Reviewed by Karen Pirnot for Readers' Favorite

The Age of Amy: The Thumper Amendment by Bruce Edwards is a sometimes tongue-in-cheek story about teenagers getting the right to vote and how that might impact on future elections. Teenager Amy started her political activism as a companion to Alan, a hippie individual who has been robbed of various invention patents and is now attempting to expose potential voters to government waste and fraud. Alan's opponent is a wealthy businessman who is accompanied by his son Peter, who bullied Amy when she was in elementary school. The book somewhat resembles a group of short stories with a connecting theme of winning a race. Various political topics are covered, such as how presidents may have thought during the war, scientific cloning, government secrets, and how the government keeps sending voters down the rabbit hole as a technique of distracting confusion.

The author has a wonderful wit and a good grasp of historical issues which have both confused and angered American voters. Some of the references might be beyond the scope of knowledge of the young adult reader, but will certainly be noticed by the more mature reader. The essential message of the book is meanness and how it surfaces in various stages. Whether meanness is displayed in race relations, international venues, or strong versus weak, it is just plain wrong. The Age of Amy does a highly credible job of displaying the incredible cost of meanness. A young adult reader would do well to consider this book so as to recognize the many forms of this type of human disease.