The new book-rating app that’s a great tool for Christian parents

Sum up for us briefly what BookLooky is and when it began? 

BookLooky is an online service to show readers, parents, teachers – really anyone who needs it – what type of content is in a book before they open page one. Just like how movies, TV shows, music, etc. have ratings, now books do too. The ratings are easy to understand and simple to read. It is offered worldwide and in almost every language.  

We have six categories (violence, love and romance, mental health, language, substance use, fear) and four themes (fantasy, LGBTQ, sci-fi, neurodiversity) that are all rated 0 to 5. 

I launched it in January 2026 after working on it for about four months. The product keeps getting iterated and changed as the challenges grow. The ultimate goal is to be as accurate as possible to help everyone who is looking for this service.  

What led you to creating this platform? 

It started with my eleven-year-old daughter. She started reading Harry Potter. I was excited for her to dive into the world of Hogwarts. When she got to the third or fourth book, the one with the Death Eaters and the Dementors, she got extremely scared. We are night readers, we read before bed. She came downstairs after a nightmare and slept with us. I laughed, because to me it was a little scary, I guess, but not that scary. To her it was the worst thing ever. I learned she does not like supernatural scary things. 

I need a map of what’s on the page so I can match the book to the kid in front of me. 

My other daughter reads about historical war. She loves World War I, World War II, the Cold War. I have no idea where that came from – I’m not a history guy! I’m proud of her for loving it. None of it scares her. Every kid is different and that’s fantastic. 

That is why a single “age 10+” on the cover never helped. One of my girls needed a heads-up on fear and the supernatural. The other can read about a world war and sleep just fine. I don’t need a stranger to tell me which daughter is right. I need a map of what’s on the page so I can match the book to the kid in front of me. 

Like many resources today, BookLooky uses Artificial Intelligence (AI). How is this used on your site? 

I use AI by a very long custom prompt that reaches out onto the internet and learns about the book, taking what it learned from all public websites including the authors information, and creates a rating based on that information. That is how it creates the basic rating and I found that it’s about 85% accurate. 

However, we do have a secondary rating that’s an official LRS (Looky Rating System), where the author actually gives me their transcript. I have a different AI agent that reads the book and gives a fully formed rating. They can then take that rating, print it in their book, put it on their website – whatever they want. The goal is to gain trust for their readers and it does work.  

Despite BookLooky not being faith-based, tell us how it can be helpful for Christian parents, grandparents and carers? 

BookLooky is technically not faith-based, however it is highly adopted by people of various faiths. The biggest reason is it gives the parents or readers knowledge of what’s in the book, so that they can very easily decide if this fits their moral compass or outside of what they want their children or themselves to read. It doesn’t tell them what to read, it doesn’t make recommendations, it just gives them the basic information so they have their own choice to make.   

Knowing what’s inside the book before page one allows anybody of any denomination or faith the ability to very quickly understand whether or not it’s a suitable book for them or their children.

No one wants to get halfway through a book and discover content that is offensive or not what they want to read about, and then have to put the book down. Knowing what’s inside the book before page one allows anybody of any denomination or faith the ability to very quickly understand whether or not it’s a suitable book for them or their children.

That is why I don’t say this for Christians only, because many faiths follow very similar guidelines, but that’s also not to say that people of no faith don’t use it either. 

Is there a charge for using BookLooky? 

There is no charge for Booklooky; it is free for any reader. I do offer a bulk scan tool for schools and libraries, which comes with a small charge. The official Looky Rating System (LRS) will also have a small charge for authors and publishers to get an official rating they can print in their book. 

Right now, I am converting BookLooky to a nonprofit and, from the beginning of 2027, will be accepting donations to keep the lights on it.

What are your long-term hopes for the resource? 

My long-term aspirations for BookLooky are to make it the de facto rating system for books, the same way that we have the MPAA for movies (PG, PG13, etc.), Parental Advisory Label (PAL) for music, etc. It’s very odd that we have ratings for every type of media except for books, but now have BookLooky.

The feedback I’ve received from parents has been heartwarming.

What feedback have you received from people so far? 

The feedback has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic. People have come to me and said: “It’s about time somebody made something like this”, or “I’m so happy. My children use it and I told my friends and family about it.” I have multiple churches use it, and multiple schools scanning their entire library. The feedback I’ve received from parents has been heartwarming and it makes me know that I’m on the right track. 

I have adults without kids use it and they laugh at the ratings they get from some of the books. They’re using it for fun.   

Many authors – particularly ones who write clean books – tell me that they’re very excited for something like this. It provides trust to their readers, reassuring them that it matches what they expect from a clean author. 

You can explore BookLooky here and its app is available on IOS and Android.