Dissenter on the Bench
Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Life and Work
by Victoria Ortiz
Clarion Books (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), 2019. 199 pages.
Review written June 3, 2020, from a library book
2020 Sidney Taylor Book Award Young Adult Honor
This book is a biography of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg written for kids approximately ages 10 to 14.
Each chapter begins with an important case that Justice Ginsburg ruled on, either with the majority, or writing the dissent. I like the way this book was presented for kids by using cases that affected kids at the start of the book.
The first story told in the first chapter is about Savana Lee Redding, who was subjected to a strip search for drugs at her school when she was thirteen years old. When her case went before the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the only woman on the bench. The chapter ends by talking about Savana winning her case.
We can safely assume that when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg strongly urged her male colleagues to step out of their shoes and into Savana’s she tapped in to both her own experiences as a young girl and her long-held beliefs about justice and fairness. About her fellow justices, she said straightforwardly: “They have never been a thirteen-year-old girl. I don’t think my colleagues, some of them, quite understand.” Fortunately for Savana and for all schoolchildren from then on, Justice Ginsburg had persuaded all but one of the other justices to decide the case in Savana’s favor.
In the middle of the chapter, the book tells about Ruth Bader as a small child. And that’s how the book continues, telling about Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life, but framed by cases she later heard. We do see from that a very clear trend that there should be equity for all. She worked for the ACLU for many years, and took cases of gender discrimination not only for women but also for men who weren’t treated fairly (such as a man not getting social security benefits after his wife died that she would have gotten if it had been the other way around).
At times, that did make the timeline of her life a little bit confusing, since they were skipping ahead in her life with the cases. There was a little bit of repetition in all that skipping, too. But overall it’s a nice solid portrayal of an important figure who has spent her life speaking out against unfairness. And the kid-friendly cases presented will catch kids’ interest and get them thinking about what rights they do have in America under the Constitution.
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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.
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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