Richie's Picks: Great Books for Children and Young Adults

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"I sat speechless...a ringside observer at my own trial, until the end of the circus."
--John T. Scopes, defendent

"Tennessee, Tennessee,
There ain't no place I'd rather be."
-- Robert Hunter/Jerry Garcia

PETER SYKES

"...Our state lawmakers passed the Butler Act

because they think science will poison our minds.
Well, I don't feel poisoned. I still believe in the divine.
Why should a bigger mind need a smaller god?

It's still a miracle how everything works,
how everything has a purpose. Even the buzzards
are beautiful in their own way. I watch them

steer from one invisible layer to another --
wings wide, using their tails as rudders --
searching for something my human eyes

can't find. When I flatten my back
against the rock and look up, a flock
of dark crosses blesses the Tennessee sky."

Now, I consider myself to be a person who is exceptionally tolerant of anyone's personal religious beliefs -- as long as they don't try to lay them on me or impact my personal life with them.

I truly don't know how I would feel if I were a woman and suddenly had to make an emotional decision regarding an unwanted pregnancy, but I can tell you that it absolutely drives me up a wall to see a safe and routine medical procedure become the subject of vicious political campaigns that are grounded in intolerant religious dogma.

It also breaks my heart that so many of my beloved friends cannot live their lives to the fullest because prejudice and religious views mixed with politics have kept them from gaining the right to contractually and spiritually share everything under the law with the one person whom they love so dearly, just as all married hetero couples do. What real meaning, if not in such circumstances, does the phrase "the pursuit of happiness" hold?

"How is it we are here on this path we walk
In this world of pointless fear filled with empty talk
Descended from the apes as scientist-priests all think
Will they save us in the end, we're trembling on the brink."
-- Mike Pinder

But, even worse, it scares the hell out of me that there can be numerous Presidential candidates who -- in 2007 no less! -- reject the "theory" of evolution. While I consider myself relatively bright, I certainly don't consider myself anywhere near smart enough to be President of the United States. I want someone far more intelligent then me in that place where instant decisions can profoundly affect life in our country and on this planet forever and ever.

From my decades as a reader and an exemplary student I know that evolution is no more of a theory than is tectonic plate "theory" and -- in my part of the country -- you'd better be up to speed on the consequences of tectonic plate "theory" or you can one day suddenly end up as flat as an extinct one-celled fossil. To even make anyone who doesn't understand or "believe in" scientific fact a Twenty-first century school board member -- no less President of the United States -- would be truly insane.

Unfortunately, this country has a long storied tradition of such insanity.

JIMMY LEE DAVIS

"Tarnation! Poor Mr. Scopes!
He didn't know why
Mr. White came
to fetch him from
his tennis game
& bring him into Robinson's.
Me & Pete sipped
our sodas & listened
as he confessed
that back in the spring
when we were still in school,
he assigned us
the chapter on evolution,
which explained how
all the animals on earth
had started as simpler creatures
millions of years ago,
& how, over time,
they changed & developed
into the insects, birds,
fish & mammals
we see today,
& how, even now,
they were still changing.
(I try not to think of
fish as my ancestors
when I'm cleaning them.)

Mr. Robinson held up a copy
of Hunter's Civic Biology,
which is the book we used
in school, which is also
one of the books he sells
in his store, & asked:
'Did you use this in class?'
Calm as Conner's Pond,
Mr. Scopes said: 'Sure I did, Fred.
You can't teach science
at Rhea County High
without using that book!'

Mr. Robinson smiled
wide as a catfish unhooked.
'Well, John, the American
Civil Liberties Union will pay
to defend the first person
who challenges the new law
against teaching evolution
in Tennessee. So we were
wondering if you'd mind
being arrested, to get
the whole business
right out on the table,
right here in Dayton.'

Lordy! My ears
were burnin' & Pete near
choked to death
on his root beer.
Mr. Scopes saw us eaves-
dropping. He winked &
tipped his cap. 'Sure, I guess
that'd be all right --
long as I can finish
my tennis match.'
The men took turns
patting him on the back,
thanking him, telling him
not to worry; they'd send
someone down to
arrest him
later that afternoon."

What makes Jen Bryant's RINGSIDE, 1925 such a fun and great read is rooted in the collection of adolescent narrators who tell much of the story. They frame the news of the trial within the context of their daily lives which are altered by the upheaval, notoriety, and economic benefits that come to their town, thanks to the widely-publicized trial. The interactions amongst young friends and the sweetness of who is crushing on whom or the tension of best friends being sore at one another are the sort of touches that allow today's readers to fully relate to these teen characters from eighty years ago. At the same time, the author has neatly fitted in subtle details of life in the Twenties that provide a taste of how thoroughly technology and culture has rocked the world since those days of silent movies and Gatsby and the first commercial music recordings. And, most importantly, the author adds in a good dose of levity.

"I don't feel safe in this world no more
I don't want to die in a nuclear war
I want to sail away to a distant shore
And make like an apeman."
-- The Kinks

WILLY AMOS

"...Yesterday I was not
Willy Amos, peddler of fruit and tobacco;
I was Willy Amos, lawyer for the defense
fightin' against a big-city factory
forcin' its workers
to make twice as many gadgets
in half the time, payin' them
half the wages they should be makin',
and firin' them
if they made trouble..."

I'm betting that there'll definitely be a segment of this book's young readership who will immediately go out looking for a biography of Clarence Darrow, the historical character in the book whose portrayal makes him a likable hero worth knowing and emulating. Heck, I sure want to know more about him now.

RINGSIDE, 1925 is a teriffic read that is going to make a great, high interest readers theater piece in eighth grade history and language arts classes and will serve as a great springboard for debates and some really evolved higher thinking exercises.

Richie Partington, MLIS
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