Thema offers greater specificity to children’s and teen stories that explore social topics, and the updates in 1.6 continue to refine that discoverability. In this spotlight you can learn how to make the most of these opportunities.
What are social topics?
Social topics are often important themes central to what a parent or educator is looking for in book and resources for children and teens. Themes like emotions or mental health, families, friendships and relationships, gender and identity, grief and resilience – all essential in supporting younger readers in their personal development and understanding the world around them.
Yet these themes can be the hardest to search for effectively. This creates a strong reliance on referrals and recommendations from specialist children’s booksellers, librarians, and educators. Even specialists will often lean on the same tried-and-true classics rather than having an easy path to discovering new voices and stories that speak to these issues in fresh and relevant ways. These are common requests that inexperienced booksellers especially struggle with.
How does Thema help?
We can address this discoverability challenge by using rich Thema codes to ensure books and resources reach the right audience. A book that perfectly addresses a difficult topic loses much of its impact if it is buried in broad classifications such as YBC - Children’s Picture Books or YBD - Chapter Books.
Thema is used to indicate the principal subject(s) of the work – not to list every possible theme, indicate a target audience, or serve as a keyword substitute. However, the Y codes* – which cover children’s and teen fiction and non-fiction – often involve some overlap between these areas.
Best practices for classifying social topics
We’ve previously covered the classification process in more detail, and the same high-level steps apply here:
- Step 1: Choose a primary subject code
- Step 2: Add secondary subject codes
- Step 3: Add qualifiers for depth
For children’s and teen stories, your primary subject code must be a Y* code, and should be as specific and useful as possible. A broad category like YBC - Children’s Picture Books tells a potential buyer very little about the book’s content.
It should be included as one of your Thema codes where relevant, but not at the expense of a more meaningful classification. Sometimes it may be the right primary code, but consider carefully – on a book-by-book basis – whether this really is the most important classification.
Choosing the right primary subject code
Some of the key Y* areas that may better define a book’s primary subject matter include:
- YBL* - Early years / early learning concepts for preschool-appropriate material
- YF* - Children’s / Teenage fiction and true stories, for books with a narrative focus
- YN* - Children’s / Teenage: General interest for general interest material not specifically designed for school use.
- YX* - Children’s / Teenage: Personal and social topics
It’s this last category – Personal and Social Topics – that we’re focusing on in more detail.
Classifying books and resources in the Personal and Social Topics (YX) area
The YX category is essential for books and resources that help young readers navigate real-life challenges, emotions, and relationships. These may be fiction or non-fiction, but they address personal development and social themes in meaningful ways.
Key features of the Personal and Social Topics category:
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Addressing real-life experiences through stories
Resources in this category often tackle complex and meaningful subjects, from mental health and self-esteem to family structures, friendships, and identity. These provide young readers with insights into their emotions, relationships, and the world around them.
For example, books with the following themes and their suggested categories:
- Managing anxiety and worry might use YXEF - Emotions: Worry, fear (which could then also be found in a search for the parent category YXE - Emotions, moods, feelings and behaviours).
- Growing up in a multicultural family might use YXM - Multicultural.
- Coping with grief might use YXG - Death and grief.
Precise classification ensures that booksellers, educators, and parents can easily find titles that address specific topics.
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Often pairs well with 5P or 5L qualifiers
Books in this category frequently intersect with identity, relationships, and life stages, making 5P (People and Identity) and 5L (Stages of Life) useful additional qualifiers. For example:
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A book about a child of migrant parents navigating school life might use the following (perhaps as secondary codes for a primary code of YFS - Children’s / Teenage fiction: School stories):
- YXN - Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: Racism and anti-racism
- 5PBC - Relating to migrant groups / diaspora communities
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A story about a teen navigating their LGBTQIA+ identity might use:
- YXHL - Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: Dating, relationships, romance, and love
- YXB - Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: LGBTQIA+
- 5PS - Relating to LGBTQIA+ people
- 5LF - Relating to adolescence / teenage years
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Books can be fiction or non-fiction
While many books in this category are narrative-driven fiction, non-fiction books that guide children or teens through social and emotional learning can also be given YX codes - though in many cases, the social topic might be a secondary code. The most relevant code should always be the main subject code. For example:
Key challenges in classifying social topics in children's books
Despite their importance, social topic books are often difficult to find. The problem isn’t the availability of these books – it’s ensuring they reach the right audience.
Common discoverability challenges include:
- Overly broad classification – books that could be classified under YXLD – Mental health or YXK – Disability, impairments and special needs, are often just labeled YF – Fiction or YBC – Picture books, making them harder to find.
- Misuse of keywords vs. subject codes – subject categories should not be treated as keyword fields, and vice versa. Keywords offer additional granularity and should not replace accurate Thema classification. Nor should your Thema classification include themes only touched on tangentially.
- Books spanning multiple themes – a book focusing on friends from split families might need YXFD – Divorce, separation, family break-up as the primary code, with YXHB – Friends and friendships as a secondary code.
- Considering how booksellers and educators will search – a bookseller or librarian looking for a book about bullying might search under YXQF – Bullying and harassment, not a general fiction code. Ensure books fall where consumers are looking to find them.
If a book deals with a social topic in a significantly meaningful way, it almost certainly deserves a YX or YXZ classification – and if dealing with that social topic is its most significant selling feature, consider using that as the primary subject code.
Example classifications
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A book about a teenager navigating friendships and self-confidence
- Primary: YXHB – Friends and friendships
- Secondary: YXL – Self-awareness and self-esteem
- 5A Interest age: 5AH from c 7 years
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A picture book about a child’s first day of school and separation anxiety
- Primary: YFS – Children’s / Teenage fiction: School stories
- Secondary: YXT – School, education, and teachers
- Secondary: YXW – Personal and social topics: First / new experiences and life changes
- Secondary: YXEF – Children’s / Teenage emotions: Worry, fear
- 5A Interest age: 5AF – Interest age: from c 5 years
Age classifications and metadata best practices
Why is there no ‘middle grade’ fiction code? Why is there no 'junior' fiction code?
Classifying social topic books isn’t just about subject matter – age appropriateness is equally important.
For children’s and teen books, always pair Y* codes with:
- 5A* interest age qualifiers
- The exception to this is if you are using YP* educational material, you can use a 4* Educational purpose qualifier instead. This might be something general like 4CD - For primary education or more targeted like 4Z-AU-BA - For Year 1 (Australia). 4* qualifiers can also be used for trade storybooks with curriculum alignment.
- If a book is for 5-7-year-olds, just use 'from 5 years' (5AF) - you don’t need to repeat this for every applicable age.
- ONIX Audience (List 28) – Defines whether the book’s primary audience is Children, Teenage, Pre-Primary education, etc.
- ONIX Audience Range Qualifier (List 30) –
- Use 17 Interest age, years, or 16 Interest age, months to provide a more precise age or age range.
- Use 18 Reading age, years to provide a reading age if it is different to the interest age.
Talk to your metadata or systems team about whether your system allows automating the addition of 5A interest age qualifiers based on existing ONIX data (the lowest age in a range), or vice versa. This can ensure consistency across titles and reduce manual input.
Ensuring accurate metadata for children’s and teen books
Children’s and teen books require the most precise and careful metadata. The wrong classification can:
- Make books harder to find for the right audience.
- Lead to misleading expectations, especially in terms of reading level and maturity.
- Confuse booksellers, educators, parents and gift buyers, who rely on publisher guidance to ensure age-appropriateness.
If you optimistically tag a book as 7-12 years, you must be sure an average 12-year-old won’t feel it’s too young – or that the average 7-year-old (or their parent) won’t struggle with mature content.
Mixing children/teen (Y*) and adult (A*-W*) codes: when and how?
Yes, you can mix Y* codes with 'adult' (A* to W*), but only when it makes sense – and the primary subject must still be a Y* code. Use an A to W code to provide greater specificity when there is not an equivalent Y* code for that subject, but do not duplicate the equivalent adult code when a Y* code exists.
For example, a children’s book about gymnastics should use YNWG - Children’s / Teenage general interest: Athletics and gymnastics, and should not also include SHG - Gymnastics. However a children’s book about Fencing might include SRF - Fencing, as there is no equivalent Y* code.