In this young readers edition of Jeopardy! champion Amy Schneider’s autobiography In the Form of a Question, Schneider takes us from her Jeopardy!-loving childhood in an Ohio Catholic family to her 40-game winning streak and becoming the show’s most successful woman contestant. Along the way, she offers insights on the many types of intelligence (spoiler: it’s not just about remembering facts), the importance of learning about both the world and oneself, and being proud of one’s identity without letting it define you.
Among other things, she discusses teachers (not always in the classroom) and friends who have impacted her life, strategies she’s used for dealing with bullies, living with ADD (attention deficit disorder) and depression, growing up with a mother who was dealing with alcoholism, how theater has played a transformational part in her life, her realization that she is trans, and the upsides and downsides of becoming a “Famous Celebrity Trans Person.” Throughout, her curiosity about the world and constant desire to learn shine through.
Not all of the book is about being trans, but Schneider devotes several chapters to her gradual realization, starting in childhood, that she didn’t feel like the boy everyone said she was. With plenty of anecdotes and the insight of hindsight, she shares her journey to self-awareness, coming out to friends and co-workers, choosing a new name, and her desire “to live my whole life simply as myself, including the vast majority of it when I wasn’t doing anything interesting or girly or exciting.” She explains, too, how her vocal dysphoria impacted her feelings about appearing on Jeopardy!, and how her girlfriend helped her be more confident.
Her conversational tone and gift for vivid examples make this an engaging read, bolstered with wry advice from her own experiences. When dealing with harassment or bullying, for example, she advises, “You can’t buy into their framing, to admit that there’s anything there for you to be embarrassed about…. And that’s my advice for how to survive middle school: keep everyone off balance and confused long enough for you to escape.” Elsewhere, she offers pithy observations like: “A great teacher doesn’t just teach their material—they advocate for it.”
Readers who are trans, otherwise queer, neurodivergent, or seen as “smart” (by whatever metrics cause people to say that), will likely find resonance here, but young readers of many identities should also find it an interesting and insightful read, offering wisdom on self-confidence, lifelong learning, and staying true to oneself.
