The Knowing

Name: The Knowing
Author: Sharon Cameron
ISBN: 9780545945240

Age Rating, Reading Level & Content Guide

by Sharon Cameron

Reading Level 4-5 LE · Mild · Emotional Ages 13+ Balanced Read

The text is written at a 4th grade reading level, the subject matter is intended for teens (ages 13+), and the content is mild with minimal sensitive material. Its HootRating code, LE, means mild content, mostly emotional.

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About This Book

What if everyone around you forgot the past, but you couldn't? Deep underground in New Canaan, Samara holds memories everyone else has lost. But those memories might be more dangerous than she ever imagined.

Themes

MemoryConspiracySecrecyFantasy World-Building Adventure

Quick Assessment

Teens who love fantasy will be drawn into a world where memory is power, and where a girl flees her sheltered city to escape a memory she can't live with. The story involves hidden secrets, a conspiracy among those who control what people know, and themes of loss and identity, with some emotional weight around memory trauma and mild peril during the journey. Romance is present but gentle, and the book is a companion to The Forgetting, so readers who enjoyed that series will find familiar ideas and characters.

Why we rated The Knowing LE (Mild)

The Knowing is written at a Level 4-5 reading level across 438 pages. Upper Grades (Ages 13+) is the typical interest range for this book — readers in that age band have the maturity and attention span suited to the story, separate from whether they can decode the words.

We rate The Knowing as LE (Mild, mostly emotional) because the content sits in the "Mild" range — mild conflict — the kind a child encounters in normal play and sibling life. Across our four dimensions (emotional, physical, social, thematic) the book reads as evenly mild; no single dimension stands out as a concern.

No specific content flags were raised by community reviewers, which is consistent with the mild intensity score.

Thematically, The Knowing explores memory, conspiracy, secrecy, fantasy world-building, and adventure — these threads give the book room to mean different things to different readers.

Good fit for

✓ Children in the Ages 13+ range — the maturity and attention span match the story's pacing.
✓ Kids drawn to stories about memory, conspiracy, secrecy.

Maybe not for

! Readers looking for something heavier — this is a gentle, low-stakes story by design.

For Parents

Content Intensity

LE · Mild · Emotional

Emotional

Mild ←

Physical

Gentle

Social

Gentle

Thematic

Mild

Reading the HootRating code: the first letter is the content intensity (C = Gentle · L = Mild · M = Moderate · I = Intense · V = Very Intense); the second, when there is one, is the kind of content that drives it (E = Emotional · P = Physical · S = Social · T = Thematic). Reading level and age range are rated separately. How we rate

Light conflict or tension. Mild peril resolved quickly.

Data confidence: high

Was our "Mild" content intensity rating accurate for this book?