Age-Appropriate Labels for Children's Books
A row has broken out in the UK between the Publishers' Association (PA) and numerous literary professionals about how best to encourage children to read.
This having been decreed National Year of Reading by the British government, the PA did some research into ways of encouraging adults to buy more books for more children. Their conclusion was that age guidance should be printed on the back of each book.
Children's authors and other interested adults, including teachers and librarians, are resisting on the basis that chronological and reading ages vary widely. Attaching a specific reading age to children's literature is virtually impossible, according to Ben Macintyre of The Times of London, adding "instead of expanding children's reading, the use of age labels will surely serve to make them more self-conscious of their reading age, and therefore limited in their choices."
Columnist and critic Mark Lawson of The Guardian agreed, citing authors such as Philip Pullman and JK Rowling in particular, for their elasticity of appeal. He is also concerned about who will set the standards. "Liberal and Christian parents, for instance, might differ greatly in their view of suitable reading for a 10-year-old. To avoid fuss or legal trouble, the age ranges seem likely to be drawn up cautiously, with further risk of infantilizing bright readers."
Mr. Pullman has spoken against the idea, launching a website with others sharing his feelings: "The proposal to put an age-guidance figure on books for children is ill-conceived, damaging to the interests of young readers, and highly unlikely, despite the claims made by those publishers promoting the scheme, to make the slightest difference to sales. We take this step to disavow publicly any connection with such age-guidance figures, and to state our passionately-held conviction that everything about a book should seek to welcome readers in and not keep them out." Within a day, more than 250 people had signed up to agree.
The PA, meanwhile, insists that the adults questioned feel they need help because they are often overwhelmed by choice, especially if they buy in a non-traditional bookshop (read supermarket) where no one is available to offer advice on what a child might enjoy or be able to understand. The organization's chief executive, Simon Juden, responded to authors' protests by insisting that the guidance "isn't actually about reading age - it is about content and the appropriate interest level for children." All he wants to do is help adults wanting help to get children reading by buying more (and more suitable) books.
Discussion questions: Do you think books should carry age-appropriate ratings just like movies and music? Will such guidelines encourage parents to buy more books for their kids? Are publishers well-placed to advise on what material children should be reading at any given age?
- Judge a children's book by its cover - The Times
- A plan to print suggested reading ages on children's books has their authors up in arms, and rightly so - The Guardian
- Authors' statement - www.notagebanding.org
- Publishers' Association statement on age guidance - The Publishers Association
- National Literacy Trust - http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/