15 June, 2013

Book Ratings -- Do they exist?

The answer is "Yes", and here's why: Books have always been distinguished by their audience, whether that be for children or for adults. Other categories have since arose based upon ages, which means we now have a more comprehensive rating system:
  • Children
    • Picture Book (ages 0-5)
    • Early Reader (ages 5-7)
    • Chapter Book (ages 7-12)
  • Middle Grade (MG) (ages 8-12) Note: This appears to be the term replacing "Chapter Book".
  • Young Adult (YA) (ages 12-18)
  • New Adult (NA) (ages 18-30)
  • Adult (ages 25+)
Common sense tells you that this lines up with the movie industry's ratings:
  • G
  • PG
  • PG-13
  • R
  • NC-17
Adult will not necessarily be NC-17, obviously, since there're so many romance novels that feature platonic love, not erotic; but at least a classification exists that will guide a reader in their choices. If we think of book ratings in terms of the MPAA ratings, then we, as readers, can make presumptions about the possible content.

For more on the MPAA film rating system, check out this explanation here.
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Ash Litton

Ash Litton is a writer and lover of sci-fi, fantasy, and all things fictional. She is the author of Thoroughbred, Evening Hallow, Comeuppance, and Cabover Cabaret, and works on other Appalachian Dream Tales between her ongoing novel projects. She's also written No Diet, No Surgery, No Sweat, an ebook chronicling her weight-loss journey.

When she's not writing, she's drawing, and when she's not doing either of those, she's dreaming up new projects to work on. Born and raised in rural West Virginia, Ash has always wondered what things lay hidden in the hills around her. She attended West Virginia University, where she studied the English language before returning home to her family in rural West Virginia.