I loved this article because it brought back so many good memories of being 11 and 12 and reading thoroughly crappy books. I ploughed through the Flowers in the Attic series as well as the craptacular "Heaven" series. I remember reading everything from Harlequin romances to pulpy fantasy like the sexed-up Dragonlance books. At the time those books were so electric, and now, they just seem sad and I can't enjoy them at all. I think it would truly be a shame for parents to micromanage what their children read, no matter how disturbing, scary or morally questionable the material. I eventually moved on to more acceptable reading material, but those escapist thrills were some of the best parts of my early teen years!

I also read the Dragonlance books as a child, and though I agree they are nearly unreadable now, I'm not sure where you get the idea that they are 'sexed up'. Examples please, because I merely thought of them as a poor man's Lord of the Rings...In fact, I don't remember one scene of sex in the whole series(and I read them all, up until the Gods left after fighting with Chaos).