The Bookseller.com

1st December 2008

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Age ranging scrutinised

01.05.08

Prescriptive labelling of age groups for children's books is a cynical and misguided idea, writes Jake Hope in a Guardian blog, responding to the decision by a group of publishers to print what they consider suitable age ranges on the covers of children's books.

According to Hope, the motive for introducing age classification on backlist titles, which he identifies as "greater sales and therefore greater profits", is "as questionable as the need do it in the first place".

"The proposed move fundamentally misunderstands the egalitarian nature of reading," he writes. "The idea that any reader can choose to read any book - and the choices all readers employ at times to challenge or soothe themselves. It also fails to understand the complex process of choosing the right books for the right child."

He concludes and the decision to support age ranging is "cynical" and that "the challenge is to design new, innovative, creative and exciting access-points for children to enter the republic of reading, not in finding more repressive regimes and rule with which to further limit it".

Guardian blog

Childrens Home age guidance