Kid's Guide to America's Bill of Rights: Curfews, Censorship, and the 100-Pound Giant

Be the first to write a review
Hardcover
$14.52
BN.com price
$16.99 List Price (Save 15%)
Marketplace (New and Used)
from
$0.01
$16.99 List Price (Save 100%)
Usually ships in 1-2 business days
All (26)  
Used (18)  
New (8)  
Close
Sort by
Page 1 of 3
Showing 1 – 10 of 26 (3 pages)
$0.01
(Save 100%)
Better World Books Bargain
Seller since 2012

Feedback rating:

(17)

Condition:

New — never opened or used in original packaging.

Like New — packaging may have been opened. A "Like New" item is suitable to give as a gift.

Very Good — may have minor signs of wear on packaging but item works perfectly and has no damage.

Good — item is in good condition but packaging may have signs of shelf wear/aging or torn packaging. All specific defects should be noted in the Comments section associated with each item.

Acceptable — item is in working order but may show signs of wear such as scratches or torn packaging. All specific defects should be noted in the Comments section associated with each item.

Used — An item that has been opened and may show signs of wear. All specific defects should be noted in the Comments section associated with each item.

Refurbished — A used item that has been renewed or updated and verified to be in proper working condition. Not necessarily completed by the original manufacturer.

Good
100% Money Back Guarantee. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy!

Ships from: Mishawaka, IN

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Standard, 48 States
$0.02
(Save 100%)
Aeden Stclair
Seller since 2010

Feedback rating:

(555)

Condition: Good
FORMER LIBRARY. Usual markings. Normal wear.

Ships from: Marietta, OH

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
$0.75
(Save 96%)
OwlsBooks-TRM
Seller since 2009

Feedback rating:

(22568)

Condition: Good
Giving great service since 2004: Buy from the Best! 4,000,000 items shipped to delighted customers. We have 1,000,000 unique items ready to ship! Find your Great Buy today!

Ships from: Lakewood, WA

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$0.99
(Save 94%)
Goodwill Industries of S.W.FL.
Seller since 2012

Feedback rating:

(65)

Condition: Very Good
Very Good

Ships from: North Fort Myers, FL

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$0.99
(Save 94%)
Avenue Book & Co.
Seller since 2009

Feedback rating:

(1248)

Condition: Acceptable
Hardcover Fair 0380974975 Item is in Used Condition.

Ships from: Fort Wayne, IN

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$0.99
(Save 94%)
BridgePointe Books
Seller since 2011

Feedback rating:

(55)

Condition: Good
1999 Hardcover Good

Ships from: Clarksville, IN

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$1.99
(Save 88%)
Yankee Clipper Books
Seller since 2009

Feedback rating:

(3924)

Condition: Good
Book shows a small amount of wear to cover and binding. Some pages show signs of use. Sail the Seas of Value

Ships from: Windsor, CT

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$1.99
(Save 88%)
One Planet Books
Seller since 2009

Feedback rating:

(2467)

Condition: Good
SOME HIGHLIGHTING AND PRICE STICKER

Ships from: Columbia, MO

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$1.99
(Save 88%)
thriftbooks-com
Seller since 2007

Feedback rating:

(5906)

Condition: Very Good
Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library ... book - will contain library markings. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. Read more Show Less

Ships from: Auburn, WA

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$1.99
(Save 88%)
Trinity City Books
Seller since 2009

Feedback rating:

(963)

Condition: Good
Dust jacket in good condition. Noticeably read/ used. Clean & intact. Average wear to cover, pages and/or spine. We ship from Dallas within 1 business day and we LOVE our ... customers! No hassle satisfaction guarantee! Thank you for your business. Read more Show Less

Ships from: Garland, TX

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
Page 1 of 3
Showing 1 – 10 of 26 (3 pages)
Close
Sort by

Overview

Which 462 words are so important that they've changed American history more than once? The Bill of Rights: the first ten amendments to the Constitution, the crucial document that spells out how the United States is to be governed.

Find out what the Bill of Rights is and how it affects your daily life in this fascinating look at the history, significance, and mysteries of these laws that protect the individual freedoms of everyone — even young people.

  • Why did early American founders (like James Madison, Congressman from Virginia) argue that ...
See more details below
Sending request ...

More About This Book

Overview

Which 462 words are so important that they've changed American history more than once? The Bill of Rights: the first ten amendments to the Constitution, the crucial document that spells out how the United States is to be governed.

Find out what the Bill of Rights is and how it affects your daily life in this fascinating look at the history, significance, and mysteries of these laws that protect the individual freedoms of everyone — even young people.

  • Why did early American founders (like James Madison, Congressman from Virginia) argue that individuals needed a Bill of Rights to protect them from government?
  • Why is freedom of speech so thrilling and so controversial?
  • What is religious intolerance, and when can it be fatal?
  • What does it really mean to take the Fifth?
  • And how does the Bill of Rights affect the rights of kids?

Packed with anecdotes and sidebars, case studies, and humorous illustrations, innovative author Kathleen Krull's introduction to the Bill of Rights brings a little understood topic vividly to life.

Examines the ten amendments to the United States Constitution that make up the Bill of Rights, explaining what the amendments mean, how they have been applied, and the rights they guarantee.

Editorial Reviews

Children's Literature
The 462 words encompassed by the first ten amendments of the American Constitution have a tremendous bearing upon the day to day life of each resident of this nation. However, the legal ramifications of the original language of James Madison and the many court cases which have followed can seem very mysterious to many people. The challenge of both explaining the importance of the Bill of Rights and establishing its relevance for young people lies at the center of this fascinating book. Each of the initial ten amendments to the Constitution is explained in a manner that makes it understandable to a student audience. Through the use of anecdotes, sidebars, and related political topics, the Bill of Rights is brought to life. Issues such as freedom of expression, religious tolerance, rights of privacy, trial by a jury of ones peers, and student rights are described in a manner which is both clear and concise. The use of humorous illustrations highlights and makes vivid the importance of the Bill of Rights for all Americans. This book is eminently valuable for government or social studies class at the secondary grade level.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780380974979
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
  • Publication date: 10/28/1999
  • Pages: 240
  • Sales rank: 354,300
  • Age range: 10 - 14 Years
  • Series: Avon Camelot Books Series
  • Product dimensions: 5.50 (w) x 8.25 (h) x 0.85 (d)

Meet the Author

Kathleen Krull is the author of Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World's Fastest Woman; A Kid's Guide to America's Bill of Rights; and Clip, Clip, Clip: Three Stories About Hair. She has been interested in aliens and UFOs for many years, and, although she has never actually seen an alien, Kathleen hasn't ruled out the possibility that she might. Kathleen Krull lives in San Diego, California.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

These ten very important promises are part of the ultimate laws of the land -- the guidelines all newer laws are supposed to respect.

Question: What does all this gobbledegook really mean?
Another Question: And what does the Bill of Rights mean to you?

Mysterious Things
And a third question: Why wasn't the Constitution enough?

You recall the Constitution. It's the very important document that spells out how the United States is to be governed.

Nine Things to Remember About the Constitution

1. It begins with "We the people."

2. It says that the majority of the people, through democratically elected representatives, govern the country.

3. It was drawn up in 1787 and went into effect two years later.

4. It sets up a balance between national (or federal) government and state governments.

5. It further separates powers by establishing three branches of national government: the executive (the president), the legislative (the Congress), and the judicial (the Supreme Court).

6. These branches of government check up on each other through a system of checks and balances, so no one branch gets too powerful.

7. No law can be passed that disagrees with the Constitution.

8. A lot of arguing went into the making of it.

9. A lot of arguing has gone on about it ever since.

One of the beauties of our Constitution is its flexibility: It was built to last. In fact, its meaning changes with the times. It can even mean totally opposite things at different points in history. For example, in an 1896 Supreme Court case called Plessy v. [short for versus] Ferguson, racial segregation was found constitutional, which means okay according to the Constitution. But as of 1954, in another case called Brown v. Board of Education, the Court decided exactly the opposite: Segregation was unconstitutional, and therefore it was outlawed.

But no sooner was the Constitution wrestled into words than the mysteries and complications began. All sorts of people criticized it for all sorts of reasons. The general public's sorest spot was the Constitution's lack of a Bill of Rights. Having branches of government check on each other was nifty, but it wasn't enough. Minorities needed protection from the majority. Individual people needed protection from the government.

These critics argued that a powerful central government without safeguards for people was dangerous. Why? Because historically governments try to expand their power at the expense of individual liberty. We take such liberty for granted now, but back then American people suffered a lot of abuse without it. One critic actually compared a constitution lacking a bill of rights to arsenic that would poison your body; another called government a runaway horse that would break people's necks. One particularly violent critic said that he would rather chop off his right hand than sign a constitution without a bill of rights.

As it turned out, only because of pledges to add to it was the Constitution even ratified (formally approved). Public opinion was loud and clear: The Constitution lacked a certain something.

The True Story of the Bill of Rights

The man of the hour in this story is James Madison. This congressman from Virginia had been an especially active participant in all the arguments about -- and creation of -- the Constitution.

Madison wrote the first draft of the Bill of Rights in 1789 and made it his business to get it accepted. He didn't invent the ideas in it -- the Bill of Rights represented the summing up of decades of revolutionary thought. Instead, Madison borrowed things here and there, from

  • various states' constitutions

  • sources such as England's Magna Carta -- a document, approved by King John in 1215, that protected people against royal abuses of power

  • his fellow Virginian George Mason, who had written Virginia's Declaration of Rights

Madison's life was not easy. Despite public support for a bill of rights, most politicians were either indifferent or else actively hostile to his pet project. It took him two and a half years of debates -- and, frankly, badgering his fellow congressmen -- before he got the necessary agreement from the majority of states.

The 100-Pound Giant

For his persistence with the Bill of Rights, James Madison will forever be known as its "father." But a number of things worked against him as he shepherded it through the political process. One was his own doubt. He thought there were probably more urgent issues around. Privately he was skeptical about its value and was even known to refer to it as "a nauseous project." But Madison did see the Bill of Rights as a way to increase his popularity with the public. He used it as a campaign issue in his close race against James Monroe for election to the first House of Representatives.

Another problem was Madison himself. He made a very poor first impression and had to work hard to overcome it. He was short and weighed just one hundred pounds. He was sickly, nervous, and shy, with such a weak voice that listeners often could not hear him. He delayed decisions as long as possible, so many people found him timid and indecisive.

Madison was smart. He had graduated from college in two years and then gone intopolitics. He also had a "secret weapon" in his wife, the energetic and enormously popular Dolley Madison. As an active delegate to the ConstitutionalConvention in 1787, James Madison was the only one who thought to take notes(thus providing our only record of how the Constitution came to be written). The wife of one of the other delegates called Madison a "gloomy stiff creature," but others were kinder. Thomas Jefferson said that he knew of no man in all of America and Europe with more integrity or with "an abler head" than Madison.

Madison won that election against Monroe, and more elections later. Eventually, in 1809, he became the fourth president of the United States. And if you ever come...

A Kids' Guide to America's Bill of Rights. Copyright © by Kathleen Krull. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Customer Reviews

Be the first to write a review
( 0 )

Rating Distribution

5 Star

(0)

4 Star

(0)

3 Star

(0)

2 Star

(0)

1 Star

(0)

Your Rating:

Review Guidelines
Add Recommendations
Your Name: Create a Pen Name or Leave Anonymously

Barnes & Noble.com Review Rules

Our reader reviews allow you to share your comments on titles you liked, or didn't, with others. By submitting an online review, you are representing to Barnes & Noble.com that all information contained in your review is original and accurate in all respects, and that the submission of such content by you and the posting of such content by Barnes & Noble.com does not and will not violate the rights of any third party. Please follow the rules below to help ensure that your review can be posted.

Reviews by Our Customers Under the Age of 13

We highly value and respect everyone's opinion concerning the titles we offer. However, we cannot allow persons under the age of 13 to have accounts at BN.com or to post customer reviews. Please see our Terms of Use for more details.

What to exclude from your review:

Please do not write about reviews, commentary, or information posted on the product page. If you see any errors in the information on the product page, please send us an email.

Reviews should not contain any of the following:

  • - HTML tags, profanity, obscenities, vulgarities, or comments that defame anyone
  • - Time-sensitive information such as tour dates, signings, lectures, etc.
  • - Single-word reviews. Other people will read your review to discover why you liked or didn't like the title. Be descriptive.
  • - Comments focusing on the author or that may ruin the ending for others
  • - Phone numbers, addresses, URLs
  • - Pricing and availability information or alternative ordering information
  • - Advertisements or commercial solicitation

Reminder:

  • - By submitting a review, you grant to Barnes & Noble.com and its sublicensees the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right and license to use the review in accordance with the Barnes & Noble.com Terms of Use.
  • - Barnes & Noble.com reserves the right not to post any review -- particularly those that do not follow the terms and conditions of these Rules. Barnes & Noble.com also reserves the right to remove any review at any time without notice.
  • - See Terms of Use for other conditions and disclaimers.
Search for Products You'd Like to Recommend

Recommend other products that relate to your review. Just search for them below and share!

Create a Pen Name

Your Pen Name is your unique identiy on BN.com. It will appear on the reviews you write and other website activities. Your Pen Name cannot be edited, changed or deleted once submitted.

Your Pen Name can be any combination of alphanumeric characters (plus - and _), and must be at least two characters long.

Continue Anonymously

We're sorry, but penname is already taken.

Please select one of the following:
Your Pen Name can be any combination of alphanumeric characters (plus - and _), and must be at least two characters long.

Continue Anonymously

penname is available!

By visiting the BN.com website or marking a purchase on BN.com, a User is deemed to have accepted the Terms of Use.

Continue Anonymously

Welcome, penname

You have successfully created your Pen Name. Start enjoying the benefits of the BN.com Community today.

If you find inappropriate content, please report it to Barnes & Noble
Why is this product inappropriate?
Comments (optional)
500 character limit