I am excited to introduce to you Cooper Hite, who created the website, cooperhite.com, to review books for preteens and teens based on a Biblical perspective.  As a strong Christian teen and avid reader himself, not to mention the son of a young-adult fantasy fiction author, Mindy Hite, he brings a valuable perspective to his book reviews.  His website is dedicated to helping youth and Christian parents confidently discern whether a book aligns with their values.

Cooper, tell me a little about yourself.  

My name is Cooper Hite, and I am 14 years old. I love Jesus and believe that the Bible is the word of God and our ultimate truth. I am the oldest of three boys, a second degree blackbelt, and I really enjoy designing my own projects for 3-D printing.  I do all the audio recording and editing for my mom’s books and podcasts, and I have also been homeschooled for about four years. 

Tell me why you decided to start this website and how you created it?

One of my hobbies is reading. I read quite a bit. More and more I have been disappointed with (or have been completely exasperated because of) the content of some of the books I’m reading. Especially if I’m reading a series and the author introduces a character that lives against God’s design later in the series. I made this website because I felt like I wanted to be able to help others avoid running into these cringe-worthy land mines when all they want is a clean, entertaining read. 

At first, I didn’t know where to start and what to do to get to my end-goal of having a book review website. I researched and started to learn and understand the steps to creating a website. Now I have created my own website, and designed my own book review page. There have been plenty of instances where I have needed help from my mom’s website designer, who very patiently walks me through what to do. It’s been tough to persevere sometimes, (I’ll be honest, I needed plenty of nudges from my mom) but it’s really awesome to now see the finished project.

How do you categorize the books on your website? 

I rate the books by their content and use a fun system of emojis. There are five ratings that range from the “dead-eye emoji” for books that have inappropriate content, against God’s design, that no one should read, to the star-eyed emoji that is for books I loved and couldn’t stop reading. You know, the ones that cause me to get in trouble for reading too late. I then share the genre, age range, violence, and sexual content for each book. 

What are some middle grade (9-12) books that you would recommend? 

A few clean middle grade series that I like are The Masterminds series by Gordon Kormon, The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, The Dream Traveler’s Quest series by Ted Dekker, The Wild Robot series by Peter Brown, Alcatraz vs. the Librarians Series by Brandon Sanderson, and The Prince Warriors series by Priscilla Shirer.

Are there any books for the middle grades that you would want to caution parents about before letting their children read them and why?  

The Keeper of the Lost Cities (from book 9.5 on), the Wings of Fire (from book 5 on), The Spy School Series  (from Book 11 on) all have LGBTQ+ content. Rick Riordin has shifted from fun reads with Percy Jackson to all of his books pushing inappropriate content for the age he markets to. Any of the new series that Scholastic is putting out with witches should also be avoided.

Can you share with us some books for teens that you recommend? 

A couple YA series I’ve enjoyed have been The Light Bearers series by the prestigious author, Mindy Hite (AKA my mom), The Talionis series by C.J. Milacci, The CORE series by Jeremiah Friedli, The Half-light Chronicles by Karyne Norton, The Sentinel Trilogy by Jamie Foley, and The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins.

What books geared for teens would you caution parents about before letting their children read them and why?  

First, I want to let you know that Amazon’s rating of Young Adult is now 12-18 years of age. They are gearing their young adult content towards teenagers, which makes parents think the content is okay for even their younger readers. On my site, I try to give a true recommendation of what age is appropriate, and anyone younger may not be ready for the content. 

Young teens or tweens who aren’t strong in their faith shouldn’t be reading about vampires or dark magic. Fantasy and sci-fi books with questionable content should only be read for fun by readers who know where they stand with God. My parents even had me hold off on letting me read Harry Potter until I could recognize reading fantasy books that are just for fun. In Harry Potter you do see that the dark magic is evil, those are the bad guys. But a lot of books these days, even those being put out by Scholastic, are glorifying the dark magic. The god character is the bad guy, and the dark magic or evil is thriving because it’s more “fun.”  That’s my overall caution to parents.

My next caution is something you will see on my website. Some book series start out fine, they are clean and then around book 5, (yes, Wings of Fire I’m looking at you) or book 9.5 (Keeper of the Lost Cities) they introduce LGBTQ+ content. Authors are doing this because that’s what publishers want to see. They change characters or content that we are engrossed in because maybe we won’t put down the book, but if we are Christians we need to put down the book and take a stand. 

What do you hope to accomplish with your website? 

Knowledge and wisdom. I want readers, both young and old, to be fully aware of the content they are about to consume because Scripture tells us to guard our eyes and our hearts. My hope is that my website helps others to be obedient to this call. 

Thank you so much, Cooper, for sharing your amazing website with us. I love how you are willing to take a stand for what is right and help other readers avoid harmful books or become engrossed in a series that will ultimately disappoint them.  I know your book reviews will be a blessing to many families.

For more books to watch out for and great Christian alternatives, check out my latest blog from the Warrior Mamas Series: Christian Parenting Guide to Harmful Books. You can find more preteen and teen book options at 7 Great Christian Chapter Books for Kids.