Ruth Objects: The Life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Big Words)

Gr 3-5 –Ruth Bader Ginsburg grew up in a time different from today; girls were taught to aspire to be wives and mothers—not study at college and become lawyers. This picture book biography of Justice Ginsburg traces her achievements in the field of law back to her girlhood years, emphasizing for readers the importance of dissent in the face of an unequal society. Students will delight as they watch a young Ginsburg “protest” being forced to write with her right hand (she was left-handed) and “object” to being made to take home economics instead of shop class. The text goes on to briefly cover her high school, college, and law school years, as well as her marriage to Martin Ginsburg and the birth of her two children. The majority of the narrative focuses on Ginsburg’s law career, her entry into the U.S. Supreme Court, and her work as an associate justice. The writing is appropriately succinct for its intended audience and is nicely complemented by Baddeley’s richly illustrated cartoonish drawings. The use of colorful and bold typography to highlight words such as protest, object, dissent, disagree, and agreeinjects life into the work. Back matter includes photos of Ginsburg, more information on her life and the Supreme Court cases alluded to in the text, and a bibliography with quotation sources. VERDICT This dynamic offering is an essential purchase that will be useful for completing assignments as well as for pleasure reading.

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Rappaport adds to her Big Words series with this well-researched picture biography of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. As with all books in the series, quotations-set apart via color and larger text size-appear on each spread, bringing Ginsberg’s own voice to her story ("Traditional law firms were just beginning to hire Jews, but to be a woman, a Jew, and a mother to boot, that combination was a bit much"). Velasquez (Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library) creates pared-down compositions that immediately draw readers into Ginsberg’s facial expressions and emotions. The realistic oil paintings depict the justice early on as a cello-playing, baton-twirling teenager who loses her mother just before her high school graduation. She rebuffs mid-20th-century social norms, becoming a spouse and parent while breaking ground as a female law student, professor, lawyer, and, eventually, the second woman justice on the Supreme Court. The concise narrative weaves in five of Ginsburg’s landmark court cases, in which she champions women’s rights and gender parity. A timeline, author and illustrator notes, and a selected bibliography wrap up this very handsome addition to the growing collection of RBG literature for young readers. 

Copyright 2019 Publisher’s Weekly, LLC Used with permission.