Pullman leads revolt against age banding for children's books

[semillama]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2074620/Philip-Pullman-leads-author-revolt-against-age-banding-for-children's-books.html

Go Phil!!! I myself had read the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy when I was 8.

[LWolf]

1. Good for him.

How many ways can people find to censor what ideas young people might be exposed to? Why not just teach them to think critically, instead?

Oh. Because then they would turn those critical thinking skills on the stuff their families and cultures taught them, and expose the fallacies.

I did a booktalk on "The Golden Compass" in my 6th grade classroom last September when the year opened, knowing that the movie would be coming out that winter.

It was well accepted.

A couple of weeks later, one of my students approached me in a great deal of anxiety. This is a disabled youth, who suffered some brain damage in utero, and has developmental disabilities. This is actually the first year he has ever been in a public school classroom. He stuttered: "I heard that this book is about children trying to kill God!!!"

I assured him that it wasn't, but that there was a strong relationship between the church and state in this fantasy world. He went on to read the book with his family, and reported that he liked it.

Last week he approached me in great excitement, to tell me that he'd finally seen the movie. "What did you think?" I asked.

"It was AWESOME!" he cried.

[JPettus]

2. I was very fortunate

While my father was big into censorship, my mother allowed me to read anything that was on the bookshelves at home. If they didn't want me reading it, they removed it from the shelves and kept it in their bedroom. More "adult" books were moved to the higher shelves and I could read them when I could reach them, if I wanted (though I'll admit that I often didn't catch what was going on in some cases - it went right over my head until I re-read the books years later).

I raised my kids the same way.

[Matilda]

3. Did you mean the pun?

"...it went right over my head ..." :rofl:

My mother was the one who took charge of the reading in our house, being an avid reader herself.
She believed that if you were old enough to want to read a book, then you should read it, so
I started reading adult books when I was still in primary school, because I was bored with the
children's section of the library. My mum admited that she did have some unquiet moments over
some of the books I chose from the adult section of the library, but the truth was, I didn't
necessarily understand everything I read. I don't think I was too warped by anything though.

Now I'm an adult, I read Harry Potter.

[JPettus]

4. Sadly, I can't claim that was intentional

:-)

I read the Potter books and loved them. The good news is they got me reading for pleasure again (almost all my reading had been non-fiction technical stuff for self-improvement).

The better news is that I have found a number of books out there that I like as well or better than the Potter books, including other children's books.

[XemaSab]

5. Can you suggest some other books?

:shrug:

Thanks.

[JPettus]

6. Some authors I like

Mostly in the urban fantasy genre. I like Kim Harrison's Hollows series about a witch bounty hunter names Rachel Morgan. The first in the series is called "Dead Witch Walking," and all other books after that one use plays on Clint Eastwood movies for their titles, like "The Good, the Bad and the Undead," "A Fistful of Charms," and "The Outlaw Demon Wails." They are funny, sometimes sexy and sometimes frightening. She has a relatively fresh take on the Vampire myth.

Jim Butcher's series about the only wizard in the Chicago Yellow pages is also excellent. The Dresden Files starts with "Storm Front," which I have to say, starts a little slow but ends very strong. Same with the second book, "Fool Moon." Once you hit the third book, they start like freight trains and run all the way through where you don't want to put them down. They can be intense, but often very funny too, in a dark, humor that is part gothic, part noir.

Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels are also very good. I've recommended the Tiffany Aching books before to others. They are actually listed in the Young Readers series but they read so wonderfully that adults love them too. There are three in the series, taking Tiffany from age nine to age 13. They start with "Wee Free Men," about Tiffany's sojourn into the land of Fairie to find and return her little brother, who was stolen by the Fairie Queen. She is armed with a frying pan and assisted by the Nac Mac Feagles, (think of Scottish Smurfs, hard fighting, hard drinking and hilarious). As one Feagle, Rob AnyBody, tells Tiffany "We're fairie folk. We can get into and out of just about anything. Except pubs, which we have a hard time leaving for some reason." The other two books are "Hatful of Sky" and "Wintersmith."

[davidinalameda]

9. I love the Kim Harrison books

and Jim Butcher's books are good as well

[Matilda]

7. I've just discovered Guy Gavriel Kay.

I read the first volume of his "Fionavar Tapesty" series just recently. It took me a little while
to get into it, but by the middle of the book I was totally involved with the characters. Sadly for
me, my library only has the first book of the three in the series, and although I put a request for
the others in the suggestion box, they haven't taken it up. As they're not released in Australia,
I'll have to put in an order to Amazon if I want to complete the series. The library does have some
other books by him, and I have them on my list.

I recommend checking him out if you haven't read him before.

[yellowdogintexas]

8. oh, I do hope you get the rest of Fionavar soon. It is wonderful.

I love his stuff.