Misanthropic toddlers will be rolling in the aisles

There's a great great post on Roger Sutton (editor of "Horn Book Magazine")'s site today regarding the use of children as reviewers. The post brings up the inherant contraditions on reviewing books, movies, etc. for children. It's a delicate balancing act. On the one hand, a beautifully written book can bore children to tears if its not properly formatted (paging "Kira-Kira"). On the other hand, the idea that kids should be the only arbitrators of what they like, while an innocent enough idea, is patently ridiculous. After all, children love "Eragon". It is undoubtedly one of the worst written books in the history of the form (I once counted roughly twenty-two chapters that all began by saying that the hero, in one way or another, woke up). But the children adore it. They clamor for it. And with the movie coming out in December (go to if you doubt me) it's only gonna get bigger.

So it all comes down to understanding what kids like and what kids need. Plenty of parents feed their little ones a heaping helping of Saturday morning cartoons and "That's So Raven" paperbacks. Let's aim a little higher, eh wot? Anywho, here's Roger's comment: