Project Age Range
Keith Mansfield, over on his blog, has brought my attention to Project Age Range. In my ignorance, I knew nothing about this, but the idea concerns sticking age guidance on children’s books – the very notion of which seems odd to me.
I’ve read through one of the presentations on the Project Age Range website, and the feeling I had is that it’s all about – or rather for – the adult buyer (instead of the reader). There seemed to be two arguments for this new system of classification: first was to make it easier for people with less time on their hands to buy presents, and second, because it would bring books into line with CDs, DVDs, and computer games. (As if that point in itself would make books look cooler and more attractive? Actually maybe it would – but where would the battle scenes in my book fit in the ratings? Yikes?! And the Spook’s Apprentice would get an 18!)
In all honesty, I feel the issue here lies with the diminishing number of bookshops where knowledge and customer service is key. Maybe books should have classification ratings like films but, ultimately, the point of these age guidelines is not to stop a 7yr-old buying a 9+ book. The only people that might get harmed by this are children who don’t have as good a reading age as their years suggest they should have. And in my opinion, if any part of the reading market is alienated because of this, then it has to be a bad thing.
Tags: Age Guidance
April 7th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Do you remember the “stories for 7-year-olds”, stories for 9-year-olds etc etc when we were kids? I don’t think I ever read the right one for my age. I expect they are more likely to downgrade the books and aim them at the average, or below-average reading level.
But I can see how it would be really annoying for an author who feels that their book might well appeal to a wider audience (right up to adults) but which is limited by it’s reading age. Imagine if the Harry Potter books had a reading age of 11 on them! Or the Bartimeus trilogy.