No books left...

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“All of us can think of a book... 

that we hope none of our children 

or any other children 

have taken off the shelf. 

But if I have the right

 to remove that book from the shelf - 

that work I abhor - 

then you also have exactly the same right 

and so does everyone else. 

And then we have 

no books left on the shelf for any of us.” 

~ Katherine Paterson

I believe that parents should pay attention to the books that their children are reading and discuss them with their children. If there is a book a parent disapproves of, I believe that parent has the right to restrict his or her own children's access to it, particularly when they are young. 

However, I also believe that no parent (or anyone else, for that matter) has the right to say which books other children can or cannot read. Things that I might find offensive, others may not -- and vice versa. As Paterson says, if we each got rid of the books we don't like, there would soon be no books left. And what a sad, sad day that would be.