Let’s compare our books to the film rating system

Recently I had a comment on one of my posts on our Facebook page about the book The Hate You Give, by Angie Thomas. It’s one of the books that are available in the Cameron high school library that was challenged and will be reviewed.

In this Facebook post, they mention that the book was made into a movie and that it’s only rated as PG-13. The implication being that this book should be perfectly acceptable for kids to read.

First off, the movie is rated determined by the content of the movie, not the book it is based upon. The movie is never exactly like the book. The film directer can, and usually does, leave out elements that would earn them an R rating when they want a larger and younger audience to watch the movie. The movie version of a book is not a direct reflection on the content of that book.

However, this commenter does inadvertently make my point for me. Let me explain.

If the movie version of the book did indeed include every scene and all the language as it is written in the book, the motion picture associations film rating committee would rate it as Restricted. In movie form, the students in Cameron high school would not be allowed to view that version of the movie!

RESTRICTED.Children Under 17 Require Accompanying Parent or Adult Guardian.These films contain some adult material. An R-rated film may depict adult activity, hard language, intense graphic or persistent violence, sexually oriented nudity, drug abuse or other elements.Parents are counseled to take this rating very seriously. Children under 17 are not allowed to attend R-rated films unaccompanied by a parent or adult guardian. Parents are strongly urged to find out more about the particular film in determining its suitability for their children. Generally, it is not appropriate for parents to bring their young children with them to R-rated movies

Movie Rating Stem PDF on https://www.filmratings.com website

So what content is really in the book?  we highly recommend the site Book Looks and will provide a link to the PDF for The Hate You Give.  Go verify our work. The language alone in this book would certainly earn it a rated R rating. Our school district cannot play rated R movies with this kind of language for students.  Why then can they provide books with the same content that would be prohibited in a movie?