Interview with Barbara Dee, Author of Tear This Down
Welcome to Smack Dab, Barbara! Please tell us a bit about Tear This Down.
TEAR THIS DOWN is about an iconoclastic seventh grader named Freya who learns that Benjamin Wellstone, her town’s most famous historical figure, didn’t believe women should be allowed to vote. With the help of a new friend and the guidance of a cool librarian, Freya starts a campaign to tear down his statue in the town square, and to replace it with a statue of Octavia Padgett, an overlooked woman suffragist.
How did you decide on tackling the subject of a problematic historical figure? Did you have any moments of questioning whether to address the issue? This story is such a powerful one–I was moved by the arc of Freya moving from wanting to tear down the statue of Benjamin Wellstone's statue to creating something new alongside it. Why did you choose to have her activism take this constructive turn?
I live in a small town that’s all about Horace Greeley, a famous 19th century editor and abolitionist—who, I recently discovered, didn’t believe women should be allowed to vote. We have a big statue of him that’s the first thing you see when you get off the highway, and every time I pass it, I think: This guy didn’t believe I should have a voice.
I started thinking about how a middle schooler would process this information—especially if that middle schooler were a kid who challenged gender expectations, I thought about the various ways her protest might face obstacles in her community, and how she could find some sort of success. For me, the most important element of a middle grade novel is authenticity, so I didn’t want to overstate what a middle school activist could achieve. Adjusting her campaign from tearing down to creating made her eventual success more positive and inclusive, as well as more realistic.
I appreciated how the book explores different kinds of "women's work" - from quilting to housekeeping to protest. What made you want to examine these intersections?
Like many, I’ve been thinking about women’s rights a lot lately. Today, many of the professions historically associated with women—teachers, librarians, healthcare workers—are even under attack. I wanted to suggest that women’s work, in all its many forms, deserves to be valued and respected. Oh yes—and compensated fairly too!
I’m a crocheter and knitter when I get a chance–and remember the discussions around knitting and protest during the Women’s March in ‘16. Quilting plays a central role in the story. What made you choose this particular art form as a means of protest and remembrance?
It’s a form of art that some people mistakenly assume to be “women’s work,” good for little more than decorative bedspreads. Of course, the AIDS quilt showed the world that quilting can be a form of social protest as well as a visual expression of community. One of the things I love about protest quilts is how they show that seemingly random, disparate “scraps”—bits of cloth that you might assume were disposable-- can be sewn together to make a powerful statement.
The character of Octavia Padgett bridges multiple worlds–from suffragist to nanny to clinic founder. What inspired her complex journey?
I didn’t want to give readers the impression that suffragists like Octavia Padgett succeeded in getting the 19th Amendment passed (granting women the right to vote)--and poof, women had full equality in this country. So while Octavia Padgett was a brilliant, ambitious, scientifically inclined young woman, she still couldn’t get accepted to any medical school. Even after being able to vote, her career options remained limited—so she became a nanny. Eventually, she used both her scientific knowledge and her nurturing skills to open a small women’s health clinic.
By the way, it was important to me not to suggest that being a nanny was somehow less noble than being a midwife—so Freya does have a moment when she realizes that all of Octavia’s work mattered, and had a strong impact on others.
Freya struggles with being taken seriously as a young activist. What message did you want to convey about youth voices in social movements?
Kids can be powerful activists—but it’s hard for them to effect change if they work entirely on their own. At the beginning of Tear This Down, Freya is a lone wolf, judgmental of her peers. She becomes a more effective advocate as she learns to include others in her campaign and to respect their voices.
I hope kid activists take away two messages from Tear This Down. First, if you’re going to have an impact, you need to find your community. And second, adjusting your goals and expectations doesn’t have to mean compromising your values.
The book shows different approaches to creating change–from protest signs to coalition building. Why was it important to show these various methods?
Especially these days, many kids feel powerless. I wanted to show them that there are all sorts of different ways to make their voices heard. Some ways will work better than others, depending on the circumstances. As Freya discovers, it’s good to be creative, and to be open to new ideas.
One of the book’s greatest strengths is the way in which it deals with erasure in several ways throughout the novel. The character of Isabella represents living history fading away, and we have Freya’s own struggle with whether or not to erase Benjamin Wellstone from modern memory. What drove you to include all these storylines?
Sometimes elevating one person’s story means erasing someone else’s. I wanted to show that that if we’re going to truly understand our history, we need to preserve other stories and memories, other versions of events, even if they contradict the pretty picture we have of the people we call “heroes.” Also, we need to dig deeper to properly recognize heroes who, like Octavia Padgett, may be unfairly overlooked.
What’s next?
My next book, Nothing to See Here, is about four eighth graders (two boys and two girls) who post fake gossip online to show their classmates how unsubstantiated rumors spread on social media. I don’t have a pub date yet, but I expect this book to be out in early 2026.
Where can we find you?
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