with a kid, it seems worthwhile to know your kid's sensitivities at a given age (at this point, I'm not talking about Casper or any specific kid, just the idea of monitoring what media your kid consumes) and make that judgment call of "Hey, this might upset you; do you want to pass on it for now and maybe give it a shot later?"

This. I read Helter Skelter when I was in 8th grade. Gave me nightmares all winter.

Yeah, I think I will have The Divergent Talk tomorrow. I guess this is the epitome of tween-dom, having a kid who wants to read Little House on the Prairie (and yes, we've had a talk about what "Indian Territory" means) and Divergent at the same time.

That said, they should totes magotes be reading Garcia Marquez, damn it. Back in my day, we did!

Heh. We had to read Garcia Marquez....in Spanish Lit class. In Spanish.

Yeah, Sara's there, too. She still plays with her dolls, but she wants to play with makeup at the same time.

Yeah, Sara's there, too. She still plays with her dolls, but she wants to play with makeup at the same time.

Hey, some of us didn't grow out of that stage.

Bad example! Sorry.

No, it's a great example! I'm just really amused by it, because after I get home from my job interview today, I am going to play with the doll I was given for my birthday.

How do you feel about violent YA novels?

Interview~ma, Jilli.

I was reading wildly inappropriate things when I was not much older that Casper. My mother was sort of strict about movies and TV shows, but she never said no to a book. Although she wasn't buying them for me either. I was either buying them myself or getting them out of the library.

I was reading my mom's books when I ran out of mine. I'll never forget looking up "officious" when I read that the hotel manager was an "officious little prick" on the first page of The Shining.