Debbie Levy on A Dangerous Idea: The Scopes Trial, the Original Fight over Science in Schools

In this post, we feature award-winning author Debbie Levy, whose acclaimed titles include This Promise of Change, which was named a Sibert Honor Book, among many other honors. You can hear her speak about her new book, A Dangerous Idea: The Scopes Trial, the Original Fight over Science in Schools, and try her “invitation to imagine” activity. You’ll also find other resources to explore. Thanks for joining us, and let us know what you think in the comments below!

Debbie Levy and the cover of A Dangerous Idea

A Dangerous Idea: The Scopes Trial, the Original Fight over Science in Schools

Written by Debbie Levy
Published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books
Release date: January 14, 2025

In 1925, when Tennessee lawmakers banned the teaching of evolution in public schools, teacher John Scopes challenged the law—and set off a gripping circus of a legal battle. Two masterminds faced off in a blistering courtroom debate over creationism and natural selection, each armed with the books they believed belonged in classrooms. Celebrity politician William Jennings Bryan relied on the Bible to make his case, while legal luminary Clarence Darrow defended Charles Darwin’s groundbreaking books On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man. Their clash would go down in history as the Scopes Monkey Trial. A century later, here is the riveting truth of what happened and why it matters. For a nation still arguing about the books and ideas that young people should encounter, award-winning author Debbie Levy delivers an important, insightful, and expertly-researched account of our history that illuminates the challenges we face today.

From A Dangerous Idea: The Scopes Trial, the Original Fight over Science in Schools, written by Debbie Levy.

“Anyway, since when was teaching a unit in biology class a crime?”
Click here to view a longer preview of A Dangerous Idea: The Scopes Trial, the Original Fight over Science in Schools, written by Debbie Levy.

Explore A Dangerous Idea: The Scopes Trial, the Original Fight over Science in Schools

Listen to Debbie Levy talking with TeachingBooks about creating A Dangerous Idea: The Scopes Trial, the Original Fight over Science in Schools. You can click the player below or experience the recording on TeachingBooks, where you can read along as you listen, and also translate the text to another language.

Invitation to Imagine

TeachingBooks asks each author or illustrator on our Virtual Book Tour to share a writing prompt, a drawing exercise, or just an interesting question to spark curiosity and creativity. Enjoy the following activity contributed by Debbie Levy.

Imagination Activity with Debbie Levy

When I was in high school and casting about for an essay topic, my English teacher, whose unforgettable name was Mrs. Wubnig, said to me, “Oh, Debbie, there are no new ideas.” Pretty discouraging, right? But eventually I came to understand her statement as a creative, generative challenge.

Say you’re writing nonfiction, or an essay. You start with a subject; it won’t be a “new idea.” But if you want to home in on something fresh, questions are your friends. I’m talking about questions that coil around and around the subject, that might give rise to the overlooked, offbeat, or unexpected ingredient of a story.

Take a famous historical event. What happened before? After? Were there appearances by celebrities? Did participation in the event change someone’s life? Did an artist or musician create a work of art rooted in the event?

A painting by Winslow Homer depicting the aftermath of a famous Civil War battle (a not-new historical event!), led me to a true story connecting a pop song of 1864 to that battle—and to my book Soldier Song.

Take a famous person. What happened in their childhood? What losses did they suffer? What or who did they love? What did they fail at? I wrote two very different books about Ruth Bader Ginsburg by asking questions like these, which led to two very different takes on her life.

We could do this all day long: LeBron, Lin-Manuel, fingerprints, rain, Mount Denali,
prisons, space junk. Choose your not-new subject. Encircle it in questions, lots of them. Unearth some newness.

Finish This Sentence . . . with Debbie Levy

As part of our Virtual Book Tour, TeachingBooks asks authors and illustrators to complete short sentence prompts. Enjoy Debby Levy’s response.

“A surprising thing that I learned while working on this book was…”

A weird thing that I did not have to research for A Dangerous Idea, but that I did anyway,
was underwear. Among the many random articles I came across while browsing newspapers from the early 1900s was, “The Hygiene of Underwear,” from the Beatrice (Nebraska) Daily Express of June 28, 1907: “The average person wearing two sets of underclothing a week, says the Youth’s Companion, will make the change in the middle of the week, but it would be far better in the two sets were kept going the entire week on alternate days.” From there, I was off and running. Totally unusable in my book, but irresistible.

“Where I work is…”

In my office in Washington, DC, I’m often sharing my workspace with our dog, Rosie, who thinks the space under my desk is her cave. I’m happy to have her there. I’m also surrounded with photos of some of my ancestors, including photos of my mother and her family on the S.S. Queen Mary in November 1938, escaping Nazi Germany just as the infamous Kristallnacht pogroms were happening.

Debbie Levy's desk with her dog lying on the floor underneath it.

Thank you!

To wrap up this Virtual Book Tour, we thank Debbie Levy for signing a book for all of us.

The title page of A Dangerous Idea, signed by the author, Debbie Levy, with the message, "Read dangerously."

More Connections to Debbie Levy and A Dangerous Idea: The Scopes Trial, the Original Fight over Science in Schools

Explore all of the titles featured in the TeachingBooks Virtual Book Tour: one link with author interviews, lesson plans, activities, and more!

All text and images are courtesy of Debbie Levy and Bloomsbury USA and may not be used without expressed written consent.