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Nancy Keane's | Booktalks -- Quick and Simple | |
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Kidd,
Ronald.
MONKEY TOWN : THE SUMMER OF THE SCOPES TRIAL New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2006. IL YA ISBN 1416905723 |
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Monkey Town is the fictionalized account of the 1925 Scopes "Monkey Trial. It is re-created through the eyes of 15-year-old Frances Robinson. It is her father, the owner of the town's drugstore, who convinces John Scopes to admit that he has taught evolution in order to bring publicity to sleepy Dayton, Tennessee. Mr. Robinson succeeds beyond his wildest dreams when William Jennings Bryan comes to prosecute Scopes, Clarence Darrow arrives to defend him, and a slew of journalists, including H. L. Mencken, descend to cover the trial. In an informative afterword, Kidd describes how he used the facts of the affair and the real people involved as the basis of his telling, though Frances' interaction with the main players is the heart of the story. Her crush on her teacher, John Scopes, propels the action, but it is her realization that some of her most cherished beliefs about family, neighbors, and even religion can be challenged that heightens the conflict. (Mary M. Silgals, Trident Academy, for South Carolina Young Adult Book Awards, 2008-2009) |
| SUBJECTS:
Scopes, John Thomas -- Trials, litigation, etc. -- Fiction.
Evolution -- Study and teaching -- Law and legislation -- Fiction. Fathers and daughters -- Fiction. Publicity -- Fiction. Tennessee -- History -- 20th century -- Fiction. Historical fiction. |
