The most asked question I get at the library is “How do I find books for my kids in the YA section that are clean?” I get it – some younger kids have a very high reading level and need to be in the YA section just to find books to keep them reading, but parents may not want their younger readers to bump into content they are are not ready for. The same is true for some adults as well – they want to read a book that won’t push them beyond their comfort level in content. I have a few resources that may help you, as a parent, or anyone, looking to rate the content in a book.
There are two pretty popular sites to visit –
Common Sense Media does a good job of helping people navigate book content as well as movies, gaming, and even social media.
PluggedIn is another site that works hard to give reviews on current movies and books. This one is from a Christian perspective. The only complaint I hear about this one is that new books aren’t put on as fast as some other sites.
We have also found some other sites that are very helpful as well. Rated Reads is a site that rates books and they do a fairly good job of keeping current. Their ratings are very thorough and even include warnings for profanity. Their system is based on colors – Green – “Clean and Good to Go”; Yellow – “Mild, mostly clean, except for a few instances”, etc.
Compass Book Ratings is a site fully dedicated to books. They have a pretty strong selection and their reviews are thorough as well. HOWEVER, this site is full of ads – it’s hard to click on anything except ads, sadly….so click at your own risk.
Trigger Warning lists books that might contain triggers for some readers. This is useful, but while this website includes sexual content as triggers; it seems to be mainly focused on violence not “suggestive content.”
Book Cave says it has movie-like ratings for books. It doesn’t have every up-to-date book, but it does have a decent selection.
One last one that we often share with patrons is Romanceio. This is a great site for romance readers. It uses chili peppers to show the spiciness level of a book. Make sure and click on the title to see the peppers – otherwise you are just looking at star ratings. This one is very up-to-date and seems quite reliable as far as sexual content.
And if you know of others, please leave them in the comments – we’d love to build a list to pass on to patrons when they ask!
Librarian On The Loose 