We understand that it is important to control which texts are accessible to younger students, so we have set the following age limits on certain texts, where appropriate: 11+, 13+ and 15+.

We know that it can be difficult for teachers and librarians to know exactly what a student might encounter in a book, so we’ve developed a system that mimics the way films and television programmes are rated, applying ‘mild’, ‘moderate’ and ‘strong/frequent’ descriptors to a range of specific themes so that you have full visibility of any mature content within each title.

Over half of the books in the Sparx Reader library have no minimum chronological age, and so are available to all students with appropriate reading ages. Approximately 75% of the books in the library are available to students who are aged 11 or over. The remaining books require students to be a minimum age of 13 or 15 before they will be offered the books by Sparx Reader.

We apply three minimum age ratings to books where appropriate:

These age restrictions ensure students only access age-appropriate content. Books without a minimum age rating are available to all students with suitable reading abilities.

The most common mature themes which appear in 11+ books are ‘Bereavement & Loss’ and ‘Violence and Threat’. In some cases, there are fleeting passages of text which cover these, and in other cases, they may be the key premise of the story but are not portrayed in a detailed or graphic way.

In 13+ books, the themes found in 11+ books are often present, but may be covered in more detail. Additional most common themes that appear in a moderate way in 13+ books are ‘Historical Perspective’ and ‘Discrimination’. These texts may contain views which are outdated or highlight ongoing areas of discrimination, allowing students to build empathy and gain an increased understanding of the world around them.

A minimum age of 15 is used where books have strong references to any of the mature themes. The most common themes found in 15+ books which are not found in 13+ or 11+ books are strong language and sexual references.

Strong language is often used to give an authentic voice to characters in books, and sexual references allow young adults to explore some of the realities of this period of enormous change for them.

We have also applied this age rating for some classic texts that - at the time of publishing - would have been aimed at readers younger than 15. However, some of the attitudes expressed and language used in these novels are now considered unacceptable and offensive. For this reason, we do not recommend that younger readers are necessarily exposed to these texts.

The specific themes we consider include:

We provide visibility of mature themes in several places:

Teachers can:

To swap or remove a book:

Young Adult (YA) fiction helps students:

Our carefully selected YA titles:

While minimum ages control access to mature content, reading ages help ensure books match students' reading abilities. Our reading age assessment considers:

We refine book reading ages based on:

Occasionally, a book written in the 19th or early 20th Century puts forward a disturbing, unsettling or even offensive outlook on the world. While we want to ensure that our catalogue reflects the full range of classic and contemporary titles that a school library would stock, we also know that anyone reading a book such as this must be prepared to confront these upsetting historic perspectives. As such, we have applied a minimum age rating of 15 to a selection of classic texts that we have carefully reviewed.

We flag if a book contains mature themes to a student when they are choosing a book. They can hover on this label to see what the mature themes are, in order to make an informed choice of which book to begin reading.

You can also view this information in your teacher account in a number of places. The library page will show you the mature themes for any book. When you're viewing the books a student has read in their reading history, you will also see this information.

Reading age reflects the difficulty level of the text, while minimum age ensures content appropriateness. A book might have a reading age of 12 but a minimum age of 15 due to mature themes.

Students see a general "mature themes" label when choosing books and can hover to see the specific themes, helping them make informed choices.

Contact us using the 'Help & Support' option in your Sparx Reader site to discuss your needs.