Whack Job by Rachel McCarthy James
First line: Early on in the process of writing my first book about axe murder, I took a job working in an after-school program.
Summary: Over the millennia the axe has changed. It is an important tool used in hunting, building and creating other tools. Along with it being a tool of survival, it became a tool of murder too. As time progressed the types and style of axe has evolved with human’s needs. Told by moving through history from prehistoric to the modern era, we are shown different types of axes and how these axes played a part in history and true crime. Ranging from the executions of Henry VIII to the trial of Lizzie Borden, the author brings the role of axes to the reader in a completely new way.
My Thoughts: I remember seeing this book a year ago when we first purchased it and find it very intriguing. I knew I wanted to read it someday but until I picked it up again recently, I had completely forgotten about it. In May 2026, Whack Job was recognized as a Kansas Notable Book. This award brought the book back to my attention and I decided it was a great time to give it a go.
I found the layout and structure of the book to be a creative way to explore this microhistory. Each chapter begins with a different historical type of axe and explaining its uses at the time in question. These sections are then followed by a historical event in which this type of axe may have been used.
In the first chapter, we find a stone axe and what appears to be a murder of a prehistoric human. Using cranial reconstruction the scientists were able to see that a sharp blow to the head was the cause of death and could have come from one of these stone axes. Science is so remarkable in what it can tell us. As we progress through time, events become more documented and well known but no less interesting.
I found this book to be completely fascinating and I wanted to read “just one more chapter” each night. For fans of true crime and microhistories, this is the perfect addition to your TBR list.
There are many tools at the library that are helpful to parents. Working in circulation, we get many parents who ask for book suggestions for their children based on an AR (Accelerated Reader) or Lexile level. These numbers can be confusing if you do not know what you are looking for. Our youth services librarians have worked hard to fix this problem.
Chelsea recently updated our Lexile level book lists along with our reader’s advisory books in the children’s department. All the books on the lists are items that we have in our collection. Each of the levels are broken down into 100 point increments. She has even placed the AR level conversions on the lists to help find books for that category as well. Lexile levels can be searched on our catalog as well. Many books have them as part of their record.