Shelly's Book Blog

Monkey Town: the Summer of the Scopes Trial, by Ronald Kidd, took me by surprise in how good it was. It is a fictional account of the famous Scopes Trial held in Dayton, Tennessee in 1925. At this time, Tennessee had recently passed legislation making it illegal to teach the theory of evolution in public schools. High school teacher John Scopes was put on trial for breaking this law. Dayton earned the name "Monkey Town" because people thought evolution was the idea that humans descended from monkeys.

Kidd researched the book in part by talking with people who were involved with the real trial, and he used Frances Robinson, who was 8 years old at the time and knew John Scopes, as the narrator for his story (she is 15 years old in the book). Other famous people who are characters in this story include H. L. Mencken, Clarence Darrow, and William Jennings Bryan. This is a fast moving yet thoughtful and challenging story about a topic that is every bit as controversial today as in 1925, and I highly recommend it!