In my local library (Birmingham Central), the children's section is on an entirely different floor, with miniature chairs, decorations in pastel colours, and, once, palm trees made entirely of coloured balloons.
Now, the other day, I reserved a few books - namely, Bridge to Terabithia and Christopher Pike's Weekend. I noticed that, although I'd be picking them up from the main floor, the children's section had several copies of Pike's books. So, when I returned Bridge to Terabithia yesterday morning, I decided I'd return it to the children's section, then go ahead and explore their teenage shelves.
Honestly, it's amazing how nerve-wracking that was. I felt like an imposter. I'm twenty years old, and told that I look older. I felt like Gulliver walking into Lilliput.
Once I'd got over the initial embarassment, it wasn't so bad. The staff were friendly (it looks like they shift them between floors, so I'd seen a lot of them before), and none of the small children even looked at me. It also helped that an older man was in the queue in front of me.
I never made it to the teenage section, by the way. The Discworld Big Comic, Mort, grabbed me on the way past.
It's interesting how the books are segregated, by age. As I said, I found Mort in the children's section, and it was called a Big Comic. Neil Gaiman's Sandman series are upstairs, in the Graphic Novel section. Now, Gaiman is scarier than Pratchett, but they're not terribly different. And, in fairness, Death is one of the main characters in Mort.
A lot of children's books can be equally enjoyed by adults, too. While many are quite vapid, and assume that young = stupid, some are interesting. They're the kind of books you get more out of, every time you read them. Things like Peter Pan or The Little Prince, for instance. They're obviously children's books, but there's a lot in them for adults as well (honestly, if you've never read them, go take a look - you'll be pleasantly surprised).
The Discworld books and the Harry Potter series have both been given special 'mature' covers, so adults don't feel silly reading them. This is essentially the same as putting a different picture on the packaging for hair dye or moisturiser, so men don't feel silly using girly products.
2 comments:
My local library is mostly Chinese, so we don't have big English sections. Fortunately, the children's/teen section is in my mother tongue. I order all the books I want and then use the teen as a source for borrowing a random book, which I usually finish pretty quickly. The section contains some of the best fantasy, though I'm not a big fan of the genre, it also has a whole shelf of sorts dedicated to the Goosebumps series, the series to which I can atone my ability to read.
The children's section at my local Borders is great, albeit a little pricey. Though it does have The Messenger by Marcus Zuzack. This was the first "big boy" book I read. Finding it in the kid's section was a bit of a disappointment. I mean it has a rape scene 86 pages in (but who's counting), how more mature do you want it to get.
I remember Goosebumps. I used to use them to time how well I could read - they're such a generic length. It used to take me half an hour - now I'm up to (or down to) twenty minutes.
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