Synopses & Reviews
In a story rife with first love and the pain of growing up, master storyteller Ronald Kidd reincarnates the most enduring trial of the twentieth century.
School is out in the summer of 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee. For Frances Robinson, a fifteen-year-old daydreamer with a crush on her teacher, John T. Scopes, summer vacation promises tennis, and Coca-Colas from her father's drug store. But when Frances's father, the school board chairman, has Scopes arrested for teaching evolution, the sleepiest place on earth becomes a hotbed for famous thinkers, including H. L. Mencken, Clarence Darrow, and William Jennings Bryan. Overnight the world is flocking to Dayton to decide: Are people really descended from monkeys? Does the theory of evolution have a place in biology class? As Frances sees the man she loves crumbling beside her, she begins to question her town, her neighbors, and the father she has always trusted.
Readers will devour this colorful yet tender story reminiscent of To Kill a Mockingbird told from the perspective of a young girl as she evolves into a woman.
Review
"[A] unique and heartfelt story....An excellent read and a wonderful piece of literature." School Library Journal (Starred Review)
Review
"[T]here is plenty to get readers thinking, and with the controversy over evolution back in the news, this is a timely novel." Booklist
Synopsis
The author of Sizzle & Splat takes readers back in time to 1925 to the famous Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tennessee. This novel unfolds from the point of view of a 15-year-old girl, a student of John Scopes.
About the Author
Ronald Kidd is the author of Dunker, winner of a Children's Choice Award; Second Fiddle, an Edgar Award nominee and a Library of Congress Children's Book of the Year; Who Is Felix the Great?, a Books for the Teen Age listing; and Sizzle & Splat, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. He is a two-time O'Neill playwright who lives and works in Nashville, Tennessee.