The Activist is the fourth book in the Theodore Boone series by John Grisham. It continues the story of young Theo as he works on figuring out local politics. The state government wishes to build a bypass around Strattenburg to save time for local shipping. However, to do so they must imminent domain a surprisingly large portion of the countryside just outside town. A close friend of Theo’s is facing his family losing their extensive family farm in the process. Discovering a large resistance to the bypass Theo and his friends work on finding ways to help push back against the bypass. Things turn dicey though when Theo and his friends are exploring his friend’s family farm and they run into the state surveyors on the farm, without permission to be there. When they refuse to leave Judge goes to growl at them and it turns violent. This ultimately makes Theo and his friends pledge to stop the bypass any way they can.
I find myself intrigued the further I get into this series as it continues to stray further and further from what I expected which was a typical children’s mystery series. This story actually moves the furthest from that as it focuses on Theo and his friends getting involved in political activism even if only on a small scale. The one thing that remains the same is the continued focus on utilizing knowledge of the law to determine the best way to potentially do things. I have to admit that is a pretty unique factor for a children’s series so it creates some interesting elements and layers to the story. In doing so the story seems to be sticking pretty close to the original premise of a kid who wants to be a lawyer one day. The book also retains the sense of adventure that will help draw kids and younger readers in the process. The plot of the story is fairly simple but the rest of the series is the same way which is only fitting considering the intended age range of the readers. In terms of the characters though we are seeing something different with this book. The previous books had Theo being mostly reactive in many ways and often only responding to events. I feel like in this book Theo was more proactive about what he was doing even if he was still partly reactive in some ways. It wasn’t a big change but it did create a slightly different feel for the character as it helps show how Theo is continuing to grow as a person. Overall a pretty good addition to a pretty decent series so I am happy giving it four out of five stars.
This book is a pretty good kids book and has a decent sense of adventure to it so if it sounds appealing than I suggest you consider trying it, especially if you are a younger reader. I am unsure how well it would appeal to older readers considering the intended age range but you are still welcome to try it anyway. With the main character being thirteen and the general feel and content of the series I would recommend this series primarily for readers in the ten to fourteen age range though obviously readers older than that can still read it if they choose. There is little content in this book that would be concerning but it does deal with animal cruelty with what happens to Judge so readers may need to be prepared for that. It is still a good book though so if you decide to try you are welcome to share your thoughts about it in the comments.