Journal

Children’s Corner.

Written for the adults doing the buying, and franker than a shelf card can be.

The hardest question we get asked is not what a seven-year-old should read. It is what to give a child who has decided they do not like reading, which is usually a child who has been handed four books in a row that were beneath them.

So this strand is blunt. It says which beloved classics have aged badly, which prize-winners are really for adults, and which series is worth buying in full because the fourth one is where it becomes good.

Browse Children & Young Adult

What we mark, and why

Age, honestly

The age we would actually hand it over, not the age on the back cover.

Difficult material

Grief, violence and illness are flagged on our card. Not hidden, flagged.

Read-aloud length

How long a chapter takes out loud, because that is the number a tired parent needs.