On Nov. 6, millions of Americans awoke to the news that Donald Trump had been elected president—again. As reality set in, my thoughts turned to teachers and parents, who have the unenviable task of fielding questions from curious youngsters. This was a difficult enough undertaking in 2016—remember the Access Hollywood tape on which Trump was heard bragging about grabbing women’s genitalia? Or the promises of a wall dividing the U.S. from Mexico?
The political climate feels even more charged now. The xenophobic rhetoric has reached a fever pitch; during the campaign, both Trump and Vice President JD Vance repeated baseless rumors about Haitian immigrants eating pets, and Trump has promised to carry out mass deportations. Meanwhile, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick for the head of the Health and Human Services Department as of press time, has questioned the safety of vaccinations—news that feels especially disturbing in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In times of crisis, I turn to literature, and I urge educators and caregivers to do so, too. The following titles speak to issues that arose during Trump’s first presidency—and have lingered long since he left office. They’ll give middle-grade readers a solid grounding in relevant historical topics as they attempt to make sense of the senseless.
Misinformation about Covid-19 has proliferated from the get-go, largely thanks to Trump’s dismissive attitude toward mask-wearing, and mistrust in vaccinations across the board has only grown since then. Amy Cherrix’s Virus Hunters: How Science Protects People When Outbreaks and Pandemics Strike (Harper/HarperCollins, 2024) serves as a much-needed counternarrative. This gripping volume ramps up the suspense as Cherrix describes scientists’ tireless efforts to decipher medical mysteries; her sound explanations will leave readers with an appreciation for the work of scientists and doctors.
Debbie Levy’s A Dangerous Idea: The Scopes Trial, the Original Fight Over Science in Schools (Bloomsbury, Jan. 14) is an insightful account of the pivotal 1925 court case in which a high school teacher was prosecuted for teaching evolution. It culminated in a clash of the titans between attorneys William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow. While direct references to recent events—Trump’s skepticism of climate change, for instance—are limited to the epilogue, readers will draw even more parallels. The Butler Act, which outlawed the teaching of evolution in Tennessee public schools, feels like a precursor to the recent rise in book bannings, especially those targeting titles related to race or LGBTQ+ themes, while the cultlike devotion that Bryan engendered during his three unsuccessful presidential runs seems eerily prescient.
Unprecedented was a word that many applied to Trump’s first presidency, but as Adam Gidwitz makes clear with his spellbinding new novel, Max in the Land of Lies: A Tale of World War II (Dutton, Feb. 25), the phrasing is sadly inaccurate; history repeats itself far too often. Following a 12-year-old German Jewish spy for the British who infiltrates Germany’s Ministry of Propaganda, the book offers chillingly relevant truths about how demagogues maintain power: through insidious lies that appeal to the dominant group’s sense of superiority and demonize marginalized populations.
Mahnaz Dar is a young readers’ editor.
