I think any review, blog- or otherwise, should mention the "jackass" that closes It's a Book (although I don't think you can hold a book trailer to the same standard). But also, MR, that blog reviews "can and will go" where professional reviews don't is not necessarily a good thing. I could start a blog (or a magazine, for that matter) that gave page numbers for every hell, damn, shit or fuck I found in a children's book and I guarantee you lots of people would find that useful. Doesn't make it the right thing to do.

I've been talking about "It's a Book" on MotherReader.com for that reason. I saw the book in F&G, and then was annoyed that the book trailer – by leaving out the end – presented a book that everyone was calling "adorable." Throw in the ending of "It's a book, jackass." and we're talking about a different kind of book or target age group altogether. Yes, I understand that a book trailer is not the whole book, but this felt more like a bait n' switch. I think that's the sort of information people should have when choosing a book for a collection or personal use.

Those unfamiliar with this genre may be enlightened by going to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slash_fiction

Lyle Blake Smythers

I'd love to see the two girls from the series as a cute teen lesbian couple solving mysteries in high school. But I don't imagine Elizabeth Levy is goin' there. Somebody else needs to write such a series (beyond Nancy Drew slash).

But there's that other sort of stuff, like a certain famous scene in Looking for Alaska. Should that be mentioned? I would imagine educators, particularly those in religious schools, really do need to know about such issues. But it is so hard to do this because it's not the same reviewer reading every book. So a liberal reading Looking for Alaska might not comment on the sex, while I've seen reviews from conservative reviewers that make fairly mild books sound like smut. That's really not fair, and it seems to happen most often with first-time authors (for whom reviews are that much more important since they have no readership), where the reviewer didn't know what to expect. Reviewers know that Chris Crutcher's books contain the F-word, so they don't mention it, but they might mention milder language in a new author's book.

And everyone's standards are different. I might not have a problem with my kids reading a book with the word, jackass, in it while others think that "stupid" is a bad word, So unless there is some kind of uniform standard, such as that the particular journal *always* mentions the presence of certain swear words or thorny issues, it's hard to do. But then, you're getting into a whole "counting up the swear words" mentality, which considers the parts of the book over the whole. And, as you said, the review is only so long.

My gut reaction is that, if the language or issues are surprising in light of the age range of the book (Rachel Robinson being a reasonable example), they probably should be mentioned. If, otoh, the reviewer is already saying that a book is for high school, I wouldn't think a few swears or the presence of a controversial topic should be much of a shock.

But parents who can't read through a picture book at a bookstore deserve what they get.