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BBC NEWS | Scotland | Edinburgh, East and Fife | Concern over age bands for books

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Jax Blunt
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BBC NEWS | Scotland | Edinburgh, East and Fife | Concern over age bands for books

In the normally sedate gardens of the Edinburgh Book Festival, it is causing quite a furore.

From this autumn, a number of publishing houses will “age band” their children’s books.

Each book will carry a specific marking indicating they are suitable for readers aged 5 , 7 , 9 , 11 and 13 /teen.

Sounds like a daft idea to me. I can understand publishers giving bookshops guidance on which batch of shelves to put books on, but that should be as far as it goes – I can see this putting indifferent readers in particular off – who would want to be seen reading a book age labelled as younger than themselves? Will the next part be that we won’t allow children to read books labelled as older than them? That would bring Big’s reading career crashing to a halt as she’s reading rather a lot that would be graded older I suspect.

ETA comment from Dani: There is strong resistance to this foolish idea from lots of children’s authors and illustrators. You can sign up to the campaign against it at http://www.notoagebanding.org/

Comments

12 responses to “BBC NEWS | Scotland | Edinburgh, East and Fife | Concern over age bands for books”

  1. Clare avatar
    Clare

    OT comment – sorry! Are you still in charge of the Early Years HE blogring, Jax? If so, can you email me please? 🙂
    Thanks
    Cx

    Reply
  2. Dani avatar
    Dani

    There is strong resistance to this foolish idea from lots of children’s authors and illustrators. You can sign up to the campaign against it at http://www.notoagebanding.org/

    Reply
  3. Jax avatar
    Jax

    Signed up. Thanks for the link, I’ll lift it into the post to increase visibility.

    Reply
  4. Alison avatar
    Alison

    What a stupid idea. Will go and check that link.

    Reply
  5. Rubbish Parent avatar
    Rubbish Parent

    There’s a bit of an obsession about age bands on books here – and I frequently see well meaning but misguided parents flip over books in the library and book shop and tell their children that no, they can’t have that book because they are too old/too young for it.
    Drives me nuts.

    Reply
  6. Tim avatar
    Tim

    But pretty much by the time I was eight or nine I had read all the children’s books in the library and had started on the adult section. I was offering that option to Big only the other day, when she complained she couldn’t find anything which appealed in the children’s section. She is certainly capable of reading pretty much anything she chooses, what might be more useful is a rating system like PG and R18 for adult books. I certainly don’t like the idea of children’s books being pigeonholed though.

    Reply
  7. Clare avatar
    Clare

    I felt very upset recently hearing a mother say to a child in a bookshop ‘go and choose something for me to buy you’ and then saying ‘no, I’m not buying that for you – it’s far too young for you!’. Does it matter? Surely we’re trying to foster a love of books, no matter what age the books are ‘meant for’. My DD1 (5) has a favourite book – a book of Daily Prayer that my grandparents bought for me years ago. She likes the crinkly paper and it’s lovely size. It’s certainly not targetted at children though! Will go off and look at Dani’s link now.

    Reply
  8. Dorothy Massey avatar
    Dorothy Massey

    I signed up a while ago. I also posted an article on e-zine if you’re interested in finding out more. Dorothy Massey http://www.kidsbooksuk.blogspot.com

    Reply
  9. Caroline avatar
    Caroline

    I’m curious though – is this a recommendation based on content or on readability? If based on readability then I too think it would be nonsense unless every child were to do some kind of reading test! Afterall, m7 7yo reads at the level of an 11yo at least & my 9yo at the level of a 14yo, BUT the CONTENT of the books they read is always age appropriate – I see to that!! If the rating is going to be based on ‘suitability’ well then that’s a different matter and I am all for it. I believe it is only intended as a guidance anyway – not carrying any legal weight, so can easily be ignored by those who chose to do so, but helpful for those of us who might like more idea of a books contents. Perhaps they could use symbols like on the back of PS games – violence, language, sex, etc… That would be a good idea! All that said – suitability is highy subjective and what you and I would consider suitable for any said age I’m sure would be wildly different (maybe!) 😉

    Reply
  10. Jax avatar
    Jax

    I’m not sure what you mean by age appropriate content tbh, while Big reads well above her chronological age in terms of vocabulary and grammar she can be upset by the most unexpected of books – she was recently traumatised by Rumer Godden’s The Dolls’ House simply because the children inherit the dolls’ house – ie someone dies for them to get it. It’s not a scene that plays out drastically in the book, there is no tragedy in the death, but nevertheless, she was very upset. And yet if anything, the book is aimed at, and probably suitable for a child even younger than her.
    Children are individuals and families have different preferences, I don’t think that you can begin to rate books on that kind of level, and I’d really rather that ppl didn’t try.
    I have recently found that the ratings on films don’t come close to describing suitability – I took a bunch of children to a U that bored them silly and then another to a PG that was described as having mild peril that scared them rigid. Neither rating gave me anywhere near enough information and I can’t see that anything other than previewing a book or film could come near giving a purchaser the information that they might require.

    Reply
  11. Merry avatar
    Merry

    Gawd, i can just see that kind of rating being a nightmare for autistic spectrum kids. I have enough trouble persuading Maddy on her birthday that clothes that fitted the day before are still okay on the day she becomes a year older.
    I don’t mind the bandings; 8-12 – teens and beyond but beyond that… argh!

    Reply
  12. Swiss Clare avatar
    Swiss Clare

    I sell Usborne books, and the amount of parents that ask for ‘a book suitable for my X year old’. I then have to try and find out how well the child reads, if English is their first language, and what they are interested in.
    I then have to point out that the parent should also see if the book is suitable for their child, upon which I quite often get blank looks until I explain that if their 7 year old is reading at a level of a 12 year old, some of the books may be a bit scary, or cover issues that the parent doesn’t deem appropriate.
    Believe me, I’ve had parents complain because the ’10 year old’ book they bought for their 7 year old contain more ‘adult’ issues than they would like.
    Most of it boils down to parents having no clue whatsoever of how their child is reading and so really do need the age suggestions, because leafing through the book doesn’t help them make any sort of decision :roll
    I agree though, that ages on books will probably make the problem worse, rather than meaning that parents actually have to think about what they are buying for their kids.

    Reply

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