Interview with Barbara Dee, Author of Tear This Down
Welcome to Smack Dab, Barbara!Please tell us a bit about Tear This Down.
TEARTHIS DOWN is about an iconoclastic seventh grader named Freya who learns thatBenjamin Wellstone, her town’s most famous historical figure, didn’t believewomen should be allowed to vote. With the help of a new friend and the guidanceof a cool librarian, Freya starts a campaign to tear down his statue in thetown square, and to replace it with a statue of Octavia Padgett, an overlookedwoman suffragist.
How did you decide on tackling thesubject of a problematic historical figure? Did you have any moments ofquestioning whether to address the issue? This story is such a powerful one–Iwas moved by the arc of Freya moving from wanting to tear down the statue ofBenjamin Wellstone's statue to creating something new alongside it. Why did youchoose to have her activism take this constructive turn?
Ilive in a small town that’s all about Horace Greeley, a famous 19thcentury editor and abolitionist—who, I recently discovered, didn’t believewomen should be allowed to vote. We have a big statue of him that’s the firstthing you see when you get off the highway, and every time I pass it, I think: This guy didn’t believe I should have avoice.
Istarted thinking about how a middle schooler would process thisinformation—especially if that middle schooler were a kid who challenged genderexpectations, I thought about the various ways her protest might face obstaclesin her community, and how she could find some sort of success. For me, the mostimportant element of a middle grade novel is authenticity, so I didn’t want tooverstate what a middle school activist could achieve. Adjusting her campaignfrom tearing down to creating made her eventual success morepositive and inclusive, as well as more realistic.
I appreciated how the bookexplores different kinds of "women's work" - from quilting tohousekeeping to protest. What made you want to examine these intersections?
Likemany, I’ve been thinking about women’s rights a lot lately. Today, many of theprofessions historically associated with women—teachers, librarians, healthcareworkers—are even under attack. I wanted to suggest that women’s work, in allits many forms, deserves to be valued and respected. Oh yes—and compensatedfairly too!
I’m a crocheter and knitter when Iget a chance–and remember the discussions around knitting and protest duringthe Women’s March in ‘16. Quilting plays a central role in the story. What madeyou choose this particular art form as a means of protest and remembrance?
It’sa form of art that some people mistakenly assume to be “women’s work,” good forlittle more than decorative bedspreads. Of course, the AIDS quilt showed theworld that quilting can be a form of social protest as well as a visualexpression of community. One of the things I love about protest quilts is howthey show that seemingly random, disparate “scraps”—bits of cloth that youmight assume were disposable-- can be sewn together to make a powerfulstatement.
Thecharacter of Octavia Padgett bridges multiple worlds–from suffragist to nannyto clinic founder. What inspired her complex journey?
Ididn’t want to give readers the impression that suffragists like OctaviaPadgett succeeded in getting the 19th Amendment passed (grantingwomen the right to vote)--and poof, women had full equality in this country. Sowhile Octavia Padgett was a brilliant, ambitious, scientifically inclined youngwoman, she still couldn’t get accepted to any medical school. Even after beingable to vote, her career options remained limited—so she became a nanny.Eventually, she used both her scientific knowledge and her nurturing skills toopen a small women’s health clinic.
Bythe way, it was important to me not to suggest that being a nanny was somehowless noble than being a midwife—so Freya does have a moment when she realizesthat all of Octavia’s work mattered,and had a strong impact on others.
Freya struggles with being takenseriously as a young activist. What message did you want to convey about youthvoices in social movements?
Kidscan be powerful activists—but it’s hard for them to effect change if they workentirely on their own. At the beginning of TearThis Down, Freya is a lone wolf,judgmental of her peers. She becomes a more effective advocate as she learns toinclude others in her campaign and to respect their voices.
Ihope kid activists take away two messages from Tear This Down. First, if you’re going to have an impact, you needto find your community. And second, adjusting your goals and expectationsdoesn’t have to mean compromising your values.
The book shows differentapproaches to creating change–from protest signs to coalition building. Why wasit important to show these various methods?
Especiallythese days, many kids feel powerless. I wanted to show them that there are allsorts of different ways to make their voices heard. Some ways will work betterthan others, depending on the circumstances. As Freya discovers, it’s good tobe creative, and to be open to new ideas.
One of the book’s greateststrengths is the way in which it deals with erasure in several ways throughoutthe novel. The character of Isabella represents living history fading away, andwe have Freya’s own struggle with whether or not to erase Benjamin Wellstonefrom modern memory. What drove you to include all these storylines?
Sometimeselevating one person’s story means erasing someone else’s. I wanted to showthat that if we’re going to truly understand our history, we need to preserveother stories and memories, other versions of events, even if they contradictthe pretty picture we have of the people we call “heroes.” Also, we need to digdeeper to properly recognize heroes who, like Octavia Padgett, may be unfairlyoverlooked.
What’s next?
Mynext book, Nothing to See Here, isabout four eighth graders (two boys and two girls) who post fake gossip onlineto show their classmates how unsubstantiated rumors spread on social media. Idon’t have a pub date yet, but I expect this book to be out in early 2026.
Where can we find you?
