The Constitution Decoded, a readable, fun reference book

At one point in time, I knew most of what the government of the United States does. I know that when our nine or eleven-year-old asks me questions about this or that regarding the government it all sounds familiar, but nailing down the precise answer is challenging. For situations like this, you need The Constitution Decoded: A Guide to the Documents that Shapes our Nation. This is a reference book for The Constitution. It presents the preamble, all of the articles, amendments, The Declaration of Independence, and the Articles of the Confederation. It has these documents in their entirety, and on the page opposite, it explains it in simple English.

The Constitution Decoded is written at a level that’s on par for middle school audiences. It’s not snarky or opinioned and it doesn’t speak down to older readers. Older readers can mean anybody north of 10. I read the book and am a couple of decades north of my first one and found the book to be informative and fun to read.

It is important to point that out because some people, regardless of their age might feel guilty for not knowing enough about their government. For citizens of the United States, ours is completely based on everything that’s in this book. It’s easy to slam politics and politicians for being sleazy. They’re at the beck and call of corporate interests or feel good propositions that talk big but help nobody. I dare say that most people think that of most people in government; it just depends on how often or when you ask the question as to who is to blame for any inefficiencies that are currently happening.

What The Constitution Decoded gets right is the fact that this is a very thorough document. It foresaw problems and tried its best to circumvent them. Take for instance the House of Representatives and the Congress. The latter was designed to have delegates in there who’d be up for re-election every six years. This way they’d be able to have consistency, knowledge, and wherewithal to help the members of the House of Representatives who are up for re-election every two years. In theory, this is a great system because one is switching out more often, that way they can be in touch with their people back home more often. The other body would know the machinations of government and be able to make everything work smoother.

This book does an excellent job of looking at the original document and making it relevant to today’s readers. Every page I read there was something new that I learned or a bit of trivia that I had forgotten. There are illustrations on most pages that help educate through their illustrations. This is like just a little sugar to help the medicine go down. At its heart, this is a reference book. It’s a book that some might read for fun, but most will certainly use it for school papers or to answer questions from their children.

The Constitution Decoded: A Guide to the Document that Shapes our Nation is by Katie Kennedy with illustrations by Ben Kirchner and on Workman Publishing.  

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