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I wish, with all of my heart, that there was a book rating system similar to movies. I wish they would warn us in advance what language, violence, and sex scenes were in the books we want to read. I love reading and so do my kids. The problem I come across, though is that I will begin reading a book, based on the many recommendations of others and find out it is full of filth. I want to help find clean books to read for me, but also for my kids. I do not have time to read every book that they want to read. As they are getting older, I am becoming more and more concerned.
I am very selective about the media I allow into my home. If it would make me uncomfortable watching it on television, it would also make me uncomfortable reading it. I often will quit reading a book part-way through due to inappropriate content. I find it even more important for my kids! Do any of you have this problem? So, what do you do to help you find clean books to read?
I have been searching and I want to let you in on a few of the ways that I have discovered to help me in my quest to find clean books to read. There are a whole bunch of other people who seem to feel the same way and they are doing their part to help the rest of us out! I am grateful for that, but I really do wish there was one place where we could have all of it and make it consistent! (Make sure to read to the end & sign my petition!!)
So without fail, here is my list of resources to help you . . .
How To Find Clean Books to Read:
The first is a series of books. Gladys Hunt writes a series of books: Honey for a Child’s Heart, Honey for a Teen’s Heart, and Honey for a Woman’s Heart. In these books, the author teaches how to find good books, the importance of reading good books, as well as sharing a list of great books that she has read. They are all family-friendly and clean reads!
Book Review Websites:
1000 Good Books– This website has a list of 1000 good books categorized by grade and topic to help you in teaching your kids! It is aimed at homeschoolers and is huge and exhaustive, but such a wonderful resource!
Rated Reads– This site is fantastic!! I just wish it had 10x more books on it! Rated Reads has books organized by ratings: None, Mild, Moderate, High, Dirt. You can choose what level you are comfortable with and select books from that list. They have adult and young adult categories and you can search by title or author. You can request specific reviews.
Common Sense Media – This website gives ratings on all kinds of media. They have book lists by topic and ages. They rate based on positive messages and role models, engagement, learning, violence and scariness, etc. It is a wonderful website with so much content!
Plugged In (a part of Focus on the Family) does book reviews as well as other media reviews. They share family-friendly books that parents will feel safe allowing their kids to read. They share a plot summary and then tell of any questionable material that might be in the books. They even mention alcohol use or smoking.
Compass Book Ratings– this is a well-established website with more than 1800 reviews on it. They have 13 reviewers helping write their reviews. You can search books by title, author or content. They use standard n numeric ratings and also give recommended ages for the books.
The Fussy Librarian– This is a neat site that does reviews on books, but also offers a service to bring books to you that match your reading style!
Novel Book Ratings is a great review website. It has a search engine to find the different books that have been reviewed. You can search by category, by author or title. They rate profanity, violence and sexual content.
Learning Resource Directory– This is a book review website. They review books and give a synopsis as well as warnings on any topics related to Language, bad morals, violence, death, drugs/drinking, etc. After each review they will list any things you may need to look out for. You can request books to be reviewed, too. They have a large library of books.
Book Review Blogs:
Library of Clean Reads– This is a blog that reviews books. They have 3 different reviewers sharing on this site. They review books and rate them with the following: C = clean S = sex V = violence P = profanity PA = paranormal You can request specific reviews. You can see all of the books they have reviewed by title or by author. They have a great list and have been doing it since 2009.
Good Clean Reads– This is a book review blog. She started it for the same reason as many of the other sites, to help us find good books to read. She uses a rating system of 1-5 for Sexual Content, Profanity and Violence. There is not a large quantity of reviews yet, but it still has some great content!
Good Clean Books– This site has a list of books they have deemed safe to read that are good and clean. There is a children’s section as well. There is not a large list, and the site seems a bit outdated, but still has enough to help you find some good ones. There is no rating system.
Clean Read Books– It appears this site is just getting going. They have a few reviews and are taking review requests. They have a mailing list you can subscribe to for updates. They also want you to tag their twitter handle when you read a clean book to help spread the word. @CleanReadBooks.
The Literate Mother– This is another blog site that reviews books. It is very well done! They have their own rating system and a team of reviewers. Their rating is on a scale of 0 to 5 with 0 having no inappropriate content and 5 having excessive disturbing content. You can browse by genre or title. They appear to have a very large collection of book ratings.
Wholesome Reads– This is another book review site that focuses just on clean, wholesome books. She has a good list of books that will help you to “train up a child in the way he should go.” It is a nice blog & one worth checking out.
Homespun Light is a book review site written by a friend of mine. Her focus is “Deliciously Clean Reads”. She has hundreds of reviews that you can search by category.
Read Clean Books is another book review blogger. The books are rated like movies- G, PG, PG-13, R. They review well-known books as well as others I have not heard of.
Kathryn Cooper Writes (Formerly Clean Teen Fiction) reviews books for teens and adults and gives a rating system like the movie ratings. You can search her site by content or by star ratings. She has a big list of books that she has reviewed to date.
Bloggin’ Bout Books is another book review site. They give an A,B,C,D rating based on how well they liked the book as well as a rating based on content (PG, Pg-13, R). They list inappropriate content in the book and give a synopsis as well. You can search by Title or author. There is a good list of reviews!
Parental Book Reviews is a small group of reviewers who love reading! They share their reviews and ratings on their site by listing sexual content, profanity and violence as well as other notable things (drugs, witchcraft, etc.)
If you are on Goodreads, there are a few groups that share clean books. Clean Reads ~ Clean Books List
I also found a great Amazon thread where people share their recommendations on clean books.
Publishing Companies that Focus on Clean Reading:
Clean Teen Publishing– They actually give their books ratings!
There are MANY others, I am sure!!!
In my research I also came across some information on the American Library Association’s Website. They say that a rating system is not possible due to the Library Bill of Rights. They say that it would be a violation of their rules. I have to STRONGLY disagree and say that it is a much needed thing in this society. With media incorporating more and more garbage, we NEED a way to be able to know what is inside the covers of these books.
That is why I started my own petition on change.org. I hope you will take a moment to sign it and share it! My petition is to the American Library Association to start a national rating system. This would not be for book restrictions, but just to make it apparent to all who want to read it what content is in it.
I have decided it is time to start a National Book Rating System and have started my own petition. Would you be willing to help support this IMPORTANT cause? Also, PLEASE spread the word if this is something you feel passionate about!!
Crys says
January 20, 2016 at 12:13 pmDai Alanye wrote many clean humorous books …he wrote romance and adventure …i recommend his books to anyone interested in clean enjoyable read…Will you Like the author Facebook page please, https://www.facebook.com/Dai-Alanye-196572664016760/
Thank you
Rabid Reader says
February 29, 2016 at 12:17 pmClean Teen Publishing does not focus on publishing clean books. Yes they rate their books but openly admit they will publish YA books with sex, drug use, rape etc.
Karyn Tripp says
February 29, 2016 at 12:57 pmThanks for your comment! I will edit my post!
Rose says
April 26, 2016 at 3:20 pmTHANk YOU SO MUCH FOR BLOGGING THIS!!! My goodness, my husband and I have become so frustrated with this topic when it comes to books and movies, but more so books. I hadn’t thought to use PluggedIn for books (we do for movies). Thank you for these resources!
Karyn Tripp says
April 26, 2016 at 6:04 pmI am so glad you came across it. The struggle is real!! Happy to give you some resources to help.
Lisha says
September 2, 2016 at 8:00 amLove your site. Thank you!
Hilary says
November 2, 2016 at 1:46 pmThank you so much for listing my site on your blog lost! It is such an encouragement to click through and see the others out there who share our concern for clean content in our reading choices! I’m signing the petition! God bless you and your efforts to protect the minds and hearts of our children (and adults!)
Hilary at Wholesome Reads
Zequek Estrada says
November 22, 2016 at 12:46 pmI think the idea of looking at blogs than just online ratings for books might be better. There’s probably more input on what actually entails in the novel that might be more helpful. However, looking at rating would give you a general consensus on what you can expect.
Linda Weaver Clarke says
March 16, 2017 at 12:53 pmMy grandson, age 14, just finished a trilogy fantasy/romance and he really loved this series. It has plenty of adventure and a very touching romance in each book. The series is called The Isian Series and has received great reviews on Amazon: The Treasure of Isian, The Alliance of Isian, and The Secret of Isian. These were written for YA, but I read all three and loved them. I would read them again, too.
Linda Weaver Clarke says
March 16, 2017 at 12:55 pmI forgot to add where you can find the author of The Isian Series. Her website is https://serenaclarke.wordpress.com/.
Holly Kelly says
March 20, 2017 at 10:49 amA great site I know of is CleanParanormal.com. All the books on there are rated for content broken down into 10+, 13+, and 16+ depending on language, sexual content, and adult themes. There have hundreds of books listed all of them best-sellers in Paranormal.
Karyn Tripp says
March 20, 2017 at 10:59 amThanks!!!
Catia S says
May 14, 2017 at 11:07 pmThis site also rates books: https://mybookratings.com/
They give books a rating in each of these seven categories: crude humor/language, profanity, drug and alcohol use, kissing, nudity, sex and intimacy, and violence and horror.
The book then gets an overall rating that is the highest rating of the seven categories, but it shows you exactly what the book was rated in each category. The ratings are All Ages, Mild, Mild+, Moderate, Moderate+, Adult, and Adult+.
Karyn Tripp says
May 15, 2017 at 4:56 amwonderful! Thank you so much for sharing!
Christina Jackson says
July 5, 2017 at 8:41 pmHI I think you should check out Sword Bearer by Teddy Jacobs its really good I just finished that and the new Brandon Mull book Dragon Watch it was awesome
Thanks
Momm says
July 21, 2018 at 1:04 pmThank you so much for putting together this list of resources! I have another to add to your list– The Good and The Beautiful has a wonderful book list that has very high standards. (I also love her home-school curriculum.) She charges $5 for the list the first time, and $1 each time you want to update to the latest list. It’s currently up to 650 approved books!
You can find it at: http://www.jennyphillips.com/good-beautiful-book-list/
Karyn Tripp says
July 22, 2018 at 7:56 amThank you!! I love this resource & definitely need to update my post to include that list.
Marji Laine says
August 28, 2018 at 10:12 amHi Karyn,
I happened on your site and wanted to share my company with your list of clean reads. Write Integrity specializes in clean, wholesome, uplifting fiction and Christian living non-fiction. I’m a “graduated” homeschool mom of 4, and I had the same struggle. I was so delighted to be involved with this company and actually read fun, clean romances and young adult fiction with my teenage daughters. If you’re interested, we can be found at http://www.WriteIntegrity.com
Eleanor says
February 12, 2019 at 3:06 amThank you for this! I have been wanting to read something other than classics, so I tried The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society which I really enjoyed except for the really unnecessary swearing and innuendoes which added nothing to the plot and left a bad taste – I wish someone could rewrite it without those in there! So I will definitely be exploring these resources
Shriram says
April 19, 2019 at 9:14 pmI run a library only for children in India and here is why I review content.
I lost my father a year after I entered adolescence.
Knowing how important a father is to a son and a mother is to a daughter in this stage of life, I began to censor books and movies before adding them to the shelves of my library racks.
Not to blame the lack of awareness of parents with regard to what their children are exposed to, inflation in prices of daily commodities is forcing them both to go for work, leaving them totally unaware of what their kids are into.
In my understanding, if the queries of children are unresolved at home, their next resort would be peers who at that age tend to have half knowledge about things, which is dangerous and their last resort would be the Internet which is full of irrelevant information.
When I pursued my International Graduate Diploma in Counselling Skills, I learnt that our feelings and actions are based on the frequency, duration and intensity of our thoughts and to investigate from where these thoughts rise within us, I follow the Three Wise Monkeys of Confucius.
I rely on Common Sense Media to avoid books, cartoons and movies with potty and wry humour. When it comes to other aspects of characterisation and plot, I follow my instincts as I too write for children and know that no story can be composed without negative elements.
Living in a country that is recently prone to child abuse and juvenile crimes. I feel there is need to choose books that are age appropriate and lack underage substance consumption.
Mandy Friend says
September 19, 2019 at 5:03 pmI would recommend removing Thrifty and Thriving’s site as a recommend. We went off her recommendations and the first TWO series we read were both not clean. One had very sensual, almost sex scenes, and one had homosexual stuff in it.
Karyn Tripp says
September 20, 2019 at 7:28 amThank you for letting me know!! I definitely will remove it.
Amy says
November 10, 2019 at 11:25 amJust an FYI, I am looking through the booklist for Honey for a Teen’s heart and disheartened to find books in there with quite a bit of language and sexual themes. The biggest one that caught my eye is she recommends Catcher in the Rye. She mentions the amount of language in the book, but not one comment on the sexual information in this book. It makes me question all the other books she has listed.
Karyn Tripp says
November 11, 2019 at 5:27 amThanks so much for your comment. That’s definitely an important thing to know!