The headline to a piece about the above book goes like this-
Rape, abortion, incest. Is this what CHILDREN should read?
The book itself is a well-received teenage novel which does indeed deal with the above subjects. However, to obfuscate the matter The DM writer, Danuta Kean, while stating it is for teenagers seems to equate teenager with child and the word 'child' is used frequently instead of it.
She writes: Her book may be elegantly written, but it's hard not to shudder at the kind of nightmares an 11- year-old would have if they picked it up. She goes on to write: ...this is a distorted image that owes much to the soft porn pumped out almost daily by Channel 4 in shows like Big Brother and the controversial teen drama Skins
I don't watch Big Brother but I certainly do watch Skins (see my earlier entry for details) and the one thing it isn't is soft porn. Neither is the rest of C4's output but what the hell it's a good smear.
Typically of the Daily Mail, Kean appears to present both sides of the argument while shoving in loaded statements such as the one above and casting doubts on the motives of those who would support the book.
I was so annoyed by this article that I submitted my own opinion on the matter to them, including my own experiences (nothing drastic but nevertheless...) of paedophilia. Oh, all right: a swimming baths attendant who used to expose himself to barely pubescent boys, forced his way into cubicles to touch the genitals of his favourites -not me, thankfully; then there was the guy on my Sunday paper round where I had to collect the money who always had his pajama fly wide open when he answered the door.
They didn't print it. Perhaps they didn't like my conclusion:
It's ignorance which harms children, not knowledge.
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