In the piece I wrote for yesterday’s Sunday Salon I mentioned the proposal that has been put forward that in future all books ‘classed’ as for children should have an age guidance put on them.  I was quoting what Philip Pullman had said in Saturday’s Guardian and adding my voice to the protest that has ensued from authors, teachers, librarians and the general reader alike at this monstrously silly idea.

Many of you commented on yesterday’s post endorsing my feelings.  You, like me, have had experiences of just how stultifying such a nonsensical classification can be.  Children can be put off reading a book in which they would delight simply because some unnamed ‘authority’ has decided it is the wrong age for them.

One of the people who contacted me was Jake Hope mentioning that there is an on-line protest you can sign up to if you feel as strongly about this as so many do and asking if I would post a link.  If you go over to No To Age Banding you’ll see that there are already well over 250 names on the list and it reads like a catalogue of all the great and good of British Children’s Literature.  My name should be there, somewhere near the bottom, but there.  Not that I am claiming to be among the great and the good, but there is also room for those like me who simply delight in the world that is Children’s Literature and want to open that world up to children as widely as possible.

If you feel you can join with the rest of us who have put our name to this protest that would be wonderful.  We should be doing everything we can to welcome children to the world wide company of readers of which you and I are a part not finding new ways to restrict their access.