About ParentsPick

ParentsPick is a children's book content analysis tool. You scan a book's ISBN barcode or search by title, and you get a factual breakdown of which content themes are present across nine categories.

The database currently covers 9,496 unique children's and young adult books, all analyzed at high confidence. Every entry shows which of the nine theme categories are confirmed present, confirmed absent, or not identifiable.

No star ratings. No age suitability scores. No editorial opinions about what families should or shouldn't read. The data exists so parents can make their own informed decisions.

Each book in the database has been analyzed for theme presence across all nine categories. The analysis is not based on genre labels, publisher descriptions, or assumed content. It looks at what is actually in each book.

Every theme entry has a confidence level — high, medium, or low — reflecting how clearly the content was identified. The statistics cited across the site use high-confidence detections only. Books where theme presence was uncertain or ambiguous are not counted in the published figures.

This means the published rates are conservative. A book needs clear, identifiable evidence of a theme to be counted as containing it.

ParentsPick is designed to be useful to all parents, regardless of where they stand on the content categories it tracks.

• —A parent who wants to find books with LGBTQ representation for their family can search the 1,248-book pool that has those themes confirmed.
• —A parent who wants to know what's in a book before reading it aloud can check before the read starts.
• —A religious family looking for books that include faith content can filter toward the 402 books with confirmed religious themes.
• —A secular family who prefers not to encounter religious material unexpectedly has the same data available to them.
• —A parent of a sensitive child who wants to avoid scary content can search the 6,537-book pool confirmed free of it.

The data is the same for all of them. What they do with it is up to them.

The existing tools for evaluating children's book content all have a perspective. Common Sense Media has been criticized by parents from both sides of the political spectrum. Plugged In is explicitly evangelical. BookLooks served a conservative religious audience before it shut down in March 2025.

ParentsPick does not take sides on any of the themes it tracks. It does not tell you that LGBTQ themes are inappropriate, or that religious content is welcome, or the reverse of either. It tells you whether the content is present, describes it factually, and leaves the decision where it belongs: with the parent.