Rarest Kind of Best

I don’t want this blog to just be reviews, so I am going to try to write a weekly commentary of sorts, posting every Friday. Well, we’ll see how it goes… Here’s the first.

Here’s a blogger’s humble confession. Rating movies for a particular age group is really hard.

I used to be so annoyed with reviews of kids’ movies that weren’t specific, that didn’t give me what I needed to know in a nutshell. “Not suitable for young viewers” just didn’t help me. (What is ‘young’?!)

So when I began this blog I was determined to stamp an age recommendation on every review. And I soon found out why those other reviewers choose to be so vague. As much as a frazzled parent may want concise advice with a minimum of fuss, the First Commandment of parenthood always holds:

EVERY CHILD IS DIFFERENT!

I will do my best to give my recommendations, but the precise age rating must always be regarded as a sliding scale – after reading my reviews you will know if your child tends to be above, below or right smack on my estimates and can proceed accordingly. And please double-check with any other books, websites or blogs that you trust. (I include the Commonsense Media age ratings, which are often a year higher than mine.)

More