"When I was child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child: but when I became a man I put away childish things."
And just why did you do that Paul? Even the Corinthians must have known that children have an insight into the ways of the world that is unhindered and unfettered by adultish things.
In the book world children are as discerning as their older counterparts.Children have an uncanny way of finding out for themselves.
At eleven, I can remember being holed up under the covers with Lady Chatterley and her less than suitable lover. My best friend, still keen on daylight reading, was enamoured with 'Stig of the Dump'. I am not sure that our reading ages were so different, in fact she went on to something brilliant in the city and I didn't.
What set us apart was our grounding - our reading roots. As a child, I can never remember a time when I did not fall asleep to the sound of my parents reading to me. Our house was full of books, from my Mum's beloved Catherine Cookson's to dad's crime novels. I read, my sister read and we discussed our favourites over meals (although I cannot remember discussing the steamier parts of Joseph Wambaugh's - The Choirboys, when mum discovered it under my pillow).
I was allowed to make my choices freely, a gift, alongside bedtime stories, I have passed to my own children. They make their own choices and myths and fears are laid to waste over the roast beef.
However, judging by the kind of adult that I have turned out to be, I can only wonder if my 'freedom to read' policy will one day lead them to the phychiatrists chair!!
