Kids Are Americans Too,   ISBN:9780060846770

Customer Rating: 

Thank goodness I found this book at Goodwill and paid only a dollar; I will be re-donating it shortly. I'm very interested in our founding documents and how to teach children about them, which is why I picked up the book. I read it in about an hour, as the book's 160 pages with large print aren't exactly content heavy. No, this book falls under the "fluff" category.

O'Reilly is condescending, glosses over the cases he uses as examples (and doesn't relate the cases to particular rights or amendments), and has no references to getting more info about subjects or cases mentioned (except to direct readers to HIS website.) The end of the book is sorely missing what one would expect from this genre: there is no index, no recommending reading, and no works cited. The book doesn't even list the Bill of Rights specifically until the very end!

If you want a book that explains the Bill of Rights to children, buy "A Kids' Guide to America's Bill of Rights: Curfews, Censorship, and the 100-Pound Giant" by Kathleen Krull. It presents the Bill of Rights at the very beginning, very specifically talks about what each amendment means, and discusses related court cases as they pertain to each amendment. Krull's book additionally doesn't dumb down the message, nor does she talk down to children as if they were naughty morons, as O'Reilly does. Krull's book shines where O'Reilly's book fails miserably.

Customer Rating: 

I read this book in one sitting (on the toilet). When Mr. O'Reilly isn't playing with falafels and loofahs and harassing women over the phone or getting his ass kicked by Snoop Dogg, he writes terrible books. In this book, which is catered to people who are aged nine to twelve (unlike his other books which are for people whose IQ are nine to twelve) Mr. O'Reilly tells kids that they are Americans too, particularly if they were born in this fine land. As if to emphasize the importance of his message, the word "too" is ingeniously written in red and sort of slanted. This shows that Mr. O'Reilly is hip and that kids can trust him. He then goes on the rail against liberals and the ACLU (which undoubtedly is on every nine to twelve year old's mind) and how gay people are bad. He also says that Wiccans are evil because they aren't Catholic.

Customer Rating: 

That being said, I did read the whole book. My ex is an O'Riley-bot and got my 9 yr old sons both books. I think it's important to see what's in it. I figured, it can't all be bad.
And it wasn't all bad. There's a good simply put view of what the supreme court does in there. And by showcasing court battles involving kids, he makes it more appealing and more relevant to them.
His points about justice taking time and often being unclear are good also.
HOWEVER. The book IS "thin" as someone else said. A real light weight tome in size, spacing and contact. The pop culture references will ensure it has a short shelf life, enabling O'Riley to make more money when he 'updates' the book later.

He tries very hard to look hip. Very hard. Remember when you were a kid watching something on TV with the rents and a sex scene came up? And you felt embarassed to be watching it in front of them? That's how I felt reading most of this book. Discomfort. O'Riley writing rap lyrics??!! Quizzes with stupid answers??!! O'Riley dressed as a 'Supreme" (his word)??!!

He wishes. And he does come off sounding pompous in his pretend conversations with the reader.

His sly comments putting down the ACLU were uncool also.

Bottom line...not the best book. The important stuff here can be learned elsewhere, without the garbage.

And now I must go read "The O'Riley Factor for Kids." Pity me my lot, my friends, pity me.

Customer Rating: 

I thought the court order was clear enough?

The "Are you over 13?" question at the top of the reviews has an extra special place here.

Customer Rating: 

I really liked this book. I liked it a lot, I laughed a lot and found many of the stories amusing. However, as I read it even I (who claims to be knowledgeable of pop culture) found many of the references confusing.

As a clear and simple way to explain a kids rights this book fails in that it asks kids to know way to more about pop culture than me.

Also, the description here on Amazon says 9-12 and I have to disagree with that. There are -not fully inappropriate- comments about sexually situations that I feel 9-12 year olds may not be ready to think about and nor should they. They are in the time between childhood and adolescents and I feel as a dad of a 10-year-old girl who thinks deeply about the fate of the world... she may not be ready to add some of the stories in this book to her worries.

I was also hoping this book to be one I could hand my kid after reading it, but if/when I give it to her I feel I'll be reading it right along with her for no other reason than to explain all the pop culture references. You should expect the child reading this book to come to you often for further explanations.

Alas, this book was not written to last through the ages and I feel that is a sad mistake.

On a positive note though, it is well balanced and discusses things fairly, even with O'Reilly's regular "charm". Even Leftist might enjoy this book and find it educational for their politically inspired kids.