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Middle Grade Sidekick Short Review: A Dangerous Idea: The Scopes Trial, the Original Fight over Science in Schools (2025) by Debbie Levy
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
The Basics
Page Length: 288
Audiobook Length: ~6 hours
Grade Reading Level: 5+
Target Audience Age: 10-14
Goodreads Score: 3.96 out of 5
Buy it HERE
Setting: Dayton, Tennessee, 1925
Genre: Middle Grade Nonfiction
Topics: Evolution, Science, Religion, Darwinism, Censorship, Debate, Politics, Teaching, Law, Activism
Plot: When Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, it sparked a wildfire of controversy. For years, Darwin's ideas were a source of heated debate, particularly in education—and nowhere was that debate more famous in America than the Scopes Trial.
When John T. Scopes mentioned evolution during one of his high school science lessons in Dayton, Tennessee, he never expected the circus of a trial that would descend on the small Southern town. Spectators, reporters, a town full of "monkey trial" novelty gifts. At the center of the fight were two of the most famous public figures of the time: Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan.
Bryan, a popular politician and religious fundamentalist, argued for Tennessee's law banning the teaching of evolution. Darrow, Scopes's defense lawyer, argued for intellectual freedom and challenged Bryan's literal interpretation of the Bible.
But A Dangerous Idea is about much more than the courtroom. It explores the people, politics, religion, science, and cultural tensions that turned one teacher's biology lesson into a national spectacle—and changed the conversation about what belongs in a classroom.
You might like this book if you like:
Debate or mock trial
Studying current events
Science and History
Books like: Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team, We Are the Ship, The 57 Bus, The Boys Who Challenged Hitler, The Great Stink: How Joseph Bazalgette Solved London's Poop Problem
Shows like: MythBusters, Secrets of the Museum, The Who Was? Show, The Story of Us with Morgan Freeman
Movies like: Inherit the Wind, Hidden Figures, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Akeelah and the Bee, The Great Debaters
Other books written by this author: Becoming RBG: Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Journey to Justice, The Friendship Train: A True Story of Helping and Healing after World War II, The Year of Goodbyes, Imperfect Spiral
Teaching A Dangerous Idea in Class
Content
Language: None
Sex/Romance: None
Violence/Scariness: Very little. There's brief mention of a case in which defendants received the death penalty for kidnapping and murder
Drinking/Smoking/Drugs: None
*This book contains many religious ideas and perspectives, as religion was a major driving force behind the Scopes Trial.
Book Talk Read Aloud Section
If you have the physical book, read pages 1- top of page 4 (through paragraph 5, "Since seven weeks earlier."
If you don't, read the same pages in the reading sample here.
Used this book in your classroom? Tell us how in the comments!
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