Part I: Common Sense Media firestorm

For the past few days, Twitter has been ON FIRE with news and comments about Common Sense Media, and its teen book reviews posted on www.barnesandnoble.com.

It all started with a blog post by author Sarah Dessen (Along for the Ride, Lock and Key) who wrote:

Finally, I will admit that I check out my BN.com and Amazon pages every once in awhile, to read reviews and see what people are saying. I noticed recently that there’s a new addition to the BN.com page for Along for the Ride: it’s a rating system for parents from Common Sense Media. Basically, it catalogs all the things that might be offensive for readers in your books, and explains what they are and what age the book is actually appropriate for. I’m not sure how I feel about this. I mean, I’m sure it’s useful for parents. But I worry it’s breaking a book down into these pieces that don’t do justice to the whole. What do you think? Go here and scroll down until you see the rating and let me know. Especially if you are a librarian and have some experience with such things. I need some input!

Then, she asked her fellow authors for comments on Twitter:

And you can be sure they had something to say. In fact, there’s so much to say that we’re going to break this down into several installments over the next few days.

We’ll try to present both sides of the controversy and what it means to teen readers, teen authors, teachers and parents.