Ratings ARE Over-rated

Why you won't find star-style ratings on this blog.

Star-ratings systems are there for a reason, and I get that they are an almost universal way for people across the world to understand a rater's opinion on something. The problem is that star-ratings (and ratings in general if we are being honest here) are subjective. Every reader has their own opinion and their own way of assigning a star-rating to a book. My 3 stars on Goodreads.com may not mean the same thing as your 3 stars. We all hold ourselves to a different standard when it comes to star-ratings.

I use Goodreads to log my reading. And I use their star-rating system on the site just like everyone else. Here is what the stars on Goodreads.com mean to me:

• 1 STAR - Dear God, I lost hours of my life reading this, why didn't I put it down?

• 2 STAR - Meh, I wouldn't put it in my school's library OR my personal one but I don't feel like I wasted my time.

• 3 STAR - I enjoyed it. I will put it into my school library but there will be no re-reading of this one and it will not go on my book shelves at home.

• 4 STAR - Feelin' this one. It goes into BOTH my school and my personal libraries.

• 5 STAR - I am going to Book Talk the crap out of this book and recommend it to all! BOTH libraries will have it on their shelves and you better believe some teachers will be reading it just so I'll stop expounding on it's greatness.

As you can see, my rating system is more than likely pretty different from yours. And that is what I mean by ratings being subjective. There are some raters who are way harsher than I am, and there are some who are way more lenient. Everyone's interpretation differs.

Authors work extremely hard at their craft, devoting countless hours of their life to creating and perfecting their tales. Who am I to tear down all of their hard work? Therefore, it is extremely rare for me to give a book a 1. I can actually count on one hand the amount of times I've given a book a star-rating of 1. And I still feel bad about those few, so that is why you won't find any star-ratings here.

Everyone's interpretation differs.

For this blog, I want to focus on POSITIVE reviews. Instead of using the standard star-rating system, I am going to be using categories.

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Categories are where its at!

There are 4 different categories that you will see me sort the books that I review in to.

• SCHOOL - I enjoyed this read. I will put it into my school library and recommend it to students and staff members depending on their reading interests.

• BOTH - I loved this title, it is one that I will carry in my school library AND that I will purchase a copy of to keep in my home library for future re-reading.

• CURRICULUM - This title had my brain working over-time. The depth of this read is one that lends itself to classroom instruction, whether you enjoy conducting Literature Circles or Whole Class Reads - it would work for either style!

• BOOKED - This read is one that I would highly recommend for Book Clubs. It deals with a high interest topic or genre and is one that I feel students would be excited to read.

Each of these categories has a positive spin to it. There is no tearing down of the author or title. I am just here for the book love.