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Jun. 10th, 2008 07:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterbadgerInteresting 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.
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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Date: 2008-06-10 05:07 pm (UTC)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...