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Dissenter on the Bench: Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Life and Work
A 2020 Sydney Taylor Honor Book
The life and career of the fiercely principled Supreme Court Justice, now a popular icon, with dramatic accounts of her landmark cases that moved the needle on legal protection of human rights, illustrated with b/w archival photographs.
Dramatically narrated case histories from Justice Ginsburg's stellar career are interwoven with an account of RBG’s life—childhood, family, beliefs, education, marriage, legal and judicial career, children, and achievements—and her many-faceted personality is captured. The cases described, many involving young people, demonstrate her passionate concern for gender equality, fairness, and our constitutional rights. Notes, bibliography, index.
The life and career of the fiercely principled Supreme Court Justice, now a popular icon, with dramatic accounts of her landmark cases that moved the needle on legal protection of human rights, illustrated with b/w archival photographs.
Dramatically narrated case histories from Justice Ginsburg's stellar career are interwoven with an account of RBG’s life—childhood, family, beliefs, education, marriage, legal and judicial career, children, and achievements—and her many-faceted personality is captured. The cases described, many involving young people, demonstrate her passionate concern for gender equality, fairness, and our constitutional rights. Notes, bibliography, index.
192 pages, ebook
First published June 4, 2019
101 people are currently reading
883 people want to read
About the author
Victoria Ortiz
29 booksVictoria Ortiz graduated from Barnard College and the City University of New York Law School. She has worked as a high school teacher, as a college teacher, as an attorney, and as dean of students at several law schools. Her published work includes Spanish for Lawyers (2012), a unique manual for law students and lawyers who need to discuss legal matters in this useful language. Now retired, Ms. Ortiz lives in the Bay Area with her wife.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 168 reviews
January 2, 2021
This really is an incredible book. It is great for all readers, including myself. I was aware of many of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s accomplishments, but only on a surface level. This is a great way to update yourself on so many cases she worked on to change people’s lives. Often women who do fight for women’s rights and civil rights are branded as radicals. This clearly is not the case, or the way it it is used is wrong. These cases she took on or decided on changed average people’s lives. The idea of our constitution is to give basic human rights and apply fairness. Still, few realize how important these 9 Justices are. They are politically appointed for Life. Think about how much change those decisions did make and continue to make.
RBG became a pop icon, notice the name. She worked extremely hard to get to law school. She knew early on that discrimination existed having grown up in Flatbush. This is a working class neighborhood and she was Jewish. In 1946, she sees a sign outside a resort saying, ‘No Dogs, No Jews’. Imagine how this could have turned her away, stopped her ambition, but lucky for us, it stuck with her about the basic needs for everyone. She took on many cases that pushed for equal protection under the law (14th Amendment) for women, but not only. If men were discriminated against she was behind those cases, too. She understood what it felt like to be considered less then and worked for equal rights for minorities, women, the poor, and anyone not receiving equal treatment. This is a tremendous accomplishment. Many people grow up, do well, and forget this. She never did. I think that is an incredible accomplishment, as everyone deserves the right to pursue their goals. ‘The purest of our legal principles’ says this, but it does not usually work out that way. One of the best goals in having your basic rights is having the choices life offers. Then each person takes it from there. Let’s work for that.
RBG became a pop icon, notice the name. She worked extremely hard to get to law school. She knew early on that discrimination existed having grown up in Flatbush. This is a working class neighborhood and she was Jewish. In 1946, she sees a sign outside a resort saying, ‘No Dogs, No Jews’. Imagine how this could have turned her away, stopped her ambition, but lucky for us, it stuck with her about the basic needs for everyone. She took on many cases that pushed for equal protection under the law (14th Amendment) for women, but not only. If men were discriminated against she was behind those cases, too. She understood what it felt like to be considered less then and worked for equal rights for minorities, women, the poor, and anyone not receiving equal treatment. This is a tremendous accomplishment. Many people grow up, do well, and forget this. She never did. I think that is an incredible accomplishment, as everyone deserves the right to pursue their goals. ‘The purest of our legal principles’ says this, but it does not usually work out that way. One of the best goals in having your basic rights is having the choices life offers. Then each person takes it from there. Let’s work for that.
May 11, 2019
I think this is a far cry from being a biography that features her dissenting opinions, rather the book's insides need to be flipped outside because it's a book about court cases in which they make it to the Supreme Court and somehow connect to RBG and then Ortiz takes a short break from the regularly-scheduled program to talk about RBG's life.
The biographical information isn't anything that hasn't been covered in other high-profile books, yet the cases are the feature and curious especially to the teenager because they tie in with student rights-- searches, free speech, drug testing.
I skipped around and felt it was a circuitous melding of two concepts that never quite come together.
The biographical information isn't anything that hasn't been covered in other high-profile books, yet the cases are the feature and curious especially to the teenager because they tie in with student rights-- searches, free speech, drug testing.
I skipped around and felt it was a circuitous melding of two concepts that never quite come together.
July 14, 2019
Great way to introduce younger readers to RBG.
August 28, 2020
I just can't read enough about this great woman! My third this year. . .
This book is well-crafted, especially for the new-to-Ruth set, i.e. younger. The author weaves together RGB's court and case work with her life account. It's a basic, easy and inspiring read. Every time I read of her struggles and the challenges put in her way, I'm grateful for her persistence, patience and steady, slow burn. She's spent a lifetime sorting out our issues, and fighting for balance, fairness and equity.
If you want to start looking into her life, this is a great book with which to start!
3.5 stars.
This book is well-crafted, especially for the new-to-Ruth set, i.e. younger. The author weaves together RGB's court and case work with her life account. It's a basic, easy and inspiring read. Every time I read of her struggles and the challenges put in her way, I'm grateful for her persistence, patience and steady, slow burn. She's spent a lifetime sorting out our issues, and fighting for balance, fairness and equity.
If you want to start looking into her life, this is a great book with which to start!
3.5 stars.
October 5, 2020
“Learning about the history of the Jews, about their endless persecution across the world and the ways in which they persisted, resisted, and fought back, gave Ruth a solid foundation in dissent. She learned that justice and learning were central to being a strong human being, and that both of these values were essential to her Jewish heritage.” (Pg. 35)
I don’t read enough nonfiction;this one is a 3 rating not for content but flow, it was choppy and all over the place for me--sad but true...Okay so found this little one on my personal shelf from as an Advanced Readers Copy from a book fair about the incomparable RBG and decided this would be my next read...for my scholars, for myself..I have always admired this quiet and strong woman but sadly don’t know much about her besides her opinions on the Supreme Court and that she is a staunch advocate for women’s rights..Hoping to read this to find out more reasons why she was so amazing as she was not the first female Justice but so very memorable and recognizable.. ----
The dissenter--to dissent is to dispute conventional or official opinions and this was RBG from her beginning until her death..Inspiring..
The book starts out with a 2009 case with an eighth grader traumatized and humiliated by a strip search at her school and her and her parents feel herFourth Amendment rights to be free of unreasonable search and seizure were violated ..she takes her complaint all the way to the Supreme Court where she sits before Ruth Bader Ginsburg--we then meet the icon herself and learn about her birth in Brooklyn, NY 1933 just weeks before the first concentration camp was established where she was raised as an only child after the death of her older sister. She was born Joan Ruth but after too many girls had her name she changed it to Ruth Joan..Growing up Ruth was an extremely bright child who loved to read (Nancy Drew fan!!) and excelled in school and despite all that was going on in the world her family were strong proud Jews….
With her background as a leader, editor, camp rabbi and a voice that will not be silenced we go back to the 2009 case where she brings her strong sense of justice and gender equality to bring seriousness and reflection to the Court where she was the only woman and the issue was the humiliation and privacy of a teenage girl in school where she should be protected..
“We can safely assume that when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg strongly urged her male colleagues to step out of their shoes and into Savana’s, she tapped into both her own experiences as a young girl and her long-held beliefs about justice and fairness.” (Pg. 23)
You shift back and forth in the book between court cases and her personal life and in the next segment you learn of her mom’s passing away from cervical cancer..her mother’s strength guided her life as she also was very smart but not allowed to try and use her intelligence because she had to work to put her brothers through college and stopped working after marriage to not make her husband appear less of a man.
“Her mother’s influence, long illness, and early death inspired and strengthened in Ruth’s personality traits and ethical values such as persistence, stoicism, backbone, love of family, and commitment to doing good in the world.” (Pg. 29)
As a Jew and a woman she found many injustices in being both--in her family only certain rituals could be performed with men present and even during school she was involved in protests, walkouts and any other way to assert her voice..
“When she experienced the unfairness of the way women were viewed and treated in the context of her mother’s death, she learned from it, and her resolve to object to such unfairness was strengthened. She moved away from many of the practices of Judaism because she would not accept the official views of women as being less than men.” (Pg. 34)
The book goes into a case she wrote a dissenting opinion on in the instance of drug testing school aged children where she made her name for eloquently disagreeing with what was popular if she felt it wasn’t right...it skips around alot and you find yourself at Cornell University where Ruth meets Marty and they begin as friends until there is something more..they both decide to date and then enter the profession of law together with Marty attending Harvard first and Ruth joining him.
The book is disjointed in its layout and you go back and forth in her life timeline with each chapter introducing a major case that RBG was a part of..as she and her husband worked in law she became pregnant and experienced her own discrimination and rejection because she was pregnant..she went on to have her daughter Jane and continue to work on her marriage with Marty taking on full responsibilities of running the house with her---
“From Ruth’s perspective, their youth enabled them to develop such an egalitarian relationship. They were both more flexible and less tied to convention than an older couple might be.” (Pg. 65)
Her equal marriage and friendship with Marty inspired her groundbreaking move as becoming the first Supreme Court justice to officiate at a marriage between partners of the same sex.
Trips to Sweden and books like The Second Sex helped frame RBG’s issues on gender equality more and she returned to the US ready to fight for change and she took charge in her new position as a law professor at Rutgers Law School and designing the seminar: Women’s Rights: Sex Discrimination and the Law and worked tirelessly on an issue she connected with personally: Women being discriminated against and forced out of their jobs in their fourth or fifth month of pregnancy. She firmly believed that women can do whatever a man can do and she specialized in defending women who were denied entry into jobs or programs--In 1972 she left Rutgers and entered the Columbia Law School where she taught civil procedure and became the first woman ever appointed to a tenured position. However as much as she fought for women she also fought for men to get the same rights as women from parental leave and “Ladies Day” with no male equivalents.
RBG’s influence on women’s rights was perhaps most pivotal in the Lilly Ledbetter case of discrimination where a woman learned she was paid less than a man and even though she lost in the Supreme Court Ginsburg’s scathing dissent made Congress look again and pass a bill that ensures that if a worker experiences discriminatory acts based on race, gender, age, or the other specified categories, and the time they have after they learn of the discriminatory act.
The next cases discussed were ones she worked on with her husband and dealt with the issues of being denied access to a babysitter deduction available to every adult except an unmarried man and a case that invalidated the section of the Social Security Act that excluded men from receiving death benefits on behalf of the wives.
Ruth and Marty go on to have a son ten years after Jane was born and the book skips around so much you are unsure where this tidbit is but there is a really nice section that parallels the lives of Congressman John Lewis and Ruth Bader Ginsburg as advocates for voting rights and justice for all…
“These two people Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Congressman John Lewis had grown to maturity in very different circumstances but in the same country, and they had responded in parallel ways to the injustices they each experienced and witnesses.” (Pg. 123)
To know all they did for us makes it even harder to lose these two icons in 2020..RBG’s influence and presence is so far reaching she has even made it to science as she has the honor of having a praying mantis named after her when a student questioned why female specimens are not used to represent most species..in a nod to recognizing RBG a praying mantis was named for her and in 2013 her popularity skyrocketed after a blog came out telling of her landmark cases and decisions called the Notorious RBG and almost overnight she became a pop culture favorite with the kind of celebrity most Supreme Court justices will and have never known. One of her most unlikely best friends was fellow Justice Antonin Scalia and while Ginsburg was deeply about the people and the change of the Constitution; Scalia was dead set on defending the document as it was written…
Ginsburg’s partner in crime and Chef Supreme husband of fifty-six years ended up passing away in 2010 and the fierce woman did not miss a day of work---
“Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life and work were dedicated to fairness and equality, to the rights of Americans.” (Pg. 159)
I learned alot about this petite but powerful soft spoken but fearless woman but I did not like the way it jumped around and didn’t tell of her life chronologically but through case retellings that were important but all over the place..Overall I can’t recommend this as a good reading book because it is so scattered with dates and events but there is good information about cases she has defended or wrote opinions for..what an amazing woman I have always admired..
I don’t read enough nonfiction;this one is a 3 rating not for content but flow, it was choppy and all over the place for me--sad but true...Okay so found this little one on my personal shelf from as an Advanced Readers Copy from a book fair about the incomparable RBG and decided this would be my next read...for my scholars, for myself..I have always admired this quiet and strong woman but sadly don’t know much about her besides her opinions on the Supreme Court and that she is a staunch advocate for women’s rights..Hoping to read this to find out more reasons why she was so amazing as she was not the first female Justice but so very memorable and recognizable.. ----
The dissenter--to dissent is to dispute conventional or official opinions and this was RBG from her beginning until her death..Inspiring..
The book starts out with a 2009 case with an eighth grader traumatized and humiliated by a strip search at her school and her and her parents feel herFourth Amendment rights to be free of unreasonable search and seizure were violated ..she takes her complaint all the way to the Supreme Court where she sits before Ruth Bader Ginsburg--we then meet the icon herself and learn about her birth in Brooklyn, NY 1933 just weeks before the first concentration camp was established where she was raised as an only child after the death of her older sister. She was born Joan Ruth but after too many girls had her name she changed it to Ruth Joan..Growing up Ruth was an extremely bright child who loved to read (Nancy Drew fan!!) and excelled in school and despite all that was going on in the world her family were strong proud Jews….
With her background as a leader, editor, camp rabbi and a voice that will not be silenced we go back to the 2009 case where she brings her strong sense of justice and gender equality to bring seriousness and reflection to the Court where she was the only woman and the issue was the humiliation and privacy of a teenage girl in school where she should be protected..
“We can safely assume that when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg strongly urged her male colleagues to step out of their shoes and into Savana’s, she tapped into both her own experiences as a young girl and her long-held beliefs about justice and fairness.” (Pg. 23)
You shift back and forth in the book between court cases and her personal life and in the next segment you learn of her mom’s passing away from cervical cancer..her mother’s strength guided her life as she also was very smart but not allowed to try and use her intelligence because she had to work to put her brothers through college and stopped working after marriage to not make her husband appear less of a man.
“Her mother’s influence, long illness, and early death inspired and strengthened in Ruth’s personality traits and ethical values such as persistence, stoicism, backbone, love of family, and commitment to doing good in the world.” (Pg. 29)
As a Jew and a woman she found many injustices in being both--in her family only certain rituals could be performed with men present and even during school she was involved in protests, walkouts and any other way to assert her voice..
“When she experienced the unfairness of the way women were viewed and treated in the context of her mother’s death, she learned from it, and her resolve to object to such unfairness was strengthened. She moved away from many of the practices of Judaism because she would not accept the official views of women as being less than men.” (Pg. 34)
The book goes into a case she wrote a dissenting opinion on in the instance of drug testing school aged children where she made her name for eloquently disagreeing with what was popular if she felt it wasn’t right...it skips around alot and you find yourself at Cornell University where Ruth meets Marty and they begin as friends until there is something more..they both decide to date and then enter the profession of law together with Marty attending Harvard first and Ruth joining him.
The book is disjointed in its layout and you go back and forth in her life timeline with each chapter introducing a major case that RBG was a part of..as she and her husband worked in law she became pregnant and experienced her own discrimination and rejection because she was pregnant..she went on to have her daughter Jane and continue to work on her marriage with Marty taking on full responsibilities of running the house with her---
“From Ruth’s perspective, their youth enabled them to develop such an egalitarian relationship. They were both more flexible and less tied to convention than an older couple might be.” (Pg. 65)
Her equal marriage and friendship with Marty inspired her groundbreaking move as becoming the first Supreme Court justice to officiate at a marriage between partners of the same sex.
Trips to Sweden and books like The Second Sex helped frame RBG’s issues on gender equality more and she returned to the US ready to fight for change and she took charge in her new position as a law professor at Rutgers Law School and designing the seminar: Women’s Rights: Sex Discrimination and the Law and worked tirelessly on an issue she connected with personally: Women being discriminated against and forced out of their jobs in their fourth or fifth month of pregnancy. She firmly believed that women can do whatever a man can do and she specialized in defending women who were denied entry into jobs or programs--In 1972 she left Rutgers and entered the Columbia Law School where she taught civil procedure and became the first woman ever appointed to a tenured position. However as much as she fought for women she also fought for men to get the same rights as women from parental leave and “Ladies Day” with no male equivalents.
RBG’s influence on women’s rights was perhaps most pivotal in the Lilly Ledbetter case of discrimination where a woman learned she was paid less than a man and even though she lost in the Supreme Court Ginsburg’s scathing dissent made Congress look again and pass a bill that ensures that if a worker experiences discriminatory acts based on race, gender, age, or the other specified categories, and the time they have after they learn of the discriminatory act.
The next cases discussed were ones she worked on with her husband and dealt with the issues of being denied access to a babysitter deduction available to every adult except an unmarried man and a case that invalidated the section of the Social Security Act that excluded men from receiving death benefits on behalf of the wives.
Ruth and Marty go on to have a son ten years after Jane was born and the book skips around so much you are unsure where this tidbit is but there is a really nice section that parallels the lives of Congressman John Lewis and Ruth Bader Ginsburg as advocates for voting rights and justice for all…
“These two people Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Congressman John Lewis had grown to maturity in very different circumstances but in the same country, and they had responded in parallel ways to the injustices they each experienced and witnesses.” (Pg. 123)
To know all they did for us makes it even harder to lose these two icons in 2020..RBG’s influence and presence is so far reaching she has even made it to science as she has the honor of having a praying mantis named after her when a student questioned why female specimens are not used to represent most species..in a nod to recognizing RBG a praying mantis was named for her and in 2013 her popularity skyrocketed after a blog came out telling of her landmark cases and decisions called the Notorious RBG and almost overnight she became a pop culture favorite with the kind of celebrity most Supreme Court justices will and have never known. One of her most unlikely best friends was fellow Justice Antonin Scalia and while Ginsburg was deeply about the people and the change of the Constitution; Scalia was dead set on defending the document as it was written…
Ginsburg’s partner in crime and Chef Supreme husband of fifty-six years ended up passing away in 2010 and the fierce woman did not miss a day of work---
“Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life and work were dedicated to fairness and equality, to the rights of Americans.” (Pg. 159)
I learned alot about this petite but powerful soft spoken but fearless woman but I did not like the way it jumped around and didn’t tell of her life chronologically but through case retellings that were important but all over the place..Overall I can’t recommend this as a good reading book because it is so scattered with dates and events but there is good information about cases she has defended or wrote opinions for..what an amazing woman I have always admired..
June 8, 2020
An excellent plrimer for MG and YA readers on RBG.
February 27, 2021
rbg was a truly phenomenal woman! i loved reading about her life and the cases she worked on, made particularly enjoyable by the parallel storytelling and photographs :))
December 12, 2021
Quick read that is well written with intermingled personal experiences and cases worked. Truly inspirational woman! We need more RBGs in the world, so grateful for all the women and men she has inspired.
June 22, 2020
CBC Book 1-Good for young adults. Not really about dissenting but focused largely on women’s rights.
Not really for a college level book selection. (3 stars for CCBC CBC purposes).
Not really for a college level book selection. (3 stars for CCBC CBC purposes).
March 19, 2023
Pulled me in from the first trial and reminded me what a bad ass RBG was and the lasting effects her work will have on generations to come.
November 11, 2019
A biography that weaves between chronicling Ginsburg's life with assorted cases she has been on (either as judge or lawyer), usually managing to find cases that reflect on that period of her life. Many of the cases involve kids and or school systems, heightening the interest for the demographic.
It's very much a cheerleading book -- the prose takes for granted that Ginsburg's views on freedom and justice are true and right, and then even when she is dissenting she is pointing toward the brighter future we are always approaching. I tend to agree with most of those decisions, but I wonder how it reads to those who don't?
It's very much a cheerleading book -- the prose takes for granted that Ginsburg's views on freedom and justice are true and right, and then even when she is dissenting she is pointing toward the brighter future we are always approaching. I tend to agree with most of those decisions, but I wonder how it reads to those who don't?
October 12, 2020
This seemed to be more of a YA biography. It paired up a look at several cases of RBG's with certain segments of her life, displaying her life-long fight for equality for all. It was informative and I learned some interesting things, but it wasn't what I was looking for - I was hoping for more of a straight-down-the-line biography.
May 12, 2020
2.5 stars. This book just couldn’t decide what it wanted to be. It would jump from being a biography to a history of court cases. This would’ve been fine but it wasn’t done in the right way. It felt like the two pieces never fit together quite right.
October 8, 2019
More than a biography, this in-depth look at Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg parallels the events of her life that have led to the decisions she has made in several high-profile court cases. Each chapter features a case that came before her, like Cincinnatian Jim Oberfefell’s fight to collect spousal benefits after the death of his partner. Ruth and her husband Marty understood well how essential it was to balance roles within a marriage, regardless of societal norms. Ruth and Marty were married while still in college and found time to attend to their young daughter’s needs while both working full-time as law professors. The idea that all the nurturing and domestic care would fall on Ruth’s shoulders simply because she was a woman was ludicrous to them both, just as the idea that a loving spouse of twenty years could be told his future financial security was invalidated because he chose to love a person of the same gender. Throughout her entire career RBG has fought against injustice even at a time and place in history when her opinions were unpopular. Black and white photos throughout the book truly humanize the participants of the court cases as well as offer private glimpe into the Ginsburgs’ life. While the cover is exciting and bright to appeal to middle school readers, the text and depth of this work is too sophisticated for early teens. This is an excellent addition to every high school biography collection.
October 18, 2020
This is a YA biography that read a bit closer to a middle grade biography, which is my biggest complaint. The second is the way this book was organized, or maybe what the book was doing in general. It was organized around themes, but the biography got a bit lost with the inconsistency in the timeline. In the end, I felt like I learned more about the cases than RBG, and while that's fine, I do think this book would have been better had it found a way to keep RBG's life in chronological order and say a bit more about her based on something more meaningful than the standard - she was a trailblazer so we don't really have to say anything deep. It was disappointing to see this incredible Justice reduced to a caricature. The Notorious RBG movie was much better in covering her life and work, and I'm assuming the book is even better.
June 20, 2022
4 stars for this book because of the amazing Ruth Bader Ginsburg. As for the writing, I found it sloppy as it shifts back and forth in time and does not follow her life and her major cases chronologically. I don't even know by which criteria the cases were introduced in the given order.
However, RBG was a role model for her perseverance, bravery, hard work and care for the neglected ones. This book does give a good insight into her background, and the events which led her to become such a strong force in the US' judicial system, but also in her family, around her coworkers and towards her students.
I'm glad I learned more about her, but I believe any book regarding her life would do her justice. No pun intended :)
However, RBG was a role model for her perseverance, bravery, hard work and care for the neglected ones. This book does give a good insight into her background, and the events which led her to become such a strong force in the US' judicial system, but also in her family, around her coworkers and towards her students.
I'm glad I learned more about her, but I believe any book regarding her life would do her justice. No pun intended :)
September 13, 2019
This book was organized by court case/topic like free speech, equal rights, etc. Perhaps half of the book was on the way the courts work and various court cases. Because of the format, the book jumps around in Ginsburg's life. The court cases don't happen in a chronological fashion either.
If you are looking for a straight biography of Ginsburg, this isn't it. If you are interested in how the law works and how a savvy justice made her career, you would be more interested. I listened to this book and found it a little hard to keep track of where in time I was. Some chapters have multiple cases and it required attention to keep track of who was who.
If you are looking for a straight biography of Ginsburg, this isn't it. If you are interested in how the law works and how a savvy justice made her career, you would be more interested. I listened to this book and found it a little hard to keep track of where in time I was. Some chapters have multiple cases and it required attention to keep track of who was who.
December 15, 2020
1 . This book was about a well-known judge and multiple cases that she was involved in. Throughout the story, the judge talks about how she didn't like the way females were treated, especially females that are Jewish. She always felt like she was treated poorly by her male classmates.
2. I think the book was very good and it showed how she liked to put herself in other people's shoes and see how they feel.
3. Yes, I would recommend this book to others. I think people who feel like their voice isn't being heard would enjoy this book.
2. I think the book was very good and it showed how she liked to put herself in other people's shoes and see how they feel.
3. Yes, I would recommend this book to others. I think people who feel like their voice isn't being heard would enjoy this book.
Read
July 9, 2019This biography of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg cleverly weaves biographical information with court cases she argued or heard during her time as a lawyer, judge, and justice. Significant cases are selected that lead into information about Ginsburg's childhood, school years, married life, etc.
Hand this one to teens interested in learning more about this famous woman and/or readers who enjoy books about strong women like TEN DAYS A MADWOMAN (about Nellie Bly), etc.
Hand this one to teens interested in learning more about this famous woman and/or readers who enjoy books about strong women like TEN DAYS A MADWOMAN (about Nellie Bly), etc.
September 27, 2020
This book serves as an excellent introduction into the life of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. What I enjoyed most was the the author moved through her life chronologically, while also highlighting the key cases Ginsburg fought throughout her career. It was fascinating to learn how the struggles Ginsburg faced in life were mirrored in so many of the cases she took on. I thoroughly enjoyed the way this book presented the information in an attainable way to its readers, intertwined humorous stories, and made Ginsburg relatable to each of us.
March 1, 2023
I think it was very intresting to learn about Ruth Bader Ginsburg from a prespective other than hers. I especially liked how the author included quotes about Ginsburg from people who personally met her, showing other people's impression about her. One thing I would change though is I feel like although it was important, the author spent almost as much time describing American history as she did describing Ginsburg's life and the cases she worked.
July 17, 2020
I knew relatively nothing about RBG, so I thought this would be a good book to learn more. This biography is perfect for a MG or YA reader. Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a very cool woman and I'm glad I picked this one up! :)
March 12, 2024
I love any chance to learn about the legendary RBG and this book was no exception. I enjoyed the trip down constitutional law lane as well. I just wish it had been structured differently and more coherently, the chapters jumped around a bit.
December 21, 2020
It was really cool to hear about the lives she directly impacted and how she was able to provide a new prospective due to her own experiences.
January 27, 2023
This is a great young adult read which weaves relevant court case facts and holdings into the narrative of Justice Ginsburg’s life.
October 20, 2020
Very well written with an excellent balance of personal and professional details of RBG’s life. Definitely recommend this book if you are interested to learn more about RBG’s impact on our world today.
July 26, 2021
Love RBG. Didn’t love the set up of this book. I would have enjoyed a chronological biography more.
June 18, 2019
Format made it difficult to follow. Each chapter started with a case in which RBG was involved, and the author tried to tie that case back to parts of her life. It made for a non-linear biography that was difficult to follow and slightly repetitive.
July 25, 2023
I liked how the author showcased parts of RBG’s life that helped shaped her view and leading her to be known as the dissenter on the bench. It was a great introduction into who she was as a Supreme Court justice and how she got there.
March 17, 2020
I found the approach both interesting and confusing. Each chapter was formed around a law case and Justice Ginsburg’s influence on the case, usually direct influence. The format makes more sense when you realize the author had been dean of a few law schools. However, it did mean that an account of Justice Ginsburg’s personal life got neglected a bit. I discovered that she has two children which I hadn’t known before. I knew she had a daughter but she also has a son, 10 years younger than the daughter. I enjoyed the book but the chronology suffered with this format based on interesting law cases. I am impressed that she clearly regarded her clients as people and kept in touch with several of them.
I have to admit that I suspect a political aspect in the selection of this title just as with John Lewis’s graphic novels winning awards although I hasten to add the one Lewis graphic I read, seemed superb.
Recommended especially if your library doesn’t have anything about this remarkable trail blazer and trail blazing woman! Pull out for bio displays, legal displays, women’s month displays and Jewish displays.
I can’t resist adding that Justice Ginsburg and I shared the same first name before her parents unfortunately flipped her name around to be Ruth Joan instead of Joan Ruth when their daughter was in primary school!
I have to admit that I suspect a political aspect in the selection of this title just as with John Lewis’s graphic novels winning awards although I hasten to add the one Lewis graphic I read, seemed superb.
Recommended especially if your library doesn’t have anything about this remarkable trail blazer and trail blazing woman! Pull out for bio displays, legal displays, women’s month displays and Jewish displays.
I can’t resist adding that Justice Ginsburg and I shared the same first name before her parents unfortunately flipped her name around to be Ruth Joan instead of Joan Ruth when their daughter was in primary school!
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