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Susie B. Won't Back Down
Roll with It meets Absolutely Normal Chaos in this funny, big-hearted novel about a young girl’s campaign for student council president, told through letters to her hero Susan B. Anthony.
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 2021
5 people are currently reading
122 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Finnegan
11 books28 followersMargaret Finnegan's work has appeared in Salon, LA Times, FamilyFun and other publications. She is the author of the middle-grade novel, WE COULD BE HEROES (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)--NOW A JUNIOR LIBRARY GUILD SELECTION!
She lives in Southern California with her husband, two children, and her dog, Walt. She loves baking, soft-serve ice cream, and walking her dog.
She lives in Southern California with her husband, two children, and her dog, Walt. She loves baking, soft-serve ice cream, and walking her dog.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
April 7, 2022
This is a 3.5 🌟 for me. Finally!! A middle grade book about “heroes”, or historical figures, who do great things, but also acknowledge, unapologetically, their flaws and mistakes. Those flaws were not glossed over. Young readers can handle the truth!! I was so impressed by the truth in this book and hope this is a trend in MG books. I do enjoy epistolary novels, so I liked that. I think the topics of class elections, ADHD, popular vs. unpopular kids and the history homework all rang true. Where it fell down for me was the speaking voice of Susie. The vernacular was hard to wade through for me and sometimes felt like words and phrases were added, but really not needed. (less)
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October 5, 2021This was a fun, authentic depiction of fifth grade dynamics and friendship drama. I loved how the author weaved the interesting issue of fallible heroes naturally into the story. Review on blog soon.
October 23, 2021
Fifth grader Susie B. describes herself as a "butterfly brain" because of her attention and impulse control issues. When it is announced that Student Council elections will be held, she decides she wants to run for president and her best friend Joselyn decides to run treasurer. Together, they plan their strategy, but Susie B.'s motivations aren't exactly presidential - she really just wants to be able to use the microphone for leading the Pledge of Allegiance everyday, fighting for "the rights of all people, all the time," including polar bears and paragraph writers, and for having eternal glory.
Of course, the most popular kids in fifth grade are also running for office. Susie and Joselyn realize that their best hope of getting elected is to have popular, perfect Chloe and her friends on their side. Only problem is they don't like each other.
Meanwhile, their teacher, Mr. Springer, has assigned the class a hero's project in which each student can choose the hero of their choice. Susie B., who has always disliked being call that, decides it isn't so bad after all when she chooses Susan B. Anthony. Except that the more she learns about her chosen hero, the more Susie B. becomes disillusioned.
The, when Susie B. gets angry and tells Chloe she's mean in class, Joselyn thinks they have lost any chance of winning the election. When she tells Susie to let her deal with Chloe. Susie B. agrees, but it's beginning to look like Joselyn is really having a lot more fun with Chloe and her friends.
Susie B. records all the day to day fifth grade dramatics in epistolary form in a notebook addressed to Susan B. Anthony, including all the negative information she discovers about her hero/not hero. With the election isn't going well, Susan B. Anthony proving herself not to be the hero Susie B. thought she was, and now feeling like her best friend is abandoning her, Susie is feeling discouraged, but it also gives her the chance to get to know other kids in her class better, including Carson, who turns out to be a great artist and a real help, as well as her opponent Danny Rodriguez, who is pretty nice after all, and really doesn't want to be the golden boy he is forced to be by his parents.
Susie B. Won't Back Down is a delightful novel about being who you are and finding where you fit in in the world. For Susie, that means being honest with yourself and others, but she still has a lot to learn and paradoxes to grapple with. For instance, can Susan B. Anthony be a hero and not a hero at the same time? Discovering that the people you think are perfect are quite fallible and not always who they appear to be is one of those lessons in life all kids must deal with sooner or later, and fifth grade is the year that Susie B. learns this lesson. And though she may deal with it inappropriately at times, it is a lesson she eventually comes to terms with.
Although the novel is completely written in letters addressed to Susan B. Anthony, none of Susie B.'s exuberance, honesty, or disappointments is lost. I did like that Susie has an intact family who is supportive and seem to understand her attention challenges, though they don't seem to play a big part in her life and aren't really developed, unlike the character of her half brother, Lock. I did think it odd that though Lock is biracial, it never really figures into the story. However, Lock is the voice of reason in Susie's life, even if she doesn't want to hear what he has to say sometimes. But it is clear that the two love and care deeply about each other.
I wouldn't call Susie B. Won't Back Down a coming-of-age novel per se, but it is certainly the start of that self-discovery process for Susie B, and Finnegan handles it with honesty and humor and a few tears. Don't miss meeting this charming young lady.
This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was an ARC gratefully received from Barbara Fisch at Blue Slip Media.
Of course, the most popular kids in fifth grade are also running for office. Susie and Joselyn realize that their best hope of getting elected is to have popular, perfect Chloe and her friends on their side. Only problem is they don't like each other.
Meanwhile, their teacher, Mr. Springer, has assigned the class a hero's project in which each student can choose the hero of their choice. Susie B., who has always disliked being call that, decides it isn't so bad after all when she chooses Susan B. Anthony. Except that the more she learns about her chosen hero, the more Susie B. becomes disillusioned.
The, when Susie B. gets angry and tells Chloe she's mean in class, Joselyn thinks they have lost any chance of winning the election. When she tells Susie to let her deal with Chloe. Susie B. agrees, but it's beginning to look like Joselyn is really having a lot more fun with Chloe and her friends.
Susie B. records all the day to day fifth grade dramatics in epistolary form in a notebook addressed to Susan B. Anthony, including all the negative information she discovers about her hero/not hero. With the election isn't going well, Susan B. Anthony proving herself not to be the hero Susie B. thought she was, and now feeling like her best friend is abandoning her, Susie is feeling discouraged, but it also gives her the chance to get to know other kids in her class better, including Carson, who turns out to be a great artist and a real help, as well as her opponent Danny Rodriguez, who is pretty nice after all, and really doesn't want to be the golden boy he is forced to be by his parents.
Susie B. Won't Back Down is a delightful novel about being who you are and finding where you fit in in the world. For Susie, that means being honest with yourself and others, but she still has a lot to learn and paradoxes to grapple with. For instance, can Susan B. Anthony be a hero and not a hero at the same time? Discovering that the people you think are perfect are quite fallible and not always who they appear to be is one of those lessons in life all kids must deal with sooner or later, and fifth grade is the year that Susie B. learns this lesson. And though she may deal with it inappropriately at times, it is a lesson she eventually comes to terms with.
Although the novel is completely written in letters addressed to Susan B. Anthony, none of Susie B.'s exuberance, honesty, or disappointments is lost. I did like that Susie has an intact family who is supportive and seem to understand her attention challenges, though they don't seem to play a big part in her life and aren't really developed, unlike the character of her half brother, Lock. I did think it odd that though Lock is biracial, it never really figures into the story. However, Lock is the voice of reason in Susie's life, even if she doesn't want to hear what he has to say sometimes. But it is clear that the two love and care deeply about each other.
I wouldn't call Susie B. Won't Back Down a coming-of-age novel per se, but it is certainly the start of that self-discovery process for Susie B, and Finnegan handles it with honesty and humor and a few tears. Don't miss meeting this charming young lady.
This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was an ARC gratefully received from Barbara Fisch at Blue Slip Media.
December 6, 2021
What a delightful surprise this chapter book, rated with 3.5 stars for me, turned out to be. Fifth grader Susie B. (Babuszkiewicz) has what she calls "butterflies" in her brain, causing her thoughts to flit around at times. Susie B.'s story is told through a series of letters she writes to Susan B. Anthony at the behest of her teacher, Mr. Springer, who uses those letters as part of a series of assignments related to the Hero Project. In those letters, readers learn all about what makes Susie B. tick, how she thinks, and her determination to run for president of the Student Council. While her platform is rather idealistic, it also reveals how frustrated she is with how often the same individuals are singled out as outstanding by teachers. She calls them the "usual geniuses," and she and her best friend, Joselyn Salazar, plan to shake things up by running for office. But Susie B. has a lot to overcome since many of her classmates find her odd, and several follow the lead of Chloe Howard ("Old Fakey Fake," to Susie B.) in making fun of Susie B., and there are a couple of popular students running for the same office. When Joselyn hatches a plan to win by becoming friends with Chloe, Susie B. is at first puzzled, then goes along with it briefly, but quickly realizes that she just can't keep her feelings and thoughts about the girl to herself long enough for it to work. But Joselyn seems all in when it comes to hanging out with Chloe, ultimately betraying Susie B. And while she's discovering truths about herself, Susie B. is also discovering some unpleasant truths about Susan B. Anthony and her racism and willingness to deny suffrage to Blacks in favor of suffrage for Blacks and women. Susie demonstrates this ire in her letters to Susan B. Anthony so powerfully that readers might wish she could write back to Susie B. Susie B. and her classmates realize that many so-called "heroes" had flaws and were examples of paradoxes. Her top-ten list of what she learned from the project contains excellent advice on life, and of course, being Susie B., there are eleven items on the list. Teachers will want to read this list as a reminder that all of their students matter, and not just the smart or attractive or easy ones, and for insight into how someone like Susie B. thinks and feels. Susie B.'s fondness for writing and her riffs on paragraphs and how teachers specify a formula for how many sentences a paragraph must have, according to the grade level, filled me with delight and appreciation for how her mind works. Fourth and fifth graders will want to read it for the story, the lessons, the drama, the unique format for storytelling, and maybe, just maybe, to see themselves and their experiences reflected.
September 30, 2021
4.5 stars!!!
Susie B is a spunky 5th grader with a butterfly brain. She quickly assures us she has lots of coping strategies to help her. She has her mom and dad who don’t allow her to have a phone or to eat sugary snacks and only permit a little bit of screen time. She has her best friend, Joselyn, who is always by her side to keep her on track, and in second grade she went to the reading lab (which isn’t any place to be ashamed of) which helped her catch up on her reading. Now she can read and write just as well as anyone in the fifth grade so she has set another goal for herself. She’s going to become President of Mary Routt Elementary School! She wants eternal glory, to give a speech in front of the entire school, to show her teachers she is just as smart as the “usual geniuses” and perhaps most of all to use a big microphone.
Delightfully, we learn all about Susie B, her family, her school and the election through her Hero letters to Susan B. Anthony. Each letter, some short and some long, fill us in on her feelings and her frustrations both with her life and then with Susan B. herself. As you read each one, you’ll laugh, but you’ll also become acquainted with a young girl readers will recognize and admire.
I think you’ll fall in love with determined Susie B. You can’t help but be impressed by her single mindedness as she fights to win the election and “stand for all the rights of all the people all the time!” You’ll also appreciate the lessons she learns along the way. For example, “people are complicated and are paradoxes”, “usual geniuses have problems too” , “fair and just are not the same” and “your Inner Light is yours. Hold it Tight.”
This would be great to read aloud both in a classroom and with your family. It offers so many opportunities to pause and talk about Susie B’s life and ideas, as well as lots of laughs. Thanks so much to @blue_slip_media for providing the review copy. It’s available next Tues
Susie B is a spunky 5th grader with a butterfly brain. She quickly assures us she has lots of coping strategies to help her. She has her mom and dad who don’t allow her to have a phone or to eat sugary snacks and only permit a little bit of screen time. She has her best friend, Joselyn, who is always by her side to keep her on track, and in second grade she went to the reading lab (which isn’t any place to be ashamed of) which helped her catch up on her reading. Now she can read and write just as well as anyone in the fifth grade so she has set another goal for herself. She’s going to become President of Mary Routt Elementary School! She wants eternal glory, to give a speech in front of the entire school, to show her teachers she is just as smart as the “usual geniuses” and perhaps most of all to use a big microphone.
Delightfully, we learn all about Susie B, her family, her school and the election through her Hero letters to Susan B. Anthony. Each letter, some short and some long, fill us in on her feelings and her frustrations both with her life and then with Susan B. herself. As you read each one, you’ll laugh, but you’ll also become acquainted with a young girl readers will recognize and admire.
I think you’ll fall in love with determined Susie B. You can’t help but be impressed by her single mindedness as she fights to win the election and “stand for all the rights of all the people all the time!” You’ll also appreciate the lessons she learns along the way. For example, “people are complicated and are paradoxes”, “usual geniuses have problems too” , “fair and just are not the same” and “your Inner Light is yours. Hold it Tight.”
This would be great to read aloud both in a classroom and with your family. It offers so many opportunities to pause and talk about Susie B’s life and ideas, as well as lots of laughs. Thanks so much to @blue_slip_media for providing the review copy. It’s available next Tues
October 6, 2021
Susie B., 5th grader, wants to be student council president for a number of reasons. She wants to give speeches, lead the school in the Pledge of Allegiance, fight for fairness, be the boss, and receive eternal glory. Of course, the student council president doesn't actually do most of those things, but Susie B. is determined to make a difference. Despite her 'butterfly' brain, Susie B. and her friend Joselyn think they can win the election even up against what Susie B. calls 'the usual geniuses', the students who seem to be the teacher pets and are good at everything. But her parents and teacher are concerned by her announcement that she intends to run. And her decision to fight for polar bears in her application essay doesn't go over real well. As Susie B. works on the hero project her teacher assigned her to do, she starts writing about her life in letters to her hero, Susan B. Anthony. Complications arise when the election turns nasty, Susie B.'s friend, Joselyn starts to hang out with the 'mean girls', and Susie B. finds out that her hero, Susan B. Anthony didn't always behave like a hero. Can Susie B. come to terms with the challenges in her life or will her motto (a quote from Susan B. Anthony) that "failure is impossible" explode in her face? Finnegan has written an interesting take on the school election trope. While I'm a bit tired of the school election trope, especially since many elementary schools don't have elections, this one is different enough to stand out in my mind. Susie B. and her 'butterfly' brain make for a lively character, even though many of her ideas aren't realistic, and she makes plenty of poor choices. But as Susie B. discovers, people who make mistakes can still do heroic things and that makes Susie B. a character I can root for whole-heartedly.
June 12, 2022
Susie B. (for Bubuszkiewicz) has been assigned a hero project in her 5th grade classroom. For a variety of reasons, she chooses Susan B. Anthony whom she initially sees as someone who champions and fights for human rights. As the research project gets underway, 5th grade students are also invited to run for student council president; a role Susie feels she could take and make a difference for all people (and polar bears!). As Susie B. works through her research project, she uncovers unsavory facts about her hero and recognizes social inequities and injustices in her own elementary school world.
I really enjoyed this book. Susie struggles with ADD/ADHD, and has an understanding of how that affects her in the classroom and socially. She also shares how she deals with her attention struggles, but the reader can see how her thought processes make her more self-assured and more capable of being her true self instead of kowtowing to the popular group. I also appreciated how the author drew historical happenings into the storyline; sharing tidbits of how many "heroes" (such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King, Jr.) all made mistakes and were not the completely good and altruistic people we have convinced ourselves they are. I will definitely be purchasing this book to add to my elementary library collection.
I really enjoyed this book. Susie struggles with ADD/ADHD, and has an understanding of how that affects her in the classroom and socially. She also shares how she deals with her attention struggles, but the reader can see how her thought processes make her more self-assured and more capable of being her true self instead of kowtowing to the popular group. I also appreciated how the author drew historical happenings into the storyline; sharing tidbits of how many "heroes" (such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King, Jr.) all made mistakes and were not the completely good and altruistic people we have convinced ourselves they are. I will definitely be purchasing this book to add to my elementary library collection.
October 24, 2021
I cannot sufficiently express how much I loved this book! Susie B. is running for class president of her elementary school, which we learn through the letters she writes to her personal hero, Susan B. Anthony. First of all, SUSIE B. IS SO LOVEABLE! Her voice jumps off the page, and I can't tell you how many times she had me laughing out loud. (MG readers are going to LOVE her!) But this novel is so much more than just a lighthearted school story. Woven into Susie's letters are beautiful lessons about friendships and being one's authentic self and a super poignant and important message about the people we idolize as heroes.
December 31, 2021
Susie is a fifth grade girl with an eye on winning the election for student council president. Along the way she has to face the reality of not being the best at anything, not being popular, possibly losing her best friend and being labeled as "high-maintenance". All of this is told through letters to Susan B. Anthony (as part of a school assignment). At first, I was struggling to get interested - the letter writing to Susan B. Anthony seemed particularly contrived. But as I read along, I couldn't resist finding out what happened to Susie and her friend, and got a good chuckle when Susie found out about how your heroes are flawed and ultimately, not the hero you thought they were.
April 7, 2022
This is a 3.5 🌟 for me. Finally!! A middle grade book about “heroes”, or historical figures, who do great things, but also acknowledge, unapologetically, their flaws and mistakes. Those flaws were not glossed over. Young readers can handle the truth!! I was so impressed by the truth in this book and hope this is a trend in MG books. I do enjoy epistolary novels, so I liked that. I think the topics of class elections, ADHD, popular vs. unpopular kids and the history homework all rang true. Where it fell down for me was the speaking voice of Susie. The vernacular was hard to wade through for me and sometimes felt like words and phrases were added, but really not needed.
September 9, 2021
This was totally adorable. Susie B. was kind of a pain but her heart was in the right place. I loved that the kids saw that their "heroes" were human and all had weaknesses AND they acted according to social norms at the time. This can be very disappointing to a child who is reading about a hero such as Susan B. Anthony in current times. I also loved the realistic shift of friendship. As sad as it is when friends move on to different groups, kids need to know it happens and you will get through the disappointment. I would read this as a class read aloud without hesitation.
March 27, 2022
Susie B.'s voice is perfection and hilarious. To me. I'm less sure of her appeal to real life middle school students even though her struggles are highly relatable - finding your personality, dealing with popularity, keeping your best friend, and trying to be seen by your teachers. I will definitely try selling this one to my students, but it's going to take someone with just the right amount of sarcasm and exuberance to truly appreciate just how wonderful Susie B. is.
June 8, 2024
Susie B. Won't Back Down: three stars. Interesting portrayal of seemingly-neurodivergent kids and the way the public school system only favors a narrow type of student. But Susie read as very young for a fifth-grader, and the epistolary format didn't feel believable.
July 23, 2021
This is a super book about what is fair and just. Susie also finds out that heroes aren’t always the people you thought they were. Out on October 2021.
August 7, 2021
Susie B has such a great voice and spark! I loved how she evolved over the course of the story.
Want to read
December 16, 2021For Gr 4-6, starred review, want to read for booktalks
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May 29, 20222022- Format was cute.
January 1, 2025
would be amazingggg for teaching my campers about feminism
November 28, 2021
This book has so much in it! I was highlighting away as I read–both as a recreational reader and as a teacher (see more in Teachers’ Tools!)! I love that it is an epistolary novel, specifically writing to Susan B. Anthony, because it gives us insight into Susie’s school, home, and her inner thinking. The discussions throughout about heroes, fairness, and history is done in a very age-appropriate way but also doesn’t sugar coat anything. I love that Susie has a “butterfly brain” and went to reading lab but is proud of it. The talk about how all brains are different made my heart sing! And on top of all of this, the story itself is so on point for coming of age and how popularity, personalities, and more really start to affect kids starting in about 5th grade.
Full review with teaching tools: http://www.unleashingreaders.com/?p=2...
Full review with teaching tools: http://www.unleashingreaders.com/?p=2...
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June 22, 2025Using an epistolary structure similar to THE CIVIL WAR OF AMOS ABERNATHY, where the main character writes to a historical hero, this intriguing contemporary middle-grade novel tackles friendship, the dynamics of popularity, and the fallibility of heroes. I could definitely relate to Susie B. and not just because we share a first name.
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