What is the Book List?

Welcome to The Good and the Beautiful Book List, a free database of recommended books for children and adults. We created the Book List so that parents like you can have peace of mind when handing a book from the Book List to your child. Our team of avid readers thoroughly reviews and curates this growing list of Good and Beautiful approved books so you don’t have to.

We know how challenging it can be to find books that are character building and encouraging, that contain high literary and educational value, and that keep young readers engaged. Whether you have a reluctant reader or a reader who devours books, we are excited to help you find good titles for your child and to recommend some fantastic reads for parents too! The Parent Book List is a mix of highly recommended fiction, nonfiction, light romance, biography, and personal growth genres for parents.

What makes the Book List unique and valuable?

Most top book lists for kids, including Christian-based book lists, include popular books with inappropriate language and behavior that is made to look acceptable. Jenny Phillips, founder of The Good and the Beautiful, and her team have spent many years reviewing all genres of literature to bring you book recommendations that are truly clean. They include no inappropriate language and do not include messages that promote behaviors such as  disrespecting parents, lying, complaining, being ungrateful, hating school, cheating, fighting with siblings, name-calling, and so on.

Can I purchase books on the Book List website?

We do not sell books on the book list website. However, some of the books on the list are published by The Good and the Beautiful Bookshop and are available for purchase on our website, goodandbeautiful.com/bookshop. Other books can be found at your local library or other book retailers.

How are the books selected?

While we do not wish to dictate standards to families, we do encourage them to determine their own standards. Books on the Book List do not contain the following:

• • Bad behavior or weak character traits portrayed as humorous, entertaining, normal, or acceptable (dishonesty, disrespect, negativity, or bad attitudes toward family, school, work, learning, or God)
  • Material that disparages family relationships
  • Unclean language or crude humor
  • Children dating or an emphasis on romance or crushes
  • Promotion of teenagers or adults having an unhealthy view of romance that is shallow or focused on physical appearances

• • Violence that is graphic or used for entertainment purposes.

What is considered to be inappropriate language?

Books on the list never contain the following:

• • Profanity
  • Taking God’s name in vain
  • Crude language
  • Repeated usage of unkind language
  • Racial slurs that are made to seem acceptable or funny

Books on the list may contain the following:

• • Euphemisms such as darn, dang, golly, gee, shucks, heck, goodness, gosh, for Heaven’s sake, etc.
  • Rare instances of unkind language, such as idiot or stupid, which are not made to seem acceptable and are not repeated throughout the book

How do I know which level my child is on?

Take the quick and easy Good and Beautiful Reading Level Placement Test at goodandbeautiful.com/placement.

How does the Rating System work?

Each book receives a rating score of 1–5 in four categories: entertainment value, moral value, educational value, and literary value.

Entertainment Value

All books on our list are chosen to be engaging, but books that rank high in entertainment value may be more appealing to reluctant readers and/or those who are new to good and beautiful books.

Moral Value

All books on The Good and the Beautiful Book List are deemed appropriate and wholesome, but some books have more emphasis on moral principles than others. A lower rating for moral value does not mean the book is inappropriate; it only means that moral values are not as highly emphasized.

Educational Value

Although all books on this list have educational value in the sense of increasing vocabulary and other important skills, the educational value scale is based on how well the book helps the reader gain knowledge about historical time periods, cultures, geography, science, etc.

Literary Value

Books that score high in literary value include exceptional writing, use of literary devices, and a rich vocabulary. All books on The Good and the Beautiful Book List are well-written, but some have a higher literary value than others.

What do the icons mean?

An audiobook for this title is available on Audible, LibriVox, or other audiobook platforms.

An e-book for this title is available on Kindle or other e-book platforms.

This title is written by The Good and the Beautiful staff and can be purchased at goodandbeautiful.com/bookshop.

This book has excellent literary, moral, and educational value and is highly engaging.

Books with this icon are out of print and may be difficult to find.

This book is a gentle favorite full of rich descriptive writing that may move at a slower pace.

This book has been recently added to the Book List.

This book contains light magic. However, we do not include books that contain heavy or dark magic, curses, spells, seances, or witches.

What Books Didn’t Make the List?

The books that didn’t make this list are not necessarily not recommended for all people, nor are they being labeled as inappropriate. Books that didn’t make the list include content that some parents might find undesirable. We strive to recommend books that are non-offensive to the vast majority of parents. We do publish a list of books that didn’t make the list as a resource for parents, so they are better equipped to make decisions about the books for themselves. Please be aware that books in the “Didn’t Make the List” section were not necessarily reviewed in their entirety and often do not list all of the possible content found within the book.