Our Rating System
At Shelf-Aware blog, our mission is to help find and recommend clean, Christian or wholesome books for every age—from picture books to adult fiction. No stars (we only recommend books we like), no gore, no open-door scenes, no horror, no strong language. Just high-quality recommendations you can trust.
To that aim we created this rating system to help. We will always include dropdown menus beneath each level so that you can see details on the individual books. We leave the details in dropdown menus so that anyone not wishing to be spoiled can avoid that.
We try our best to include all relevant content notes, or possibly concerning content, but we may not catch everything and/or you may feel things are concerning that we do not. Please research individually if you’re sensitive to specific topics/subjects!
🤬 Langauge
Level 1 : None
Level 2: Darn, gosh, made up swears, "he cursed", H***.
Level 3: Occasional mild swear word but nothing stronger than d*** or h*** .
Level 4: Use of common profanity: d*** , h*** , s***
Level 5: Frequent use of common profanity: d*** , h*** , s***
Note: We do not recommend books with strong language (f***, etc.), nor do we recommend books that use God's name or Jesus' name as a swear or exclamation.
We will add any content we think relevant such as name calling, slang, suggestive terminology, or crude terms. in the dropdown.
❤️ Romance
Level 1: None
Level 2: Kisses only
Level 3: Passionate Kisses. May also have suggestive dialogue.
Level 4: Intense kisses and groping. Kissing may leave mouth to throat. May have suggestive wording that hints at intimate scenes having happened. May have a fade to black scene.
Note: We do not recommend books with open door scenes. We will indicate if the fade to black scene is between a married couple or not.
🛡️ Violence
Level 1: None
Level 2: Minor scuffles or off page. More slapstick/cartoon than anything else.
Level 3: Fantasy battles or historical skirmishes, gunplay, minor injuries. Death on page but not described.
Level 4: Described injuries or intense action. May have death scenes.
Note: we do not recommend books with gratuitous cruelty or gore.
‼️ Heads up
We will note if books have any of the following themes in this section:
Grief/Loss: Infertility, Death of parent - child - pet - guardian etc.
Mental Health Themes: Depression, Anxiety, mentions of self-harm, disorders, suicide (off page), Dementia, etc.
Abuse: Physical, sexual (off page), verbal
Substance Use/Abuse/Addiction
Prejudices, racism, genocide, etc.
Family Conflict: Separation, Divorce, Abandonment, toxic dynamics
Other: Anything we feel you may wish to be informed about before reading