I dont no cuz in a way it would b easier for parents to pick out books that are suitable for their children, but then again if older children saw a book that was below their age group they wouldnt want to read it so im in 2 minds lol. Absolutly useless comment really off me lol x

i would love to see better banding for older children / teens. maybe along the lines of the censor ages you see on films. my boys are 13 and 15 and beyond traditional kids books , but unless ive read a book myself ive no idea how much sex or whatever there is in it and in how much detail!!

The books i get for my ds are ones i know are suitable for him, but for dd (10 yo) she choses her own. She oves Jaqualine Wilson at the moment, JW writes books suited for older ages sometimes - my daughter has picked books at the library, read a few pages then given me the book and said that she doesnt think it is suitable for her age!!! i am glad she does this, but i do feel there needs to be some sort of age band for older children books.

Some childrens books have age band one them already - but as i said for my ds i get what i know he likes.

I can see why they would band the books, but i'm not sure it should be according to age.

In the library i take my nanny kids to they often group the books in reading difficulty so that the kids n parents know which books to choose for when they are reading to themselves.

And i suppose maybe some books are grouped for their content....well, really for their interest for the age group, younger kids are often into diff things than older ones.  I'm often being told that "that book was too babyish" so i can understand why books are grouped in that way........

But i dont think putting an age on them is a good idea.  It could cause bullying in some cases, if you have a child who is finding it harder to learn to read n is still reading 5yr old books at 7yrs old then other kids may be mean.  It'll knock thier confidence and may mean they shy away from reading even more.  And also, as you have said, many books will be discarded by the child cos its got an age on it lower than thiers, n they dont wanna be seen reading a "baby book"

So i can understand banding books according to reading difficulty n content but not to putting an age on them.

just watching the news and over 3000 authors have signed a petition to stop age banding being put on books.....

for 3+ 5+ 7+ 9+ 15+

i dont think age bands are a good idea... if that was the case millions of books would get overlooked...

what u think ... (should probably put in debates lol