As a parent, what do you look for in a kids book review?

[htalksbooks]

I'm interested to find out what other parents seek out in reviews of kids books.

I always scan Amazon reviews, as they tend to be short and it's easy to choose best/worst to look at. but does anyone just google a book name and look at book blog reviews? if so, do you like them to be short & sweet, give a really personal view & images from books, or something else?

Would it appeal to get a short personal view plus a roundup of reviews & ratings from other places like amazon, lovereading4kids, The Guardian and other blogs, plus maybe from professionals like a teacher or librarian.

Am testing my own theory behind my kids book blog to see if it's just me who will be interested!

Thanks
Annabel (H Talks Books)

I don't pay any attention to reviews. But them most of the books I get for them are library or charity shops. We read the blurb on the back, I occasionally glance through the middle or chapter names, but wouldn't ever rely on a review.

I'd be very interested, but that's with my author and teacher's hats on rather than as a parent! As a teacher, it would be good to be able to view all book reviews in one place rather than waste valuable time on googling.

I often try to gauge the age range the book is suitable for. DS is 7, but his reading age is much higher. For instance I would rather he waited with the Harry Potter books for a few more years, but I think he is ok with them and anyways he stole my HP books and installed them on his own bookshelf. However he finds teenage romances unreadable - some of the football books are written for older boys, and he is just not interested in their emotional turmoil yet. These things are quite hard to figure out from some reviews though.

In other words I could do with some help.

Same as gingercat. I mainly use Amazon reviews to gauge average reader age.