We all looked up

Name: We all looked up
Author: Tommy Wallach
ISBN: 9781481418799

Age Rating, Reading Level & Content Guide

by Tommy Wallach

Reading Level 5-6 IE · Intense · Emotional Ages 13+ Heads Up

The text is written at a 5th grade reading level, the subject matter is intended for teens (ages 13+), and the content is intense and may include graphic or distressing scenes. Its HootRating code, IE, means intense content, mostly emotional.

Find on Amazon Listen on Audible

We may earn a commission from these links.

About This Book

Some say high school is the best time of your life—but what if the world might end before you even graduate? Four friends face the biggest question ever: how do you live when tomorrow might not come? Their choices will change everything, for themselves and for all of us.

Themes

Life Change EventsMeteorsMeaning (Philosophy)Self-RealizationFriendship

Quick Assessment

A group of high school seniors faces the approach of an asteroid that could wipe out life on Earth, and they must decide how to spend the time they have left. The story explores grief, fear, and difficult choices about friendships, college, and what matters most, and it includes a parent's death, a character with cancer, a hospital setting, and references to self-harm, drug use, child abuse, and a hanging. There are also scenes of sexual content, so parents may want to preview the book before sharing it with younger teens.

Why we rated We all looked up IE (Intense)

We all looked up is written at a Level 5-6 reading level across 370 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 We all looked up as IE (Intense, mostly emotional) because the content sits in the "Intense" range — intense conflict including peril, frightening scenes, or emotionally heavy themes. The strongest signals come from emotional weight, physical peril, social complexity, thematic difficulty — these are the dimensions parents should evaluate against their reader's tolerance.

Specific content flags noted by reviewers: Child Abuse, Drug Use, Injury, Death, Illness, Hospital Scene, Self-Harm, Sexual Content.

Thematically, We all looked up explores life change events, meteors, meaning (philosophy), self-realization, and friendship — 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 life change events, meteors, meaning (philosophy).

Maybe not for

! Sensitive readers who get overwhelmed by intense conflict or scary scenes.
! Children younger than 13 — the content intensity is above what most younger kids can process comfortably.
! Children currently coping with grief — the themes may hit close to home.

For Parents

Content Intensity

IE · Intense · Emotional

Emotional

Intense ←

Physical

Moderate

Social

Moderate

Thematic

Intense

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

Heavy themes explored in depth. War, death, abuse addressed directly.