When we wake

Name: When we wake
Author: Karen Healey
ISBN: 9780316200769

Age Rating, Reading Level & Content Guide

by Karen Healey

Reading Level 4-5 ME · Moderate · Emotional Ages 13+ Matched

The text is written at a 4th grade reading level, the subject matter is intended for teens (ages 13+), and the content has moderate intensity with some emotionally heavy themes. Its HootRating code, ME, means moderate content, mostly emotional.

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About This Book

Tegan’s heart races as she strums her guitar, surrounded by friends shouting for justice. Suddenly, everything goes dark—then she wakes up a hundred years later, trapped in a strange government lab with no memory of how she got there. What secrets lie ahead, and will she find a way to fight back?

Themes

Science & Nature Adventure Social Justice Coming of Age Friendship Family Multicultural

Quick Assessment

Sixteen-year-old Tegan dies on what should have been the best day of her life and wakes a century later as the first person successfully revived from cryonic freezing, becoming a celebrity inside a government facility. The story carries real emotional weight through grief, lost family and friends, and fear, along with themes of political injustice, environmental collapse, and government secrecy, and its ending leaves the future open. Parents should know it includes a character's death, some romance, and moderate peril, so it suits readers ready for serious, thought-provoking themes.

Why we rated When we wake ME (Moderate)

When we wake is written at a Level 4-5 reading level across 296 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 When we wake as ME (Moderate, mostly emotional) because the content sits in the "Moderate" range — moderate conflict that may involve loss, scary scenes, or interpersonal stakes. The strongest signals come from emotional weight, social complexity, thematic difficulty — these are the dimensions parents should evaluate against their reader's tolerance.

Specific content flags noted by reviewers: Mild Peril.

Thematically, When we wake explores science & nature, adventure, social justice, coming of age, and friendship — these threads give the book room to mean different things to different readers. Each of these themes is concrete enough to seed a real conversation, not just a moral lesson.

Good fit for

✓ Children in the Ages 13+ range — the maturity and attention span match the story's pacing.
✓ Readers ready to talk through themes after they finish — there's enough substance for a meaningful conversation.
✓ Kids drawn to stories about science & nature, adventure, social justice.

Maybe not for

! Readers who get easily upset by emotional or moderately dark scenes — the conflict here is real, not just background flavor.

For Parents

Content Intensity

ME · Moderate · Emotional

Emotional

Moderate ←

Physical

Mild

Social

Moderate

Thematic

Moderate

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

Real stakes and emotional weight. May include sustained danger, loss, or bullying.