Stephen King books

[srboone]

I'd also like to mention I don't see anything wrong with children reading King books. I'm not sure what the issue is. The instances of sex/sexual abuse? Violence? Horror? Racism? I think King pretty clearly outlines that the characters in his stories who do 'bad things' are villains. I learned a lot from his stories growing up (for the better) and I look forward to my kids reading them too, if they enjoy horror. I do recall a moment that now makes me giggle, back when I was 8 and reading It for the first time. There's a part where a teen is either jerking off or being jerked off. I think King described it as a 'growing snake' or something similar, and I thought that the situation was indicating that the guy had magical powers, able to transform a snake into his pants. Ah, the days of innocence

When I was in college, I created a stir in the English Department by turning in a paper title "Stephen King: Young Adult Author." My thesis was that while King did not fit the traditional criteria of a YAA, young adults were reading him and that qualifies him as one. (I don't know how King feels about that.) This was 1986, The Talisman had just been released in paperback and it was in HC. I had alread been scheduled for a 15-minute presentation on this paper, but the English chair suggested I present something else. When I refused, he just shook his head. I was last in line to present and everybody was bored to tears when I got to the lecturn, but I was up there for over an hour due to questions people were asking. I was feeling really good until i got my grade: C. Oh well....