How We Choose and Describe Books

We do not rate books with stars or scores. Instead, each book page gives verifiable details, an editorial description and notes that help an adult decide whether a book suits a particular child.

1. Selection

We favor books with lasting reader appeal, strong writing and illustration, a range of voices and experiences, and usefulness for families and classrooms — from long-loved classics to recent books. Inclusion is an editorial judgment, not a ranking.

2. Catalog verification

Before a book is published, we match its title and contributors to an Open Library work record and record one specific edition: ISBN-13, publisher, publication date and format. The edition shown is an example; many books exist in several editions with different ISBNs. Where the catalog’s first-publication year is clearly wrong (for example, conflated with an unrelated earlier work), we use the widely documented year and note the discrepancy in our records.

3. What the descriptions are — and are not

Summaries and reading notes are drafted by our editors, with AI assistance, in our own words from publicly available information about each book. They are not publisher copy, and they do not claim personal testing with children. Each book page says whether its description has yet been reviewed by a human editor. Where a book contains material some families may want to know about in advance, we say so plainly.

4. Age estimates

Age ranges are editorial estimates based on format, length, vocabulary, themes and how books are commonly used in homes and classrooms. Children vary widely; use the range as a starting point, read the notes, and when in doubt, read the book yourself first.

5. Awards

We list only major awards and honors that appear in the awarding bodies’ own published records — for example, the American Library Association’s Newbery and Caldecott awards and the National Book Foundation’s National Book Awards. We do not create awards, “best of” badges or ratings of our own.

6. Images

We do not display cover images unless we have permission to do so. Book cards use simple typographic designs instead.

7. Updates

Catalog details are rechecked when guides are updated. Please tell us about any error via our corrections process.