Enacted January 23, 2012. Earlier reviews did not use this scale.

Hair Crow Scales

I don’t rate with five stars anymore on the site, and here’s why. It’s so convenient that it’s now too convenient. Anything other than a 4 or 5 isn’t considered good. Four isn’t always seen as good. Three can be seen as good or bad, but many authors can take it as bad. I just don’t see enough flexibility. So I’ve made my ratings flexible. So flexible, you have to decide yourself what it would really be.

I picked nine, that way it didn’t easily switch from just timing it by two to get the 5 star equivalent. Is the nine crows equal to a five star, or is seven crows also a five? I won’t tell.

The only person who will know the equivalent is the author if they want me to place it on another site. Otherwise, there’s no real telling of what equals what. I did that on purpose. By looking at the WORDS OF THE REVIEW instead of the stars, readers can make up their own mind. They can listen to the words, instead of staring at easily made stars.

LEVELS OF INNOCENCE

From hanging out with other Book Bloggers for going on a few years now, there’s been something I’ve been wanting to add.

It turns out, there are some very advanced kids out there. It turns out, there are adults out there who want to read something their kids can read too. It turns out, some foul language in what should be more innocent books does sneak in. Therefore, I hold three levels on all my reviews. A book will get it’s rating like always, but it will also be given a level along with a small explanation of other factors.

LEVELS OF INNOCENCE

Safe for kids, made for kids. Those wonderful books designed to enhance the imagination and entertainment value to kid’s lives. Anything with this rating, is pretty safe.

Ah, this is where it gets tricky and I often need to talk about the little details so that advanced age level readers can understand the subtleties. These stories are usually designed for teens but can be read by older or more advanced reading leveled children. Sometimes there is more to the story and I would recommend it for adults too, but I only give each book one stamp.

A lot of books I review will end up here. I hate when people say this book is for adults because I don’t know if that includes graphic sexual situations. Not So Innocent does not review erotica since it is reviewing children’s stories and this is the highest level I will give. If a book is given this stamp, we’re talking adults and probably older teens (but I won’t make that judgement.) Everyone is different, but with this stamp, it means the book should be looked at very closely if the purchaser is younger. It may have some disturbing images or situations. It may have bad language. It may just ring true that you should be older to read and enjoy this.

I am in my early 30′s, so I enjoy all levels. I read the younger books to my daughter (almost four now) and I enjoy older level books for myself only. I hope having these levels help give y’all one more thing to help you make the decision to check out a book or not.