Finding Books for You and Your Family

Thanks for choosing the Boise Public Library! We are excited to introduce you to new worlds and adventures every time you walk through our doors. As a public library, we take great pleasure in providing books and materials which reflect the diversity of our community. At the public library, there is always something for everyone to enjoy.

With so many items to choose from, it can sometimes be overwhelming to find the books that are right for you and your family. This guide is here to help! With these tips, tricks, and tools, you’ll be on your way to your next great reading adventure.

Rights & Responsibilities

As a parent or caregiver, you are your child’s first and best teacher. You should feel empowered to set parameters that are right for your family. It is your role to discuss with your child what is and is not appropriate for them to read, view, and listen to.
As a public library, it is our responsibility to include materials in our collection that meet the needs of all the different people in our community. We strive to have something for everyone! With that in mind, every family is different. What is just right for some community members and some families may not be appropriate for others.

Personalized Recommendations

Our trained and experienced library staff are here to help you navigate the library’s collection so that you may find something that is just right for your child or teen. Our staff wants to make sure you have the information you need to select the materials you want. We can talk with you about your family’s reading, viewing, and listening values. This is also an opportunity for you to tell us about any subject matter you would like to avoid. This will help us identify items in the collection that specifically meet your family’s needs, interests, and standards.

You can visit a Library location, call, or email us. We love talking about books and stories, and we love working with you to make sure you have exactly what you are looking for.

Tips, Tricks, and Tools for Finding the Book for You

How can you check the book you have in your hand to see if it fits your expectations? There are several approaches you might try:

Library Resources

Personalized Picks: Use our Personalized Picks service, and we’ll send you a list of books you might like or have a pile checked out and ready for you to pick up.
Ask a librarian! We love to get people their next favorite read – and we’ve generally read a few books ourselves.
Novelist and Novelist K–8: Use these databases to find books that are like books you’ve read in the past.
Judge a book by its cover! Sometimes you can tell if a book is going to have a scene you’re not interested in reading just from what you see in the cover art.
Common Sense Media: This website reviews movies, books, and games for violence, sex, swearing, positive role models, positive messages, educational value and more.
Does the Dog Die: This website warns you about emotional spoilers (like the dog dying at the end) for movies, TV shows, and books.
Amazon.com: Use the Look Inside feature on most print (not digital) books to search how many times certain words occur in a book. Do a search for swear words, body parts you might find in a sex scene, blood, etc., to see if the book matches up to your standards.
Graphic Novel Ratings: Many graphic novels will have a rating (like what you would see on a video game) next to the ISBN barcode on the back cover or inside the front cover of the book.
Romance novels: Try the 2/3 trick. Most romance novels will have a racy scene about 2/3 of the way through a book, if they’re going to have one at all.
Mysteries: How do you know which mystery to read? Cozy mysteries are light and generally have a funny title and an animated cover. Noir (literally: black/dark) mysteries are violent and scary and usually have dark covers with few pictures. Everything else in the middle has covers that look a lot like any other fiction cover.

Review Websites

Common Sense Media: This website reviews movies, books, and games for violence, sex, swearing, positive role models, positive messages, educational value and more.
Does the Dog Die: This website warns you about emotional spoilers (like the dog dying at the end) for movies, TV shows, and books.
Amazon.com: Use the Look Inside feature on most print (not digital) books to search how many times certain words occur in a book. Do a search for swear words, body parts you might find in a sex scene, blood, etc., to see if the book matches up to your standards.

Genre Tips

Printable version of this information available here.