To Judge a Book by its Cover

A detailed Summary of To Judge a Book by its Cover

For as long as the quill has been able to catch thoughts on paper, writers have created socially disturbing material. Years ago, the acceptability of a book was either met by beheading the writer, or honoring him with a seat at the queen's table. How times have changed. America, home to freedom of intellect, speech, and expression, has created an environment that allows objectionable material within easy reach of young children. The framers of the Constitution could never have imagined how controversal the First Amendment has become in view of writers unshackling themselves of any shred of morality by authoring pieces of literature that most would find offensive, yet some would find enlightening. Library shelves across the nation are ripe with inappropriate books, within easy grasp of any minor, that have the potential to warp young minds.

Presently, just about anyone, regardless of age, can wander the aisles of local libraries and peruse the contents of any book and then check it out with virtually no safeguards in place. A parent's signature is required when initially opening the account to ensure checked out material is returned, but after that, youngsters basically have carte blanc

American Library Association. Library Bill of Rights. Washington: ALA Council, 1948.

he access to everything the library has to offer. Parents may never see what their adolescents are finding of interest. The minds of children, full of curiosity, snooping and filling the void that parents have good reason to make elusive, greedily lap up the dribble of some warped author's pen. Shelves and rows loaded from floor to ceiling with books containing pictures of art illustrating various sexual positions, manuals graphically depicting murder victims, books upon books full of political ideologies, rape, sex, illegal acts, how-to books showing bomb construction--the list is endless. How can impressionable minds of children be exposed to such mature material? Now is the time to start rating books. Television programs, video games, movies, even music is filtered by some rating system. The movie rating system has been in place for decades; the book rating system can be just as simple. A restriction sticker or stamp describing the objectionable content on the cover and giving an age-appropriate notice for reading is all it takes.

Norton, Kyle. "Lesson Learned From Littleton." Rocky Mountain News 17 June 1999, National Column.: A1-A3.

Both, the Library Bill of Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were adopted in late 1948. Since then, masses of objectionable material have come to rest on library shelves. The post war movement of World War II raised a lot of questions concerning censorship after the book burni

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Approximate Word count = 1040
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English