winterbadger | (no subject)

Interesting petition against age-banding books (prescribing what books are appropriate for what ages of children).

It's signed by a number of writers and illustrators I admire, including Philip Pullman, Quentin Blake, Neil Gaiman, AM Smith, Roddy Doyle, and by many other writers, artists, agents, teacher, and booksellers.

I think on the whole, I'm inclined to agree. There's lots one can do to help parents and kids find books that will be right for someone without creating blatant visual standards that imply that a book is appropriate or (more importantly) inappropriate for a reader simply because of that person's age. I still remember with some frustration the interdict my elementary school library had on younger students exploring, reading, or borrowing books from the "older students'" section. It had nothing to do with making sure that certain books were available if needed or with shielding young minds from material they shouldn't see (we were *all* under 12), but with what it was thought would be "too challenging" for younger students.

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As someone who read the entire LOTR trilogy by age 10, I couldn't agree more.

I seem to recall (though perhaps age dims the memory) that I was reading (with a little help, perhaps) Howard Pyle's "Robin Hood" at the age of four or five. I suppose that wouldn't even be approved for teenagers these days, given that it involves violence, swearing of oaths*, and critical views of religious and secular hierarchy, but still.

* I suppose that's also why I startle my co-workers by saying things like "By the Rood!" and "Haste thee, crude varlet!" :-)

I agree completely.

I didn't read The Hobbit and therefore The Lord of the Rings for many years after it was offered to me simply because it was described on the cover as an "enchanting" children's book. I'd been reading adult books for several years at that point and that was not appealing to me. I finally read it when we had a number of teachers out one day and I was sentenced to a four hour study hall and in desparation for something... anything to read borrowed a friends copy.

Related, the British version of Harry Potter has two editions, one for kids and one for adults. They're textually identical, but cosmetically different.

And, see, *I* read The Hobbit quite early because I knew my dad used it in his English classes and so I thought "Well, I'll get ti over with now". Little did I realise how much I'd enjoy it! :-)

I agree. By the time I was 10 I was solely reading books for adults because anything less was too basic. Most of it was fluff (Stephen King, etc.) but I read a few of the classics around that time as well. I pretty much skipped the whole "young adult" genre not because of the stories but because I found them too simply written.

My parents had a very simple policy, once I could read anything going, fluently. "You don't have to finish it". So at about 7 or so, having finished the children's section of the local library, I started the home bookshelves from top left to bottom right. I enjoyed Enid Blyton and Dickens (similar levels of plot and characterisation as far as I was concerned), I loved Plato's life of Socrates and most of the Eysenck on the shelves, got about half-way through "Forever Amber", enjoyed most of Pooh but not all, and gave up on "The Cruel Sea" fairly fast. I don't remember what else was on there, but you get the idea. The things aimed at my age group were still fun, there was no stigma attached, but some (not all) of the "adult" material went down as well. "Critical" is not a word I would use about myself at the time.

Tolkein, we had read to us. My dad first met The Hobbit as a part of a course he went on to teach you to read faster, and my sister and I got it for bedtime stories (though there was a gap before we entered Mirkwood, as we were both scared of spiders).

The Lord of the Rings followed. I got banned from sitting on his lap and reading along when he discovered I was speed-reading it... he then measured both our reading speeds and discovered we were both already faster than the course was designed to take him to. By then I'd have been about 10, Helen was 7, and we were reading at about 1000 words a minute. On the whole, I don't think being let loose with anything that came to hand did me any harm, or put me off reading. It might have been easier to put me off breathing.

Incidentally, one of the nicest books I got for Xmas this year was probably aimed at 5 year olds: a lovely little tale about a teddy bear who wants to be a ballerina. I've never been taught to be ashamed of enjoying things that are "labelled" as wrong, and I probably never will.

Yeah, I sill go back and read a lot of things that are "for kids" or "young adult" with great pleasure, though some (e.g., Susan Cooper) don't seem to hold up as well from an adult perspective as others (e.g., CS Lewis, E Nesbit, Edward Eager).

I find it funny (though not surprising) that P Pullman is a lead on thsi movement. I read Golden Compass/Northern Lights first of all his books, then went back and read some of his YA books (Ruby int he Smoke, etc.)--while they were enjoyable, they were incredibly less vivid and cardboard-y then HDM.

I read the LOTR a few years after I read The Hobbit, and all through the long, hot summer I was reading it I kept having nightmare about Gollum coming in my window. I don't think I slept a whole night through that summer...