My woke take, as someone who has worked in both a public library and a school library, is that we desperately need both more books that are at a higher reading level but a less mature subject matter, and more books that are at a lower reading level but a more mature subject matter, because 8 year olds who are advanced readers are still 8 year olds and don't want to read about graphic violence and torture, and teens and adults who have learning difficulties or who are just later readers for whatever reason are still teens and adults and don't want to read about Billy the Bunny going to school or whatever the hell.
Shoutout to people in the notes also mentioning people learning the language, I should've mentioned that really, given that I've been stuck reading German picture books myself while learning German.
I agree! In English second group of books are called Hi-Lo: High interest, low reading level, specifically advocating for adults with low literacy / poor English skills who still want to read books for adults. Gemma Open Door for Literacy is specifically a nonprofit program/publisher that publishes books for this demographic. If you are a librarian or have sway at your library, consider ordering a collection of these!
Hell yeah to Gemma Open Door for Literacy for doing the good work for readers out there.
@official-library-posts
