ABOUT
Books don't come with content ratings like movies or TV shows. Rated Reads is trying to fill that gap a little. If you want to find clean books, those that are G-rated, family-friendly, or safe for your kids, browse for books rated None or Mild. If you want to know what kind of content a specific book you've heard about has, you can search by title or author to get a rating and details about content.
Why
Some readers prefer clean books, whose content has no profanity, "open-door" sex or violence. Parents also often want to know that books their children are reading are clean,
G-rated, or age-appropriate.
WHAT
Regular reviews of fiction, nonfiction, and young adult books (this broad category includes some middle-grade books as well as books aimed at older teens), along with ratings for content. Rated Reads strives to provide content ratings for popular books.
How
Take a look at our ratings guide for more details about how we rate content, whether it's in fiction, nonfiction, or young adult books. Some books are clean, wholesome, and family-friendly. Others are not (and you
can be warned!).
A Few Caveats
This site is not intended as any kind of “censoring;” we simply aim to be a resource for readers and parents searching for clean book reviews. Movies and TV shows have ratings so viewers can decide if they will feel comfortable with the level of possibly offensive content for themselves and their families. We are here to provide more information, and information is power.
We can't possibly cover everything, of course; there are far more books being published every week than there are movies coming out, for instance. But hey, we can at least try!
(On that note, if you love to read and can write a simple review, we'd love to have you join as one of our reviewing staff. The more contributions, the more we all benefit. Just contact me. And I always edit reviews before they're published and fix them up a bit if need be, so don't be afraid to volunteer!)
This site will also try to avoid duplicating the work of other useful websites and services. Other sites (and libraries and reviewers on sites like Goodreads or Amazon) provide lists of classics that are great reading and also tend to be, particularly by dint of their publication date, clean and inoffensive, so I won't address those "oldies but goodies."
I also don’t cover Christian or faith-based books as a general rule, for similar reasons. They tend to be clean anyway, and other bloggers cover this territory very well.
So Rated Reads' focus is on books published more recently, and on providing detailed information about their content so you can decide whether you really want to read them before you buy or borrow.
We hope you will find this site a valuable resource not just for which new clean books for adults and young adults are available, but also for family-friendly books that are just plain good reading. Why read something that’s merely ACCEPTABLE when you can read something that’s REMARKABLE? We do want to provide you with some tools to make your reading just that much more satisfying.
Oh, and a special thank you goes out to authors who not only write great books but limit offensive content. Keep up the good work! Many of us wish more writers could write more clean, family-friendly books appropriate for all ages.
About our founder
CATHY CARMODE LIM
Cathy Carmode Lim has been a book reviewer for 30 years, two of which she was a newspaper book page editor. The mother of four daughters and four grandchildren founded Rated Reads in January 2008 and reviews many of the books. She always has a variety of projects going in addition to running Rated Reads and working as a copy editor and writer (visit her website if you need copy editing for a book manuscript or other project). She lives in Alabama and blogs about varied topics at LifeandLims.com.