Named a 2014 BEA Comic Buzz Book by School Library Journal and Comic Book Resources
Chosen as one of the Top Books of 2014 by GeekDad
Nominated as a Great Graphic Novel for Teens by the Young Adult Library Services Association
This collection of stories about early New England will appeal to kids of all ages. These fascinating stories concern both well-known and little-known New Englanders, including settlers, slaves and Native Americans. We meet everyone from Anne Hutchinson to Yankee whalers. These engaging tales are beautifully illustrated and grounded in the latest scholarship. Highly recommended for kids of all ages! — Dr. Frank Cogliano, Professor of American History, University of Edinburgh
Jason Rodriguez has edited a visually attractive book that will encourage young readers to acquire a more meaningful understanding of Colonial America's history by helping make the stories come alive.
— Julian L. Lapides, past president, Baltimore Heritage, Inc.
This book is smart, surprising, fun and educational. Each story has its own visual and verbal style but all will delight, intrigue, and enlighten both novice and expert alike. — James David Moran, Director of Outreach, American Antiquarian Society
Rodriguez manages a good balance throughout – from wordless tales to text-heavy historical factoids. From almost comic lighthearted illustrations to woodblock type carvings and beautiful pastel watercolors [...] The stories are interesting enough to read for enjoyment value; but of course, the historical value cannot be understated. Since these are stories that rarely have been told outside of academic circles, there isn’t any repetition of typical historical discussions about the founding of the colonies. Each story should be quite new to the reader. As well, the length of the stories make this a great book to use as a reading assignment. —Online Eccentric Librarian blog
A beautiful anthology of colonial historical vignettes [...] the book is best suited for middle graders to high school and the book's website is making educator guides for the stories. However, the material is perfectly satisfying to the adult reader and the art is varied and showcases a variety of styles. I found it quite impressive and highly readable. —It's All Comics To Me blog
I was blown away. The stories are presented in varying styles, but always with the emphasis on the storytelling. Each story was crafted out of a surprising amount of information, but never felt, forgive the term, “educational.” Sure, I learned a lot from reading the book, but it was presented in such an aesthetically pleasing way that it didn’t feel like I was being tricked into learning, the way so many educational comics do. — Brian Salvatore, Multiversity Comics
In the first of three proposed anthologies, beautifully produced comics reveal the rich, often overlooked
lives of Native Americans, women, and servants in colonial New England. Each of the two dozen
selections is based on primary sources, and most pieces feature individuals whose names can be found
fairly readily elsewhere. Unlike those other resources, however, the selections in this anthology take the
vantage point of more marginalized groups, bringing attention to the people history has tended to view as
mere props to stories featuring white male upper-class settlers. —Booklist
Gr 5 Up–A collection of illustrated stories covering lesser known topics in American colonial history. The first in a series of comics based on underrepresented stories of the time period, the work uses primary and secondary sources, and is told in a way that makes the information accessible to students. All of the entries contain a brief introduction that assumes a basic amount of historical knowledge before presenting the story. Each vignette is short enough to keep the interest of most readers. All of the narratives are excellent, concise, and easy to follow. VERDICT This may find a place in collections where graphic histories and other nonfiction comics are popular. –Suanne B. Roush, formerly at Osceola High School, Seminole, FL for School Library Journal
How do we get kids these days interested in history? One way to do that is through comics like this collection does [...] Each story is fairly short, so if they do not like one story they can quickly move onto the next. Also by being brief it can cover a lot of ground, time wise, in a short amount of space. This book is perfect for those students, and educators, who are in middle school. —Portland Book Review
