No to Age Banding
This website was set up by writers and other professionals who believe that the proposal to put an age-banding figure on books for children is ill-conceived and damaging to the interests of young readers.
Our statement (below) has been signed by more than 4,100 people, including almost 800 authors and illustrators.
The age-banding of children's books was discussed at an eagerly-awaited and packed session held on 31st August at the Society of Authors' Conference at Robinson College, Cambridge.
Stephanie Nettell chaired the meeting and began by introducing the platform party: Philip Pullman (author), Kate Wilson (Group MD of Scholastic UK), Becky Stradwick (Senior Buyer, Children's Books for Borders) Anne Fine (author) and Celia Rees (author and Chair of the Society of Authors' Children's Writers' and Illustrators' Group).
First up was Philip Pullman, who gave a twenty minute address attacking the idea of age-banding books.
Kate Wilson's speech also lasted twenty minutes, during which she gave a PowerPoint presentation about the importance of books and reading to children, and cited statistics and problems to do with literacy and reading in Britain. She spoke of the particular difficulties of marketing books for children and gave details of the percentages of children's books purchased by adults as opposed to the readers themselves, along with details of recent sales figures. She then went on to show a film about children of a range of ages in a school library responding with enthusiasm to questions about their reading habits and preferences. No questions about age banding were posed to the children in this film, but Kate spoke of it as one of many initiatives designed to attempt to widen the market and reach those who might not otherwise be in the habit of purchasing books.
Becky Stradwick presented the issues from the point of view of an experienced bookseller, and explained her decision to freeze plans regarding age-banding in the light of the industry-wide controversy this has caused.
Anne Fine gave a short report of the current state of affairs between dissenting authors and their publishers.
The discussion was then thrown open. The issues raised included:
- The effects of age-banding on readers
- Was age-banding supposed to reflect reading ability levels or content?
- The usefulness to some writers of teenage novels of an advisory notice on the cover
- The current level of sales of children's books
- The costs of alternative methods (eg peel-off stickers)
- How important is it to try to reach new markets?
- Are existing markets threatened by the introduction of an initiative aimed at perceived growth in non-traditional sectors?
- The role of supermarkets in the children's book trade
- The size and noticeability of the age band design in the context of current demands in the national curriculum that children are taught to 'look carefully' at covers
- The sensitivity, or otherwise, of readers to age suggestions printed on their reading matter
As ever, the discussion had to be cut off with many of those present still having much to say, and Stephanie Nettell thanked everyone on the platform warmly for giving up their time to be present.
More than 4,100 people have now signed up to the following statement. They include almost 800 authors. The entire list can be seen by going to Supporters.
We are writers, illustrators, librarians, teachers, booksellers, publishers, educationalists, psychologists, parents and grandparents. Some of the writers and illustrators have a measure of control over what appears on the covers of their books; others have less.
But we are all agreed that the proposal to put an age-guidance figure on books for children is ill-conceived, damaging to the interests of young readers, and highly unlikely, despite the claims made by those publishers promoting the scheme, to make the slightest difference to sales.
We take this step to disavow publicly any connection with such age-guidance figures, and to state our passionately-held conviction that everything about a book should seek to welcome readers in and not keep them out.
Here are some of our reasons:
- Each child is unique, and so is each book. Accurate judgments about age suitability are impossible, and approximate ones are worse than useless.
- Children easily feel stigmatized, and many will put aside books they might love because of the fear of being called babyish. Other children will feel dismayed that books of their ‘correct’ age-group are too challenging, and will be put off reading even more firmly than before.
- Age-banding seeks to help adults choose books for children, and we're all in favour of that; but it does so by giving them the wrong information. It’s also likely to encourage over-prescriptive or anxious adults to limit a child's reading in ways that are unnecessary and even damaging.
- Everything about a book is already rich with clues about the sort of reader it hopes to find – jacket design, typography, cover copy, prose style, illustrations. These are genuine connections with potential readers, because they appeal to individual preference. An age-guidance figure is a false one, because it implies that all children of that age are the same.
- Children are now taught to look closely at book covers for all the information they convey. The hope that they will not notice the age-guidance figure, or think it unimportant, is unfounded.
- Writers take great care not to limit their readership unnecessarily. To tell a story as well and inclusively as possible, and then find someone at the door turning readers away, is contrary to everything we value about books, and reading, and literature itself.
To sign up and show your support for this statement, send an email to . We will publish your name and any relevant description (eg author, librarian, bookseller) on this web site. We'll keep your email address confidential and won't pass it to anybody else, but we may write occasionally with relevant news.
We've had reports that the above link is garbled in some browsers. If that is the case, please accept our apologies: the link is coded to fool the spammers but it's obviously fooling some browsers too. If necessary type the email address signup at notoagebanding dot org into your email program.
Go to a list of people who have already signed up.
