My philosophy for this website has always been to review a variety of books for teens and tweens ages 10 to 18, choosing some books that would appeal to boys and others that would appeal to girls; I review books on a broad range of subjects and with different reading levels.

Now I'd like to hear what kind of books you're looking for and for what kind of reader. For example, do you have a twelve-year-old boy who's a reluctant reader and likes non-fiction? Do you have a sixteen-year-old daughter who's an avid reader but wants clean books? Are you a librarian who needs books for many different readers? I'd like to know!

(Added Dec. 2) I will respond to each comment here and on my Facebook page, so please check back a few days after leaving your comment.

I’ve tried out some "heavier" discussion topics without getting much response, so I thought I’d try something lighter for a change. You might be interested in what books I’ve just been reading, what audio books I’m listening to right now, and what books I’m not going to review.

I’ve just finished reading the Civil War novel With Every Drop of Blood by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier. The book follows fourteen-year-old Johnny, a Virginian whose father’s died from his war wounds, as he joins a supply train taking supplies to Rebel forces. He’s captured by a young runaway slave, Cush, who’s a member of the Union army. Since I will be reviewing the book, I’ll tell you more details later.

I’ve also just finished two other books: Lavinia’s Window by Michelle Weisen, a story of a twelve-year-old girl set in 1883. I usually don’t review books that aren’t published by major presses, but in this case, I met the author, and her press, Words of Mercy, focuses on providing uplifting, positive books! Click here to read the Teen Review and Parent Review.

The other book I just finished is Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear. I saw a later book in the series when visiting my sister recently, but she suggested I start with the first book of the series. Maisie is an unusual private detective, but much of this first book focuses on her teen years and her rise from poverty to financial independence. I was hoping it might be a good book for older teens, but I think it’s too slow to be of interest to most teens, so I’m not going to review it.

I am listening to an audio book right now, a series I just recommended to one of my book groups for light summer reading: Over Hill and Dale by Gervase Phinn. The first book in the series, The Other Side of the Dale, describes Phinn's first year as a schools' inspector in North Yorkshire. (The Amazon blurb calls it "mostly true.")

Phinn is called the James Herriot of schools—remember All Creatures Great and Small? The book is charming and episodic, so you can pick it up and read a bit and then put it down. I’ve only been able to find abridged audio versions of the first two books read by Phinn, but they’re delightful because you get to hear the Yorkshire accents—and I can do my weaving while I listen.

There are a couple of other books I’ve recently read that I won’t be reviewing: Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer by John Grisham and Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Volume I, art and adaptation by Young Kim.

I like some of John Grisham’s adult novels, so I was interested to see what his teen novel was like. Grisham can write such gripping fiction, but I found this book slow and the opposite of compelling, despite an intriguing premise. Thirteen-year-old Theo, the son of two lawyers, gives legal advice to his friends: what should a girl tell the judge about which parent she wants to live with? What should a family do about the foreclosure notice they’ve received?

Then Theo finds out there’s a witness to a murder, a witness no one else knows about, and the suspect is on trial and likely to get off. You’d think the book would really take off at this point, but it doesn’t. It creaks slowly along till just before the final pages and ends with a half-hearted cliffhanger that didn’t make me want to read more. It’s clean, but boring, so I won’t be reviewing it.

Although I’m very done with the Twilight series, I was intrigued to discover that there was a graphic novel of the first half of Twilight. Graphic novels can be a way to get reluctant readers interested in reading.

Unlike many graphic novels, this book is the size and shape of a typical hardback book. The art is all black and white, and from what I can tell just flipping through it, it faithfully follows the story. (Young Kim, the author and adapter, notes that Stephenie Meyer "supervised each and every page" of the adaptation.)

I was disappointed because much of the text is in italics—to show Bella’s thoughts. Italic script is hard for people with dyslexia to read. Someone who just dislikes reading may be motivated enough to read the book, but the script makes it so much harder than it needs to be!

Also, I have some concerns about this book: there’s an intense kiss that may bother some parents and teens. Also, in real life, if a boy tells a girl he’s bad for her, she should a) believe him and b) drop him like a hot potato. This book, like the original novels and the movies, is all about falling for the dangerous guy.

Now that you know what I’m reading, please tell us what clean books you’re reading!

Before starting my website last year, I sent a survey to parents, asking about their concerns about books for teens—you may have received it. Many parents asked for specific information about the offensive language in the books I review—you wanted to know the specific words used, and you wanted to know the number of times they were used.

It sounded like a reasonable and straightforward request—a mite time-consuming, but I was game. Having wrestled with the issue for months now, I find it a topic fraught with difficulties.

I’ll tell you how I’m resolving them, and I’m hoping you’ll give me your thoughts on these issues.

First, although I make all the other ratings more vague for the teen reviews, I usually leave the offensive language exactly the same, so teens or tweens can look at the rating and see if they want to read a book with that kind of language in it. (For names of deity and actual swear words, I use asterisks, like this—G*d, d*mn, and so on.) Please let me know how you feel about your teens seeing the actual words.

Next, let’s talk about specific words used, starting with the "biggies" in terms of offensive language: the names of deity as expletives. In many cases, these are easy to identify. However, sometimes a character says, "Please, God, help me!" Not an expletive. Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether it’s an expletive or a prayer. I do my best, perhaps erring on the side of being generous to the author and characters.

But in this category, there are words I don’t consider offensive: if a character says, "Good Lord," I’m not offended. Even though many slang expressions are corruptions of names for deity, I don’t find them offensive; these are words such as "gosh," "jeez," "golly," etc. I don’t mark them or keep track of them. (I likewise don’t keep track of corruptions of other swear words—heck, darn, etc.)

I also don't find it offensive if the characters swear by other gods—if a character says, "by Jove," I don't flinch; I don't bat an eye; I don't mark it; I don't count it.

Because taking the Lord’s name in vain is so offensive to many people, even one use of it bumps the rating up at least to Mild. So any book with a rating of Very Mild for Offensive Language shouldn’t have any uses of names of deity as expletives.

Less offensive than names of deity are other words I consider actual swear words. I haven’t encountered the f-word yet in a book I recommend. It would certainly bump the book up at least to the category of Mature Teens Only. (These are books that I think are worthwhile but have some material that may be distressing to younger readers. For example, the book Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix describes the terrible fire in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City in the early 1900s, and two of the main characters in the story die in the fire. It’s a great book, but not appropriate for younger readers. So on the teen calendar, it says, "For Mature Teens, see Parents’ Review." The only way to access the Teen Review is for a parent to go to their review first, then click on the link to the Teen Review.)

As for other swear words, I count variations of the same word together, so if there’s one "d*mn," two "d*mned"s, and one "d*mnation," they will all be counted as "d*mn" or "d*mned."

You might think that covers the matter, but there are also foreign swear words—if I recognize them, I mark them. And there are books (usually sci-fi or fantasy) with "invented" swearing, that is, the characters "swear" using words that aren't actual words or aren't swear words. Ordinarily, I wouldn't count them as swear words because they're not offensive to me. However, in the book I'm rating right now, the characters say, "Bloody vengence!" I ordinarily wouldn't mark or count this, but "bl**dy" is an offensive British swear word, so I guess I will count it.

In addition to names for diety and swear words, to me there are other offensive words as well. Where I grew up, we got in trouble for saying "shut up" to each other—and rightly so, to my mind. I deplore what I call the Bart Simpsonization of America—the snappy (and rude) comeback, the child who’s disrespectful to her parents, the constant put-downs.

So I started marking and then counting the times "shut up" was used as well as other language I considered offensive. At first, however, I over-counted, marking every use of the word "stupid," for example. But while I consider it offensive to call someone "stupid"—or think it—it’s not offensive to say, "I made a stupid decision" when it was stupid. So I’ve cut back. Hopefully, I’ll get to the point where I instantly distinguish a "stupid" that’s offensive from one that isn’t.

In the meantime, I’ll keep counting—even though this week I wondered if I was being utterly silly and foolish as I solemnly counted the number of times someone—animal, human, or djinn—was called "silly" or "foolish" in Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories!

In my volunteer work, I have found that even reluctant readers will read when their goal is to help others. I use Heifer International's Read to Feed Program where the teens earn money by reading, and the money goes to provide animals to people in poor countries. The teens earn money based on how much time they spend reading, with a maximum amount set for each week, so slow and fast readers earn the same amount of money.