[twitchy]

According to Simon Juden, chief executive of the Publisher's Association, "However, age guidance isn't actually about reading age - it is about content and the appropriate interest level for children."

I should have thought that any adult buying a book for a child would already know something about that child, their interests, their age, etc. "Interest level" is a nonsense term. Interest doesn't come in levels. The bit about guidance being about content is the part that is most disturbing to me. What is appropriate content for what age? Will some puritan decide that drug use or depictions of homosexuality relegate Alice in Wonderland and And Tango Makes Three to kids over sixteen?

"Nor do we want to put a child off reading for life by a book that they can't cope with."

Books are already on the shelves in rough groupings according to age. Harry Potter won't be found on the same shelves as Goodnight Moon, for example. I think that the reading level would be wildly off before a child would be unable to "cope".

Heaven forbid that someone should actually take the couple minutes bother and find out what a kid might like. Read the blurb on the back covers. Check out reviews. Ask kids what they're into.