No to Age Banding

On my reading around the blogs the last few days, notably Fidra Books, here and here and Table Talk, here and here, I’ve been reading a lot about the No to Age Banding Campaign. Basically publishers are proposing to put an age recommendation on their children’s books, I can’t think of anything more likely to put children off reading certain books that may actually be perfect for them. You take one 7 year old, with their reading ability they may actually be suited to a book for a 5 year old but they won’t want to read that if it’s got for 5 year olds on the cover, will they? Diverting them to the 7 year old books, which they won’t yet be ready for and putting them off the joy that is reading. Take another 7 year old, they may be better suited to a 9 year old book, but would their parents buy it for them? Thus boring the child and also putting them off reading. Also some books just defy classification, what age would you classify Harry Potter?

I remember when I was still in primary school reading Agatha Christie, everyone in my class did, there was quite a craze, now that wouldn’t have had an age classification, would it?

So, if you would like to see the lengthy list of authors (including Phillip Pullman, who is being very vocal about this), illustrators and concerned general public (including me as a parent), that’s already signed up to the no to age banding petition, see here and if you believe in their cause, please sign up.