We’ve discussed here, I believe, what a great age gap exists in YA developmentally. There’s a big difference between a 12 year old and an 18 year old–even between a 12 year old and a 16 year old.

So I found this article on PW Children’s Bookshelf pretty interesting, about an independent bookstore that has separated younger YA from older YA. Teens don’t have to walk through picturebooks to get to books that appeal to them, and tween content is separated from heavier-themed content that would appeal more to high schoolers.

What do you all think? The bookstore says it’s working for them, and I think it’s a great way of helping kids navigate books and helping parents feel safer about that navigation (tweens mature enough for the more mature topics would be able to walk over to the high school section, of course–but it helps prevent accidental stumbling). Yet at the same time, there are a number of books that would be appealing to the wide age range, and it might be hard to know where to shelve them. Should more bookstores implement such a section?