The United Kingdom is holding a very interesting discussion which may affect you. In short, book publishing companies are looking into the idea of rating their books the same way movies and video games are rated. This is called "age banding".Age banding basically means they're going to rate books in a way that suggests what age should be reading them. Their plan, at least for now, works as follows: Early will stand for children 5+, Confident will stand for children ages 9+, and Fluent will stand for children 9+. I'm not sure I understand the labels they're thinking about using beyond Early.
Word choice is VERY important and labeling books "confident" and "fluent" makes me worry that more negative attachments will come with those labels than positive ones. For example, "fluent" suggests that a child who can read all the words on the page is automatically ready for the 9 and up books. This is not always true. It also cuts another way. There may be pressure to move a child up to a book labeled fluent when he or she is not ready for it; or voices of derision for a child enjoying a book deemed "below" his/her age.
Banding opens the door for many other labels to land on books. As it is now, there are sometimes "age appropriate" labels on books, and/or reading levels given to them. These are simplistic labels and as a highly experienced reading teacher -oh and reader- I often question the validity of either form of labeling. I've come across plenty of books claiming to be one reading level but are in fact either much higher or lower than claimed. Besides, reading levels do not tell us anything about the complexity of the content inside.
I do see merits to age banding at times. Video games are a pretty solid example. But books aren't video games. Books are a different matter entirely. As you may suspect, I love the printed word. I do not withhold any materials in my home because I feel that if I do this, then they only want the books in question all the more. I'm fine with my children trying books, which the age-banding publishers might deem above their age range, on their own. What happens is that they either put it down (too confusing or boring) or find this "difficult" book, interesting enough that they then begin to push themselves as readers. Awesome!
We live in an age where SO MUCH is available to use when it comes to learning the appropriateness and content of books that it seems completely out of touch to STEP BACK with simple, age banding, labels. Take 5 minutes, scan Amazon from home or your iPhone, and then decide if a book is a good match for your child. There you get a book's themes, reading/age levels, reviews, and a chance to sample the text yourself.
Banding opens the door for many other labels to land on books. As it is now, there are sometimes "age appropriate" labels on books, and/or reading levels given to them. These are simplistic labels and as a highly experienced reading teacher -oh and reader- I often question the validity of either form of labeling. I've come across plenty of books claiming to be one reading level but are in fact either much higher or lower than claimed. Besides, reading levels do not tell us anything about the complexity of the content inside.
I do see merits to age banding at times. Video games are a pretty solid example. But books aren't video games. Books are a different matter entirely. As you may suspect, I love the printed word. I do not withhold any materials in my home because I feel that if I do this, then they only want the books in question all the more. I'm fine with my children trying books, which the age-banding publishers might deem above their age range, on their own. What happens is that they either put it down (too confusing or boring) or find this "difficult" book, interesting enough that they then begin to push themselves as readers. Awesome!
We live in an age where SO MUCH is available to use when it comes to learning the appropriateness and content of books that it seems completely out of touch to STEP BACK with simple, age banding, labels. Take 5 minutes, scan Amazon from home or your iPhone, and then decide if a book is a good match for your child. There you get a book's themes, reading/age levels, reviews, and a chance to sample the text yourself.
I've got some strong feelings on this topic, but I would love to hear what you think about this idea. Maybe I'm overreacting.
I leave you with a quote from C.S. Lewis, which is also the pretext for the No-to-Age-Banding website.
... the neat sorting-out of books into age ranges, so dear to publishers, has only a very sketchy relation with the habits of any real readers. Those of us who are blamed when old for reading childish books were blamed when children for reading books too old for us. No reader worth his salt trots along in obedience to a time-table.
CS Lewis (1952 essay
On three ways of writing for children, collected in Of Other Worlds (latest edition, Harvest Books 2002)
-Mr. Lagana
