Review of Pop! Goes the Nursery Rhyme, words by Betsy Bird, pictures by Andrea Tsurumi

Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Pop! Goes the Nursery Rhyme

words by Betsy Bird
pictures by Andrea Tsurumi

Union Square Kids, coming in March 2025. 56 pages.
Review written November 19, 2024, from an Advance Reader Copy.
Starred Review

This is one of those delightfully silly picture books that simply begs to be read to a child. Full disclosure: I’ve served on a committee with Betsy Bird and have read her blog for years, so I consider her a friend.

The idea for the book is simple, and a note at the back reveals that it springs out of her family’s traditions in reading nursery rhymes. The book is a series of nursery rhymes, beginning with Pop! Goes the Weasel, but when it’s time for the last line of each other rhyme – the weasel pops out there as well.

And to make it complete, we’ve got a fussy secretary bird overseeing the action and hysterically scolding the weasel at every turn.

The idea is simple, but illustrator Andrea Tsurumi’s execution brings it to brilliance. I love the exuberance of the weasel popping out and the visible frustration of the secretary bird.

This host starts relatively calm, progresses to confused, and has a lovely page with a total breakdown:

That’s it!

That’s IT!

No more weasels!
No weasels in the sky
or in cakes or rolling down hills or any of that!

NO.
MORE.
WEASELS.

Just do a rhyme without a weasel in it. Just one!
PLEASE!

The next rhyme – “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe” progresses over eleven pages before the grand Pop! – with tension building all the way (and the thought bubbles of the bird adding to that tension). [And can I just say that showing a bird getting a popsicle for “Pick up sticks” and throwing the sticks away for “Lay them straight” is absolutely brilliant?]

But it all ends happily with all the animals from earlier in the book showing up and celebrating the weasel.

As it says in Jon Scieszka’s blurb on the back, I really do need to find a kid and read this book to them.

afuse8production.slj.com
andreatsurumi.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of The Daycare Myth, by Dan Wuori

Current Issues, Nonfiction Review, Stand-outs, Starred Review 1

The Daycare Myth

What we Get Wrong About Early Care and Education
(and What We Should Do About It)

by Dan Wuori

Teachers College Press, 2024. 125 pages.
Review written January 2, 2025, from my own copy, ordered via Amazon.com.
Starred Review
2024 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #2 More Nonfiction

I read this book very quickly at the end of 2024, because I was quite sure it would end up being a Sonderbooks Stand-out, and I didn’t want to wait a year to highlight it.

Dan Wuori has run my favorite account on Twitter for years, and now he’s on Facebook and Bluesky as well. His daily posts (my favorite way to start my day) include an adorable video of a baby or toddler – and then Dr. Wuori explains how the video shows the brain development going on in the child.

And that’s what’s going on in this book, too. Dan Wuori is a spokesperson for babies’ brains! He explains that the years from prenatal to three years old are the most important in a human’s life because our brains are wiring to learn.

And what is the Daycare Myth? It’s the pervasive tendency to downplay this importance and treat places that tend babies and toddlers as only needing to meet their outer physical needs. When the truth is, they are learning centers and need to provide a stable environment for those tiny brains to make the neural connections that are so vital.

That the early years are for caring – and not education – is a notion long (if mostly inadvertently) perpetuated by policymakers. Even those seeking to advance investments in early childhood are prone to framing their arguments around a desire that children “come to kindergarten ready to learn” – as if this is when and where learning begins.

This book is short, and it starts by effectively making the case, using research results, that those first years are vitally important for brain development, and investing in education for those years will pay off abundantly as those children grow older.

All of the ideas in this book are based around “The Three Simple Truths of Early Development”:

(1) Learning begins in utero and never stops.

(2) The period from prenatal to age 3 is a uniquely consequential window of human development during which the fundamental architecture of the brain is “wired.”

(3) Optimal brain development is dependent on stable, nurturing relationships with highly engaged adults.

This is a book on policy, but all along, the author makes a bipartisan case. The benefits of investing in early childhood education will pay off for all of us. He’s not talking about government taking it over completely – and shows why that wouldn’t actually work. But there are things that government can do to help, and things both political parties can and should get behind.

And all of it is based on his strong case that early childhood education is a public good.

We are already paying for the repercussions of not investing in it. It will benefit everyone if we give our attention to this time that makes the most difference in people’s lives.

The chapter titles give you an idea of the flow of Dr. Wuori’s argument:

(1) Daycare Doesn’t Exist

(2) Something for Everyone: The Bipartisan Case for Early Childhood Investment

(3) America’s Failing Child Care Market

(4) How Not to Solve the Child Care Crisis: Imperfect Solutions and Policy Pitfalls

(5) A Wholesale Transformation of America’s Early Childhood Landscape

And that chapter about solutions has some great ideas and even some case studies of states with “promising practices” as they tackle the problem.

Now, you might think I have no skin in the game – my kids are grown adults. But I do remember what it was like, and it feels like I only recently got out of the debt we got into when we tried to get by with me working only part-time so I could be with our kids. (Technically, I suppose it was more recent things, but let’s just say that this set us back.)

And he does talk about all the scenarios. It’s a public good to support babies’ brain development in stable, nurturing relationships, whether that’s at home with their own parent or in an early education setting. In an appendix at the back, he gives ideas for reaching out to elected leaders, especially for parents and professionals.

Bottom line: Read this book!

More than any partisan book I’ve recommended on my website, I hope that people of all political persuasions will give thought to the ideas Dr. Wuori presents and implement as many as they can. Let’s use public policy to promote this public good.

As Dr. Wuori puts it:

As we wrap up our conversation, I want to take just a moment to reiterate why I wrote this book and what I hope it might help to accomplish. If you take nothing else away from our time together, let it be this: The early years are uniquely consequential – and infinitely more impportant than our nation’s public policy might lead you to believe.

tcpress.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of My Throat an Open Grave, by Tori Bovalino

Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

My Throat an Open Grave

by Tori Bovalino

Page Street YA, 2024. 301 pages.
Review written December 30, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

Based on the cover, not being a horror fan, I honestly didn’t expect to even like this book. I expected I’d give up after about twenty pages, deciding it’s not for me. I did not at all expect to read it avidly and to be sorry I was finished at the end because I loved it. I didn’t expect to recognize shades of my own upbringing in its pages and to have my heart go out to the girl telling the story.

Now, I also don’t like books where religious people are the bad guys – except, well, when they deserve to be. This book portrays a rural village in a forest – where the church is the center of the community and it’s all about purity culture. The girls are given a “Love Waits” ring and told that if they “give themselves” before marriage, they will be broken and worthless.

But they’re also told about the Lord of the Wood. Sometimes he comes into the village and takes babies. And then the villagers send a girl to the Lord of the Wood to get the baby back. Only no babies or girls have ever returned.

And now it’s Leah’s turn. She’s convinced that because she was worn down by her baby brother’s cries and wished for respite – that must be why the Lord of the Wood took him away. And her mother is convinced it’s Leah’s fault, too. So the whole village gathers in the church. Her mother brings her forward, the pastor marks her with a bloody hand print, and together the whole village sends her across the river to the Lord of the Wood.

And then she meets the Lord of the Wood, and he’s not what she expected at all. In fact, that part is what made me love the book. There’s a whole community on the other side of the river. They’re kind, compassionate, and patient with Leah, and she begins to be able to see herself more clearly.

There’s magic in this book, and magic in the Lord of the Wood and the community living in the forest. But it’s not the sinister magic Leah was led to believe in, and the people she meets there win her heart, as well as winning over the reader.

But she also has to reckon with what she learned about her home village. And about herself.

This isn’t so much a book for horror fans as it is a book shining light on the damage that purity culture can do and celebrating self-determination and the beauty of young lives – rising above judgment.

Trust me! It’s a wonderful book!

toribovalino.com

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Review of We Mostly Come Out at Night, edited by Rob Costello

Award Winners, Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

We Mostly Come Out at Night

15 Queer Tales of Monsters, Angels & Other Creatures

edited by Rob Costello

Running Press Teens (Hachette Book Group), 2024. 364 pages.
Review written December 30, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review
2024 Cybils Finalist, YA Speculative Fiction

I don’t read a lot of short story collections, because there are too many opportunities to put down the book and move on to something else, but when my fellow Cybils Award panelists had shortlisted this book not long before our discussion was due, I read it all within a couple days, and ended up loving it.

The subtitle tells you what’s going on. We’ve got queer authors writing about magical creatures. In a fun bonus, every story has a “Monster Reflection” afterward, with that author talking about how they feel about monsters.

Something I particularly liked about this anthology was how often the teens featured had been taught to think of themselves as monstrous – and in the story, they get the chance to discover their own beauty. There were a lot of stories where the monsters are the characters you like best.

Here’s a bit from the wonderful Introduction by the editor:

But that’s what stories do. They prepare us to face the unknown. They arm us with possibility. They enable us to apply some semblance of order and meaning to a universe that is otherwise indifferent to our existence. Telling a monster story is a powerful act, not least because such a story gives a shape and limmit to an otherwise amorphous anxiety, making it seem less scary, less immense, less baffling and unconquerable. Stories change our perspective on our own strengths and vulnerabilities. They alter our perception of what threatens us most. They provide us with comfort and reassurance — even in the face of tremendous loss — and in so doing, they offer us the hope that we can conquer our worst fears and take back control of our fate.

There’s a huge amount of variety in this collection. I’m not a monster movie or a monster book fan – but I loved the creativity and insight and imagination in this set of tales. The stories were consistently good, and so many of them get you thinking. I’m proud this is on our Cybils list.

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Review of The Bletchley Riddle, by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin

Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

The Bletchley Riddle

by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin

Viking, 2024. 394 pages.
Review written January 2, 2025, from my own copy, sent to me by the publisher.
Starred Review
2024 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #5 More Children’s Fiction

I quickly read this book at the end of 2024, after finishing my reading for the Cybils Awards, because I had a strong suspicion it would end up making my Sonderbooks Stand-outs list, and I didn’t want to wait a year. For one thing, it’s about code-breaking at Bletchley Park during World War II, and for another, two stellar writers collaborated on it. Ruta Sepetys specializes in detailed historical fiction, and Steve Sheinkin writes engaging historical nonfiction. Both have won numerous awards for their work.

This is the year for World War II books! I was glad I read this book after reading Candace Fleming’s nonfiction The Enigma Girls, because that gave the nonfiction side of what happened at Bletchley Park, outside of London – a top secret code-breaking operation with many, many different aspects. The Bletchley Riddle fictionalizes that story and gives us a 19-year-old brother Jakob working at Bletchley Park with his 14-year-old sister Lizzie.

The story is engaging – pulling us into real-life spy work. It begins in 1940, before Britain has been pulled into war with Germany, but when they are expecting it. And the book opens with half-American Lizzie giving her chaperone the slip. She leaves him on a ship bound for America, while she escapes her rich American grandmother’s plans and shows up at the address in London where her brother has been receiving mail. Receiving mail, but never answering it.

Their mother had worked for the American embassy, but recently traveled to Poland and was there when the Germans attacked. She did not return, so she’s been presumed dead – but Lizzie doesn’t believe it for a minute. When she’s offered a messenger job at Bletchley Park, where Jakob is working, she hopes that being on the scene she might get leads on what has become of her mother.

Now, after reading The Enigma Girls, it felt a little unrealistic that Jakob would have any idea what was going on in other parts of the estate, but it’s not like they gave away a whole lot. I also had a hard time believing 14-year-old Lizzie would be hired as a messenger, taking messages between buildings – but the authors specifically mention in a historical note that Bletchley Park in fact hired messengers as young as 14.

But the story does put in details about how the team at Bletchley made breakthroughs in decoding German messages – including using a replica enigma machine smuggled out of Poland by three mathematicians. The details of the codebreaking were really fun, and we’ve got an additional mystery of what happened to Jakob and Lizzie’s mother. Oh, and Lizzie also wants to continue to thwart her grandmother’s plans to send her to America, so she has to elude the chaperone more than once. There are actual historical characters sprinkled throughout the story, and I loved a diversion involving Alan Turing, which the Historical Note tells us is completely based in truth.

Now, I did wonder if MI6 really would have been suspicious of folks working at Bletchley Park. There’s a shadowy character surveilling Lizzie and Jakob because of their mother, which almost felt like one thread too many, but I think in a middle grade novel this simply ups the suspense.

I did have a hard time deciding how to rank this book on my Stand-outs against Max in the House of Spies by Adam Gidwitz, and on another day, this one might have come out ahead. They were both about puzzles and spy activities in London. Max has more of a feel of the children’s classic The Great Brain and also addressed anti-Semitism in Britain at the time, but it felt a touch less believable. (I think Max was 12 – would they really let him be a spy?) And this one was simply full of authentic historical details – I just thought the puzzles were a little more fun for the reader in Max. (And remember, Sonderbooks Stand-outs are not chosen based on literary merit, but simply on how much I enjoyed the reading experience.) Bottom line, this is a wonderful spy novel for middle grade readers, full of cool spy problems and firmly rooted in historical fact.

RutaSepetys.com
SteveSheinkin.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Christian Mystics, by Matthew Fox

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Christian Mystics

365 Readings and Meditations

by Matthew Fox

New World Library, 2011. 406 pages.
Review written November 29, 2021, from a library book
Starred Review

I heard about this book from the Richard Rohr emails I get from his Center for Action and Contemplation. Those daily emails made me interested in Christian mysticism, and this book was a good way to go a little deeper.

The Introduction to this book explains how the author is trying to show Christians mystical writings from within our own tradition. Here’s a short bit from that:

Today there is a genuine effort around the world at “deep ecumenism,” or “interfaith,” the coming together of the spiritual wisdom traditions of the world. That is a positive development. But the Dalai Lama points out that the “number one obstacle to interfaith is a bad relationship with one’s own faith tradition.” It is pitiful how few Christian leaders and Christian teachers (including in seminaries) know their own mystical lineage. These days, as revelations come to light about darkness in the Catholic Church, it is all the more important to pay attention to that which is true and deep and beautiful in the work of our Christian ancestors. Through the ages even to today, Christian mystics and activists have stirred hearts and souls. It is valuable at a time of church reformation and even revolution to tap into this wellspring of truth and renewal. Reading and praying the wisdom in these passages moves me deeply to embrace my mystic/prophet ancestors. I hope it helps to awaken the same in the reader.

The format includes 365 short readings from 32 Christian mystics, who include Jesus and Paul. After each quotation, Matthew Fox has some thoughts and questions about it.

Although there are 365 readings, they are numbered not dated, so you can begin any time during a year. Because I was using a library book, I read two pages per day. It still took a long time to finish, but is an older book, so I could renew or re-check out for as long as I liked.

The dedication also gives you an idea of what you’ll find here:

I dedicate this book to the young. They deserve and require a healthier version of religion, one that celebrates the depths of mysticism, love of the earth and the body, and a fierce commitment to community, compassion, celebrative rituals, and justice-making. They deserve a religion that is both simpler and more open to wisdom from all the world’s spiritual traditions.

May the mystics and meditations in these pages assist us all in reawakening the depths of our faith traditions, whatever they may be. May we travel lighter but stronger into a future worthy of our nobility as a species and worthy of the beauty of this wounded planet.

matthewfox.org
newworldlibrary.com

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Review of The Thirteenth Child, by Erin A. Craig

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Thirteenth Child

by Erin A. Craig

Delacorte Press, 2024. 497 pages.
Review written December 24, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

The Thirteenth Child is wildly popular at my library – so many holds on the audiobook, I decided to read the print book – and the hype is completely deserved.

The set-up is that Hazel, the thirteenth child in her family, was given away by her desperate parents to the god of Death. However, he didn’t care for her right away, but came and took her on her twelfth birthday. And from there, he’s got a long life set out for her. She’s going to be an amazing healer. In fact, she has a gift that when she touches a sick person, she gets a vision of how to heal them. But sometimes, instead she sees a Deathshead – and then she’s supposed to kill the person to avert catastrophe – for example, a person with the plague who will spread it to thousands of others if she doesn’t act.

This reminded me of two of my favorite young adult novels: Little Thieves, where the protagonist is also a thirteenth child and is given away by her parents to gods; and Grave Mercy where a whole convent of nuns serve the god of Death as assassins and see a mark on the people they are supposed to kill.

As in Grave Mercy, the protagonist can’t help but wonder what will happen if she doesn’t kill the person with marked for death. In both books, there are consequences if she doesn’t.

Eventually, Hazel becomes a healer at court with the ear of the king, but that means that her actions are all the more weighty.

This book pulled me in as much as those other two favorites did, though by the time I finished, it hadn’t won my heart quite as completely. (Still really good, though!) There’s an odd chapter in the middle that’s a very sexy dream, right after she’s met the prince. At first, I thought maybe the author was trying to tip her hand that this is a romantasy, since there hadn’t been much sex yet, so this was to get us warmed up for what’s to come – but no, this was the sexiest chapter in the book, and didn’t feel at all warranted by the encounter with the prince so far. If it was to show she was attracted to him, it felt out of place at that point. (And I’m sorry, but I rolled my eyes so hard when his hands found “parts of me I never even knew existed.” It’s a dream. It’s all coming from your subconscious. You knew those parts existed.)

One other nitpicky detail is that there’s no way, chemically speaking, that an ill human body can produce a glittering golden discharge. If it’s a magical illness, it’s not going to be solved by some special herb. However, I did love the way Hazel, despite her gift, has to study healing and is able to use logic and knowledge to determine a cure when her gift fails her.

Despite those two small quibbles, I loved this book. It’s long, but I read it quickly because it was so immersive. I didn’t really notice the quibbles until I was done and thinking over the book, because I loved the character so much. The plot gets a tiny bit convoluted toward the end of the book, but nothing it can’t sustain. And I absolutely loved the tender and beautiful Epilogue that shows us what happens for most of our beloved characters many years down the road. It answered the question as to whether the author is going for a sequel – no, this is definitely a stand-alone, and a good one.

erinacraig.com

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Review of Calculating Chimpanzees, Brainy Bees, and Other Animals with Mind-Blowing Mathematical Abilities, by Stephanie Gibeault, illustrations by Jaclyn Sinquett

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

Calculating Chimpanzees, Brainy Bees,

and Other Animals with Mind-Blowing Mathematical Abilities

by Stephanie Gibeault
illustrations by Jaclyn Sinquett

MIT Kids Press, 2024. 88 pages.
Review written December 18, 2024, from my own copy, sent to me by the publisher.
Starred Review

Here’s a book that tells a fascinating story about what goes into mathematical thinking – because it’s telling how scientists figure out how much of it animals are capable of.

First, they look at guppies. Yes, fish! Can guppies, with their tiny brains, count? Well, it turns out that when faced with two alternatives, guppies can choose the larger shoal to swim near (the better to not be eaten by predators). While explaining the experiments the scientists did, we learn about relative numerosity judgment, object-tracking systems, approximate number systems, and the numerical size and numerical distance effects.

Next up are hyenas. Researchers recorded the whoops of different hyenas and simulated a group approaching with hyena whoops. The hyenas would change behavior if there were more or fewer hyenas in the simulated group than their own group. They were wary with more intruders and aggressive with fewer. Along the way, the reader learns about subitizing and all the different things that happen when a human counts.

Chapter 3 is about a highly intelligent African grey parrot named Alex and how he even learned to use numerals and do simple math, even when the question was given with numerals. The super-interesting story of how they designed experiments for Alex to show he really understood what he was doing also teach the reader about equivalence (swapping four objects for the numeral 4, for example) and ordinality.

Next was a chapter about chimpanzees, and, yes, they can do calculations. Some experiments they described involved hiding groups of oranges in different places – and the smart chimp could pick the number that matched the total number of oranges. Even more amazing, when they put numerals in place of the oranges, the chimp still picked the correct total the very first time they tried it. This chapter covers ways humans – and chimps – do addition (though we don’t know which one this chimp was using) – counting all and counting on.

The final chapter was about honeybees. The scientists used sugar-water treats to train bees to choose the smaller number when presented with pictures of shapes – and the bees could do it even when the card had zero objects. Along the way in this chapter, the author talks about the concept of zero and how it did take humans a long time to grasp it.

And for all of the chapters there’s added value of an interview with the scientists who did the experiment plus a page for each chapter of related experiments you can try with a friend. The introduction and sections threaded through all the chapters include the story of the horse Clever Hans and how scientists use precautions to be sure they aren’t tipping the animals off.

I thought this whole book was completely fascinating, and it’s written in an engaging way that should capture the attention of the 9- to 12-year-olds it’s designed for. Really interesting stuff! You’ll gain insight on the thought processes behind the way you – and animals – do math.

mitkidspress.com

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Review of Don’t Think of Tigers, by Alex Latimer

Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Don’t Think of Tigers

by Alex Latimer

Random House, 2024. 32 pages.
Review written December 17, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

The cover of this picture book is brilliant – one look and you know what’s going on. And you’re absolutely thinking of tigers.

Sure enough, the author sets up the premise that whatever you picture in your mind, he will draw on the next page. He starts with a picture of a cow doing ballet to show it works. After that, we get these instructions:

But before we start, I’ve just got one thing to ask you.

I really, really can’t draw tigers, so whatever you do, please

DON’T THINK OF TIGERS!

All right – now picture ANYTHING you like.

(Just no tigers.)

You guessed it, there’s a tiger on the next page, and, sure enough, it’s not a very good picture of a tiger.

And so the silly book goes, trying more and more silly things to keep the reader from thinking of tigers and showing more and more silly drawings of tigers, though they’re getting a little better as it goes.

At the end, he asks the reader to think of every part of the tiger – stripes and whiskers and eyes and tail – and the result is a beautiful picture of a tiger walking out of the jungle. And he finishes up by asking the reader to draw what he’s thinking of.

And then – there’s a note at the back. There’s a small picture of an ugly painting of a kid, and he tells about when he was in school and painted a picture of himself and an older kid saw it and told him he better not ever try to be an artist.

I felt horrible. And so from that day, for a very long time, I stopped painting or drawing or sketching. I’d love to tell you that the boy was wrong and that I was actually an artistic genius.

But do you know what? My picture really was terrible. It really was a very, very bad painting.

(I had tried to use all of the colors to paint my face, and it ended up messy and lumpy and my eyes were askew and my nose looked like a moldy mushroom.)

But I just wish someone had told me back then that making bad pictures is part of learning to make good ones. It’s the same with riding a bike or learning to swim. No one on Earth has ever been very good the first time they tried anything.

Every artist out there has made tons of awful paintings and hideous drawings and horrible sketches.

So I want to encourage you to make bad pictures! Let’s make lots and lots of stinkers!

Because that’s the only way to make good ones.

Now, I don’t necessarily like books where the point has to be spelled out. But the main part of this book is so much silly fun, I don’t mind a serious Author’s Note at the end with a really great message.

So there you have it: Delightfully silly fun combined with overcoming fear of doing something poorly. Now to just find a kid to share it with.

alexlatimer.co.za

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Review of A Return to Common Sense, by Leigh McGowan

Current Issues, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 2

A Return to Common Sense

How to Fix America Before We Really Blow It

by Leigh McGowan

One Signal Publishers (Atria), 2024. 294 pages.
Review written December 11, 2024, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com
Starred Review

Well, I wish I’d read and reviewed this book before the election, because I feel pretty confident that electing Donald Trump was “really blowing it” as mentioned in the subtitle.

However, the principles Leigh McGowan puts forth here still apply, and I hope we can use them as a beacon to work toward better times.

Leigh McGowan is the creator of the PoliticsGirl podcast – and she’s skilled at breaking down political ideas into clear language. She actually grew up in Canada, but has all the more faith in what America stands for because she chose it for herself.

The author was inspired to write this book by Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, written right before the American Revolution. Her writing is rooted in history, but also a deep passion for understanding how government works and how it should work. This paragraph from her Introduction will give you an idea of where she’s going:

Once again, America finds itself at a tipping point where it could go one of two ways. Once again, our leaders need the inspiration and courage to pick the harder, but more rewarding path. And once again, it will come down to the will of the people to determine our fate. If we choose to continue down this path of division and inequality, with hatred and misinformation impeding our progress, we’ll end up right back where we started, under some form of top-down rule. However, if we choose to address our flawed but inspired democracy now, I believe we can rebuild this nation on a stronger foundation than we began on. It’s my belief, as Paine argued all those years ago, that there’s only one right path, and if we fail to choose it, we’ll lose the opportunity to choose again. This time the choice isn’t between subjugation or independence, but democracy and plutocracy. We either continue to favor the wealthy and influential, while we strip citizens of their rights and shore up minority rule, or we get serious about living up to the ideals we’ve sold to the world.

She roots her book in history, including “America 101” sidebars about how our government works. And then she bases the rest of the book on “The Six American Principles.”

So, how do we build this better, stronger nation? What are the fundamental building blocks we can all agree make America, America? What do we, the citizens of this nation, believe are the bedrocks of the United States? Drawing on our founding documents, and important moments in our country’s history, I propose the Six American Principles. Six things that we, the people, no matter our politics, persuasion, or background, can agree on. Six ideals we can use as guideposts to not only find our way out of the mess we’re currently in, but to set a course for a future of which we can actually be proud. If we start here, we start strong.

Here are the Six American Principles she proposes:

1. America is a land of freedom.

2. Everyone should have the opportunity to rise.

3. Every citizen should have a vote, and that vote should count.

4. Representatives should represent the people who voted for them.

5. The law applies to all of us.

6. Government should be a force for good.

Of course, there’s lots to say about each of these principles, and that’s what takes up the bulk of the book. What does “freedom” mean? And who actually gets it? There are a lot of history sidebars in the section that talks about that. What does it mean to have the opportunity to rise? And what does it mean for your vote to count? And how do legislators represent people? There’s lots of background here about how our representatives are chosen and how elections work – and ideas for improving that.

The principle I resonated most with is “Government should be a force for good.” I guess that’s because, as a librarian, I work for local government. And I very much believe that the lives of everyone in the county are better because of that work. Here’s how Leigh McGowan introduces that section:

It’s easy to criticize government, and candidly, there’s plenty that deserves criticism. However, government is something we cannot live without. There is so much the government does that we don’t even consider. From local governments sending workers to remove that tree that fell across your street to Homeland Security stopping a potential terrorist attack. From weekly garbage pickup, to workers in our national parks, to government scientists approving the quality of our vaccines and baby food. If you call the police, that’s the government. If you need the fire department, it’s paid for by the government. If your state has a natural disaster, it will be the government who foots the bill to clean it up. Do you use public school? Government. Is mail delivered to your home? Government. Do your streetlights come on, and traffic lights work? That’s the government. Government plays such a huge and essential role in our modern society that we couldn’t live without it, yet we spend so much time complaining about it when we could be engaging with it to make it better.

Ronald Reagan inflicted a great wound on the country when he said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.” As president of the United States, Reagan used his authority as head of the government to undermine how essential government really is. The government should help its people, and if you don’t believe that, then what are you doing in government?

And she goes on to suggest ways the government can be a greater force for good in our lives.

Obviously, with me, Leigh McGowan is preaching to the choir. I agree with almost all of her views, and I appreciate her passion. But I also appreciate her no-nonsense, plain-spoken way of explaining what can be murky. She’s done her research, and to me, she makes politics and government easier to understand.

Now, it’s easy to feel discouraged after the 2024 presidential election. But I still appreciate the way she encourages us all to do our part and make this country a better place:

What I’ve noticed while positioning myself in this “warrior for democracy” space is that I’ve struck a nerve, not just with the people who tell me I’m an idiot, or a communist, or hate it when women speak, but with important and powerful people. People with real influence and the ability to make change. People who, despite what we see on TV, in formal tweets, or what their general by-the-book demeanor may suggest, really do care about what’s happening in this country and are passionate about fixing it. I say this because I want you to know if you speak up, if you vote, if you organize, that you will be heard. That there are people who recognize you are unhappy, and they are out here attempting to work within the system to fix it. Please know you have not been abandoned, and the louder and clearer we are about what we want and are willing to fight for, the more confidence and courage those people will have to make the changes this country truly needs.

Thank you, PoliticsGirl, for making politics and government and history so much clearer. Thank you for this vision of a government that is a force for good. And thank you for encouraging all of us to work to make that vision a reality.

SimonandSchuster.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/return_to_common_sense.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?