Review of Rebels, Robbers, and Radicals, by Teri Kanefield

Children's Nonfiction Review, Current Issues, History, Starred Review 0

Rebels, Robbers, and Radicals

The Story of the Bill of Rights

by Teri Kanefield

Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2025. 216 pages.
Review written March 4, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

First, a note that this is not picture book nonfiction. I’ll put it on the Children’s Nonfiction page, but this is targeted to middle school and upper elementary students who can read longer material.

I love Teri Kanefield’s legal writing. Her calm voice on her blog is long where I’ve gone to understand present-day legal issues. So of course I checked out this book for children on the Bill of Rights.

And I’d had no idea how interesting that topic could be. She explains her approach at the back of the book:

I hit on the idea of presenting the material the way the law is presented to law students – through actual court cases. The case method avoids abstract principles and tedious explanations. Instead, the law is presented through the stories and struggles of actual people. The principles and laws are woven into the fabric of the case the way morals are woven into fables.

Stories of real people involved in real struggles are always livelier than dry explanations, particularly when those stories include bank robbers like Bonnie and Clyde, high school students challenging violations of their rights, rebels who refuse to obey laws they believe to be unjust, and people considered radical because they want to entirely remake the government. The statement “you have the right to a jury trial” will have little relevance to most people. But when we read about the Zenger trial and see that juries were devised to guard against the kind of tyranny that early Americans experienced under British rule, the right to a jury takes on a real-world meaning.

Teri Kanefield achieves these goals in a book that’s interesting every step of the way. She goes through each one of the first ten amendments and gives examples showing how the interpretation of each amendment affected people’s lives – and still affect them today. She talks about how things have changed over time, about the conflict between states’ rights and federal rights, and about things like how the “right to privacy” isn’t mentioned in the Constitution, and how it’s a question of the ninth amendment whether the federal government can rule on that.

Although this book is completely suitable for upper elementary age readers, I can testify that it’s great reading for adults, too. As always with Teri’s writing, I learned things about the law of our land that I hadn’t known I didn’t know.

terikanefield.com

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Review of Trans History, by Alex L. Combs & Andrew Eakett

Audiobooks, Graphic Novel, History, Starred Review, Teen Nonfiction 0

Trans History

From Ancient Times to the Present Day

by Alex L. Combs and Andrew Eakett
read by a full cast

Listening Library, 2025. 3 hours, 36 minutes.
Review written February 10, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2026 Odyssey Award Young Adult Winner

The Odyssey Award is given each year for the best audiobook production, and I always make sure to listen to the winners and honor books, because they are without fail wonderful. As it happened, I already had the print graphic novel version of this book checked out, and I always wonder how audiobook producers can pull off converting a graphic novel to an audiobook.

Let me tell you, these folks went all in. They used music and sound effects to help enhance your understanding of what was going on. And when they say “Full Cast” – I don’t see an indication of how many different voices they used, but I have no doubt the number is high. (I think they read off names at the end of the audiobook, so they weren’t without credit.) Especially meaningful was that the last chapter features twelve modern-day trans folks, and these people spoke their own words on the audiobook.

I did take a look at the graphic novel – and I think that both formats offer something unique. But the audiobook production was so deserving of the award, don’t miss that version!

If you ever thought that transgender people are a recent phenomenon, this book will put that idea to rest. They cover trans history, yes, beginning in ancient times – with the caveat that the historical people they talk about would have used different words and wouldn’t necessarily have called themselves trans if they had lived today. But they make a clear point that diversity of gender expression has been around as long as humans have.

The chapters cover the ancient world, Europeans and colonialism, the rise of Sexology, the history of trans people in the United States, and then present day voices from the trans community.

In the preface, the authors say they have three goals for the book:

1. Help dispel the myth that trans people are a “new thing.”

2. Demonstrate that what it means to be trans varies greatly among trans people.

3. Empower trans people by helping them learn about trans history.

They met these goals well, and they also presented a fascinating history I hadn’t known much about, in an entertaining way. The production of this audiobook is stunning and the stories were riveting. May this super informative and helpful look at trans history break down myths and stereotypes and fight marginalization.

alexlcombs.com
candlewick.com

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Review of If Looks Could Kill, by Julie Berry

Audiobooks, History, Paranormal, Teen Fiction Review 0

If Looks Could Kill

by Julie Berry
read by Jayne Entwistle

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2025. 15 hours, 24 minutes.
Review written November 14, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

This brilliant novel is Medusa vs. Jack the Ripper! But not a Greek Medusa. Instead, Medusas are something like vampires, getting created by a kind of infection. But then they stand against those who would prey on vulnerable women.

The setting of the book is the Bowery in New York City in 1888. Jack the Ripper, the Whitechapel Killer, is fleeing London after a very strange encounter with his last victim. Meanwhile, in New York, 18-year-old Tabitha Woodward is adjusting to her new life in the Salvation Army and her annoying partner, Pearl. Tabitha and Pearl visit the saloons and bars, selling the Salvation Army’s newsletter and coaxing people to come hear the preaching. They meet the people in the city and see a girl get pulled into the orbit of a notorious madam.

And I don’t want to give anything away, but yes, the story ends up being Medusas vs. Jack the Ripper. With the innocent and earnest Salvation Army girls in the middle of it.

I appreciated the long historical note at the back reflecting the author’s deep research. She chose a likely suspect for Jack the Ripper who actually came to New York after the murders. She even gave him a plausible motive, using the theosophical teachings popular at the time to use almost-living organs to try to cure his own illness. She honored his victims, who may not have been prostitutes at all. And I especially love the way she also researched the early Salvation Army and showed Tabitha and Pearl’s deep faith and desire to help people in trouble in the slums of New York. I was afraid when they showed up that they’d be a caricature, but they were the opposite of that.

And I do love a story where the helpless become powerful! But these Medusas don’t blindly use their power. It’s not a matter of one look turns the viewer to stone – they have to mean it. And they grapple with the meaning of that power. There are scary moments, and a few in-the-nick-of-time rescues, but it all adds up to a fascinating historical story with lots of suspense. There’s even a developing sweet romance.

I heard about this book at ALA Annual Conference last June, but wasn’t able to get an Advance Reader Copy, so I was looking forward to its publication ever since and got on the holds list for the audio the first day I purchased it for the library. I knew to expect good things from Julie Berry, and I was not disappointed.

julieberrybooks.com

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Review of Zero! The Number That Almost Wasn’t, by Sarah Albee, illustrated by Chris Hsu

Children's Nonfiction Review, History, Mathematical, Starred Review 0

Zero!

The Number That Almost Wasn’t

by Sarah Albee
illustrated by Chris Hsu

Charlesbridge, 2025. 40 pages.
Review written July 11, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

Fun fact: When Europeans set up the calendar we use today, they did not include a Year Zero. The year after 1 BC was 1 AD. Of course, they were given these names long, long after they happened. But because Europeans didn’t understand zero when they developed the calendar – the Twenty-first Century didn’t actually start until the year 2001. I tried to wrote a short article about this and tried to sell it to children’s magazines in 1999 and 2000, with no success. And I have to admit that switching from 1999 to 2000 feels much more momentous than switching from 2000 to 2001, even if it wasn’t actually the new century yet.

Anyway, all my thinking about when the century started sprang from the moment I learned that Europeans didn’t adopt the symbol zero or even the concept of zero until well past the Middle Ages – and that’s what this book is about.

This picture book explains the history of Zero in a way children can understand. (Yes, without touching on questions of what that means about the start of centuries.) It talks briefly about the concept of Nothing and the concept of Place Value, but it’s mostly about the history of writing numbers.

We hear about the Babylonians – who did use a place value and a mark for an “empty” place. We hear about the Greeks, who were especially strong in astronomy and geometry. The Mayans developed zero earlier than anyone else – but their knowledge was lost when Spanish invaders destroyed their records. Roman numerals came along next, which was difficult for doing complex calculations. But during the Dark Ages in Europe, mathematics thrived in India, where an unknown mathematician invented a symbol for zero.

The concept of zero spread to Baghdad, the center of the Muslim Empire – and writings from Arabic mathematicians took advantage of the concept, developing the field of Algebra.

The book chronicles all this, plus how long it took Europeans to adopt the concept. Sadly, some Christians were even then opposed to an advance of knowledge:

A few Christian leaders actually banished zero. They argued that God had created everything, so something that represented nothing must be the work of the devil.

Finally, the invention of the printing press helped the Hindu-Arabic number system spread as people came to appreciate how much it facilitates doing mathematics.

All that is present in this picture book, with engaging cartoon illustrations. There are even notes at the back about historical details present in the illustrations.

Those who read this book will get a grasp on the mind-blowing fact that Zero had to be invented, and was actually invented much later than you’d think it was. You’ll never take Nothing for granted again.

sarahalbeebooks.com
chrishsu.net

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Review of A Dangerous Idea, by Debbie Levy

History, Starred Review, Teen Nonfiction 0

A Dangerous Idea

The Scopes Trial, the Original Fight over Science in Schools

by Debbie Levy

Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2025. 278 pages.
Review written October 8, 2025, from a copy I was given at ALA Annual Conference, signed by the author
Starred Review

Lest we think that controlling what kids are taught is a new idea, A Dangerous Idea lays out for teens the media circus that happened in 1925 over a few lines about evolution in a high school biology textbook.

Debbie Levy lays out the whole case from roots to verdict and aftermath. She gives us the background of the two big-shot lawyers who faced each other in the Scopes trial. John Scopes was simply a young high school biology teacher who agreed to be a test case after Tennessee passed a law forbidding the teaching of evolution. The real media attention came because of the lawyers – William Jennings Bryan, who had run for president three times and drew huge crowds on the lecture circuit, versus Clarence Darrow, who had publicly challenged Bryan already and had taken famous cases trying to bring down the death penalty.

Although I’d heard of the case, (Of course I had!) I’d had no idea how much was involved and how huge it was in the attention of the entire country – even in the days before television. Thousands of journalists descended on the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, and spread the word about the trial.

So Debbie Levy is able to bring us a multitude of photographs from the time and newspaper clippings and editorial cartoons, and plenty of other material to illustrate the story and help it come alive. It turns out the jury didn’t even hear most of the trial, because much of it was the argument that evolution isn’t actually contrary to Scripture – but the judge ruled all that mattered was if the law was broken.

I do like the way the author connects the dots between the Scopes trial and backlash against science today. This is from the Epilogue:

Today, complaints about science in the classroom go well beyond evolution. Some parents and lawmakers don’t want schools to teach about climate change. They don’t want laws and policies to address climate change, either, because they think it’s a hoax or not caused by human activity. This is contrary to scientific evidence. Cimate-change deniers found a friend in the White House in President Donald Trump. “I don’t believe it,” he said in 2018. “One of the problems that a lot of people like myself, we have very high levels of intelligence but we’re not necessarily such believers” in climate change.

The COVID-19 pandemic, starting in 2020, also spurred epic resistance to science among large swaths of the American public and their leaders. When leading scientists – the preeminent experts on infectious and viral diseases – tried to guide the public on how to protect themselves from the novel coronavirus, President Trump called them “idiots.”

And so, hgere are two persistent threads lifted from the pattern woven a century ago. First: ridicule. Anti-evolutionists at the time of the Scopes trial made fun of scientists because, as Will Bryan scoffed, “They cannot agree with each other.” Will’s mockery was a cheap shot – just as it was a cheap shot, a century later, to mock scientists for altering their advice, in response to new and evolving discoveries, on how to protect against getting sick or dying from the coronavirus. That is what happens in science as a result of ongoing observation, experimentation, and, yes, disagreement among scientists: knowledge evolves.

And second: lumping together science and belief, by couching science as something you “believe” in, or not. Forcing, or even strongly urging, people to “believe” in a creed (science) that doesn’t appeal to them – that’s a bad thing to do, isn’t it? It’s un-American, isn’t it? But science isn’t a religious creed. And religion isn’t science.

I like that this book is aimed at teens – exactly the age of people the original Tennessee law was trying to protect. Give them the full story – and we may find teens are more discerning than adults think they are.

debbielevybooks.com
bloomsbury.com

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Review of Annie’s Ghosts, by Steve Luxenberg

History, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

Annie’s Ghosts

A Journey Into a Family Secret

by Steve Luxenberg

Hyperion, 2009. 401 pages.
Review written October 6, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

It’s a fun story how I happened to read this book: I met the author!

Back in April, I gave myself a retreat at Blackwater Falls Lodge in Blackwater State Falls, West Virginia. The lodge has a large common room, with an abundance of big, round tables. Someone had started a jigsaw puzzle on one of them – a trap for me! I started working on the puzzle after dinner, before carrying out my plan of reading and writing in my room, and got hooked. Other people came to join me – among them was a nice couple. The puzzle was of a giant library, and it came out that I was a librarian – and this gentleman was a writer! His wife was a retired school librarian. He was also an associate editor for the Washington Post. Well, it was nice doing the puzzle with them – and then they invited me to play a game of Upwords with them. And instead of a “productive” evening reading and writing, I had a lovely social evening playing Upwords with this obviously highly intelligent journalist and his wife.

When I got home, I checked out his books, then decided to read the older one first. It’s taken me a long time – mostly one or two chapters per week (because I read lighter stuff at bedtime, which is my main reading time). I did not find myself forgetting what went before when I picked it up each week – it’s memorable reading – and I finally finished off the last five or six chapters in one sitting last weekend. This is by no means light reading, but it’s absorbing, and it’s super interesting.

So now let me tell you about the book this nice man wrote. It’s the story of discovering his mother had a disabled sister she kept a complete secret after she married. He first heard a rumor of it when his mother was hospitalized, and then confirmation after her death. So then began the process of researching this aunt, Annie, whom he hadn’t known about.

At first, he assumed she lived away from the family most of her life, but Annie wasn’t moved to a state institution until she was twenty-one years old. She was born with one leg shorter than the other, that wouldn’t grow properly, and had possible mental retardation and mental illness. Annie spent the rest of her life – decades – in the institution, yet his mother had told everyone she was an only child.

So this is the story of Steve Luxenberg digging up the truth. And finding out why his mother kept this secret. It gives a window into mental health care in the 1940s and how much it has changed. We even learn about the experiences of his mother’s cousin, who was the only one of her immediate family to survive a massacre in a Ukrainian village during the Holocaust.

The secret seems simple on the surface – a disabled sister who’d been put into an institution. But the story ends up being sprawling, as Steve Luxenberg works to understand his mother’s motivation in keeping the secret. This involves attitudes at the time toward mental and physical disabilities, treatment options at the time, and even politics at the time as it involved state institutions. Then there was the bureaucratic paperwork to even have access to the records, if they existed, and the effort of tracking down people who’d known his mother as a child – when her sister lived with the family – and afterward. How many of them knew of the secret? Unfortunately, many of them had already passed. He got more information piece by piece, and the book is something of a detective story, as well as a broad work of history – mixed with journalism and memoir.

The whole thing was fascinating reading, but my favorite part came in a vignette toward the end. He begins most chapters with his own memories with his mother, and this one was about playing her favorite board game with her – Upwords. That made me smile. Made me feel like I had a tiny piece of the experience of this book. And Steve Luxenberg and his wife still play Upwords.

steveluxenberg.com

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Review of Some of Us, by Rajani LaRocca, illustrated by Huy Voun Lee

Children's Nonfiction Review, History, Starred Review 0

Some of Us

A Story of Citizenship and the United States

by Rajani LaRocca
illustrated by Huy Voun Lee

Christy Ottaviano Books (Little, Brown), 2025. 32 pages.
Review written September 24, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

Some of Us is a simple explanation, in picture book form, of what it means to be an American citizen and how people can become American citizens. The writing is easy to understand, suitable for early elementary age children, and lovely and lyrical.

Here’s the beginning, which covers three spreads, accompanied by pictures of a wide variety of people:

Some of us are born American.
Some choose.

We may come from across the world,
or quite nearby.
Some of us are babies, carried in hopeful arms;
some are six, or sixteen, or sixty.

We leave the countries of our birth and come here
by boat, and plane,
and car,
and train,
and foot.

The book talks about different reasons people come, including some pictures of notable immigrants, but also covering those fleeing war, oppression, and poverty. It talks about the food and culture immigrants bring with them, and the good things they do to contribute to their new communities.

Then it covers the process of becoming a naturalized citizen for those who choose to do so, and the difficult process of studying, with a test and an interview.

And then we take an oath –
not to the president,
not to Congress,
but to the ideals of the United States:
freedom, justice, peace, equality.

She then talks about the rights and responsibilities of citizenship and concludes with fireworks in the background:

Some of us are born to it.
Some of us choose.
And we are all American.

In the five pages of back matter, the author tells how she became a naturalized citizen when she was fifteen. There are links to more information, but also a page titled “Beyond Citizenship: The Rights of All People,” quoting the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

I wish this book weren’t so needed right now – but it is a lovely resource for any time period. It helps children understand, simply and clearly, what citizenship is, how people get it, and what it means.

rajanilarocca.com
LBYR.com

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Review of Death in the Jungle, by Candace Fleming

Audiobooks, History, Starred Review, Teen Nonfiction 0

Death in the Jungle

Murder, Betrayal, and the Lost Dream of Jonestown

by Candace Fleming
read by Karen Murray

Listening Library, 2025. 9 hours, 47 minutes.
Review written September 8, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I checked out this eaudiobook, not because I was interested in Jim Jones, but because everything Candace Fleming writes is fascinating. This book was no exception. It was not pleasant listening, but once I got started, I couldn’t look away.

This book tells the whole story of Jim Jones and Jonestown – and the murders and suicides of over 900 people. (Yes, murder. Some people did not drink the poison, but were injected with it.)

Knowing basically how the story ends, it was horrible to watch it unfold, but fascinating. By necessity, the author got her information from interviews with survivors and survivor accounts, so the main folks whose perspective we got to hear from were people who survived, which made the story a little less gut-wrenching.

I was a teen when the Jonestown tragedy happened, so I didn’t know a lot of the details. I didn’t even realize that Jim Jones ordered the assassination of a congressman who was investigating the commune in Guyana – and his assassination spurred the other deaths, as the people had been told the American government wanted to destroy them.

But I also hadn’t known how the People’s Temple started – with good works and social work against poverty and racism in the 1960s. The People’s Temple had a mix of Blacks and whites when other American churches excluded minorities. It was hard to hear what good things they started with, putting other churches to shame.

But clearly, from the beginning, Jim Jones was after power and manipulation. He faked faith healings to build followers. Later, after he had people under his sway, he repudiated the Bible and Christianity – it had been all part of his show.

And things got worse and worse as Jim Jones gained power over people. He was also addicted to various drugs and not at all healthy, mentally or physically. Once he got his followers to Guyana, where he could keep them from escaping, he could control their lives in every way. Perhaps that’s why the congressman’s visit – and the fact that some people tried to leave with him – was so threatening.

The book is sobering, because yes, the good works the church did at the beginning would have gained my admiration. I also began to understand how hard it was to leave once you were plugged in. And Jim Jones’ power to gain a devoted following? People who are willing to lie and manipulate can gain all kinds of power that’s hard to shake. Dare I say that this reminded me of our current president?

So it’s not like this book is pleasant reading. But it tells the full story of a dark incident in our history. And maybe it will help teens think twice about promises from a charismatic leader. Pair it with the book Cultish for insights on how to tell if a tight-knit community is good for you or is destructive.

candacefleming.com

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Review of Are We There Yet? by Stacy McAnulty, illustrations by Elizabeth Baddeley

Children's Nonfiction Review, History, Starred Review 0

Are We There Yet?

The First Road Trip Across America

by Stacy McAnulty
illustrations by Elizabeth Baddeley

Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2025. 44 pages.
Review written July 21, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

This totally fun picture book tells the true story of the first team – including a dog – to ride in a car all the way across America.

The caption on the first page sets the tone:

This is the absolutely true story of a ridiculous journey that started as a bet, turned into a race, and ended in a – well, hang on, and see how it turns out.

They start by explaining why the bet that Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson made in 1903 was foolish: not many paved roads, no highways, no cross-country road maps, and iffy quality of equipment. What’s more, Jackson didn’t even have a car or know how to drive!

He wasn’t daunted. He bought a used Winton Touring Car, and hired twenty-two-year-old Sewall Crocker to come along and teach him to drive.

It lacked the luxuries we expect in today’s cars – things like a windshield, seat belts, mirrors, doors, a trunk, or a roof.

Of course, every good road trip needs a dog! So a little ways down the road, they purchased a dog named Bud. They got Bud goggles to match their own (remember, no windshields) – and the pictures get all the cuter from there on out.

The trip was completely different from travel today. Plenty of stories of breakdowns, getting stuck in the mud, and important things flying out of the car when it got up to high speed – thirty miles an hour or so.

Of course, when other teams got wind of it and tried to cross the country first, this added a nice dose of competition.

And the whole story is told in a thoroughly entertaining format with pictures that add to the fun. There’s some nice back matter to put it in context. Makes me want to take a trip to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and find Bud’s glasses.

stacymcanulty.com
EBaddeley.com

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Review of Everything Is Tuberculosis, by John Green

Current Issues, History, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Everything Is Tuberculosis

The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection

by John Green

Crash Course Books (Penguin Random House), 2025. 198 pages.
Review written June 9, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

I am a fan of John Green’s turning to writing nonfiction. He thinks long and hard about so many aspects of his topic. The catch is that it’s hard to decide where to put this review. History? It’s full of that, but I put most adult History nonfiction in “True Stories” – which it also has. Musings? There’s plenty of thinking about what tuberculosis means to us humans and how things got that way. But I think I’ll settle for “Current Issues” – because ultimately the whole book shows us that we can choose to fight tuberculosis – or let it mutate and get more drug resistant and increase the number of people it kills every year.

I was a little bit familiar with the problem of drug-resistant tuberculosis spreading in poor communities because of having read Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains, an amazing book that John Green refers to multiple times. This book is in that tradition – but honestly more readable and digestible. My theory is that John Green being a young adult novelist first is how that happened. The result is a compelling history of tuberculosis and humans’ relationship with it in a book that never lags.

John Green goes back in history – tuberculosis has plagued humans for thousands of years and has killed more people than any other disease – and shows us how attitudes toward the disease have changed, and tells us about the quest for a cure. Along the way, he interweaves the story of Henry, a teen in Sierra Leone who had been suffering from tuberculosis for years.

And yes, the story of tuberculosis is the story of prejudice. In years before the cure, many believed that non-white people didn’t get tuberculosis.

In Europe and the U.S., most white doctors believed that phthisis – as it was inherited by those with great sensitivity and intelligence – could only affect white people, and it was sometimes known as “The White Man’s Plague.” One American doctor, for instance, called it, “a disease of the master race not of the slave race.”. . .

Acknowledging that consumption was common among enslaved, colonized, and marginalized people would have undermined not just a theory of disease, but also the project of colonialism itself.

Now, though, tuberculosis is much more of a problem where there is poverty. Inflated drug prices keep poorer countries from using the most effective medication – which results in more drug resistant strains of tuberculosis, and may one day be everyone’s undoing.

My summary, though, isn’t nearly as interesting as John Green’s narratives, showing how everything is interrelated, and how tuberculosis has affected every aspect of human civilization. In the present, millions still die from tuberculosis every year – even though we have effective cures. This book explores all the sides of why that happens and gives us ideas for helping to stop it and eradicate TB once and for all.

johngreenbooks.com
tbfighters.org
youtube.com/@Tuberculosis-l1jSurvivorHenry

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