This was actually a book I had to read for my U.S. History Honors class. I assumed that this would be an okay book at best, but I was actually very impressed overall by the writing style, the historical accuracies, and the plot.
After the disaster our class had with March (by Geraldine Brooks), we were all obviously hoping that the next three books (one per quarter) were somewhat decent.
Uprising was rather good as well (reviews coming later), but we were nervous as to how this novel would be: especially since it was about a court trial of sorts that we hadn't yet learned about in class.
I finished the book in one hour, laying on my parents' bed - my dad was at work and mum was asleep on the couch - at around one am or so.
The book is from the POV of a girl named Francis in Dayton, Tennessee. Her father owns the local drugstore, where he claims, "it all started".
"It" is the Scopes Trial of evolution, where a substitute biology teacher, John Scopes, is arrested and put to trial to stir up some publicity for the godforsaken (and still rather godforsaken) Dayton, Tenn.
Flocks of reporters from all areas of the country come to witness and document the trial - ranging from fundamentally conservative to right winged liberal - and Francis, who has a major crush on "Johnny" Scopes, sees all of this firsthand.
What Francis also sees is the changes- not only in her city or her family, but in herself too. She sees her father, who she once idolized, in a much darker light. Francis is then left to make a big philosophical decision: believe these new ideas of evolution, which Johnny and the liberals think is right - or to believe her conservative family and friends, who she is finding to be less and less trustworthy as the time goes on.
The book puts an excellent focus on how things can grow from the small, petty things they were to matters bigger than the things themselves. Johnny's trial turns from a simple publicity stunt to a moral and philosophical battle of religion and rights, and it is intriguing every page of the way.
5 out of 5 Quills.
After the disaster our class had with March (by Geraldine Brooks), we were all obviously hoping that the next three books (one per quarter) were somewhat decent.
Uprising was rather good as well (reviews coming later), but we were nervous as to how this novel would be: especially since it was about a court trial of sorts that we hadn't yet learned about in class.
I finished the book in one hour, laying on my parents' bed - my dad was at work and mum was asleep on the couch - at around one am or so.
The book is from the POV of a girl named Francis in Dayton, Tennessee. Her father owns the local drugstore, where he claims, "it all started".
"It" is the Scopes Trial of evolution, where a substitute biology teacher, John Scopes, is arrested and put to trial to stir up some publicity for the godforsaken (and still rather godforsaken) Dayton, Tenn.
Flocks of reporters from all areas of the country come to witness and document the trial - ranging from fundamentally conservative to right winged liberal - and Francis, who has a major crush on "Johnny" Scopes, sees all of this firsthand.
What Francis also sees is the changes- not only in her city or her family, but in herself too. She sees her father, who she once idolized, in a much darker light. Francis is then left to make a big philosophical decision: believe these new ideas of evolution, which Johnny and the liberals think is right - or to believe her conservative family and friends, who she is finding to be less and less trustworthy as the time goes on.
The book puts an excellent focus on how things can grow from the small, petty things they were to matters bigger than the things themselves. Johnny's trial turns from a simple publicity stunt to a moral and philosophical battle of religion and rights, and it is intriguing every page of the way.
5 out of 5 Quills.