collection of short stories can get by as a "classic" despite the fact that any number of those stories are potentially traumatic (or would that be revelatory) in a really interesting way .
Not that I'm talking from childhood experience or anything.
