The Silence of Our Friends

by Mark Long, Jim Demonakos, Nate Powell (Illustrator)

Overview

A New York Times-bestselling graphic novel based on the true story of two families—one white and one black—who find common ground as the civil rights struggle heats up in Texas.

This semi-autobiographical tale is set in 1967. A white family from a notoriously racist neighborhood in the suburbs and a black family from its poorest ward cross Houston's color line, overcoming humiliation, degradation, and violence to win the freedom of five black college students unjustly charged with the murder of a policeman.

The Silence of Our Friends follows events through the point of view of young Mark Long, whose father is a reporter covering the story. Semi-fictionalized, this story has its roots solidly in very real events. With art from the brilliant Nate Powell (Swallow Me Whole) bringing the tale to heart-wrenching life, The Silence of Our Friends is a new and important entry in the body of civil rights literature.

Praise for The Silence of Our Friends:

"[A]n engrossing narrative about race in America, while honestly dealing with a host of other real-world issues, including familial relationships, friendship, dependency, "other"-ness, and perhaps most importantly, the search for common ground." —Publishers Weekly

"A moving evocation of a tipping point in our country's regrettable history of race relations, Long and Demonakos's story flows perfectly in Eisner and Ignatz Award winner Powell's graceful and vivid yet unpretty black-and-gray wash." —Library Journal

"[C]onvincingly depicts the systemic racism, blatant and subtle, that suffused and corroded everything during [the] period…[Popwell's] imagery amplifies the effects of the book's multiple perspectives—the overwhelmed kid's-eye view of uneasy family dynamics and open Texas spaces, the hyperkinetic chaos on campus, the cropped literalism of TV newscasts." —The New York Times

"Powell uses a mixture of large and small panels along with a variety of frame compositions and points of view to give the book a cinematic realism. From this intimate vantage point, racist incidents are shockingly ugly, while happy domestic moments—as when the kids from both families belt out "Soul Man"—are unself-consciously beautiful. The youthful protagonist and graphic-novel format will plunge readers into a time that can seem very distant. Ideal as a class read, absorbing for solo readers." —School Library Journal

"Covering a time period of societal unrest from Viet Nam to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Silence uses realistic black-and-white illustrations to convey a subject that is not black and white." —VOYA

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781596436183
Publisher:	First Second
Publication date:	01/17/2012
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.52(h) x 0.63(d)
Age Range:	11 - 18 Years

About the Author

Mark Long is a video game designer and producer living in Seattle. The Silence of Our Friends is based on Long's childhood experiences with the civil rights movement in suburban Houston, Texas.

Jim Demonakos founded Seattle's annual Emerald City Comicon, as well as The Comic Stop chain of retail stores. He has written, edited, and promoted a variety of books for different publishers throughout his career. He lives in the Seattle area.

Nate Powell is an Arkansas native and Eisner Award-winning cartoonist whose works include Swallow Me Whole (an LA Times Book Prize finalist), Any Empire, and (with co-authors Congressman John Lewis and Andrew Aydin) the March trilogy, the final volume of which won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Powell is the first cartoonist to receive this honor. He lives in Bloomington, Indiana.

Reading Group Guide

For Discussion:

The Silence of Our Friends is a graphic novel, a story told in words and pictures. How do you think this story would be told differently if it was a novel, with only words?

How would it be different if it was a movie, with just pictures?

This book is based on a true story; the character of Mark is based on one of the authors, Mark Long. How do you think you would feel about the events that occur in this book if you were in his place?

The Silence of Our Friends is a black and white book. How would the experience of the book be different if this book was in color?

This book is set in the sixties. What was your hometown like in the sixties? Was there a similar amount of racial tension to Houston? Explain why things in your hometown were similar or different.

The characters in this book live in the shadow of the Vietnam War. What would it be like to think that you'll grow up to die in Vietnam like Mark does?

Jack's problems at work have to do with his boss and the company owner having very different ideas of how he should be handling his job. What would you do in this situation?

What do you think the children in this book will grow up to be?

This book contains a great deal of imitative play – kids pretending to be reporters,

inheriting their parents' ideas, etc. What does this say about the influences in a kids life? Do you think this is accurate?

One of the reasons to make a book about a less well-known historical event is to promote attention and awareness about it. What other less-known historical events do

you think should become books?

Editorial Reviews

From the opening scene, this graphic novel written by Long and Demonakos is compelling. Set in Houston in 1968, it tells the story of two families—one black and one white—who are witness to and participants in events that shaped the South in the late 1960s. The novel is a loosely autobiographical account of the Long family, who moved from San Antonio to Houston in 1966, and experienced the protests, violence, and struggle for freedom that characterized the Third and Fifth Wards. Long’s father had moved to Houston to take a job as a local television reporter, and there he met Larry Thomas, the editor of an antipoverty weekly. This graphic novel presents an engrossing narrative about race in America, while honestly dealing with a host of other real-world issues, including familial relationships, friendship, dependency, “other”-ness, and perhaps most importantly, the search for common ground. Powell—an award-winning cartoonist in his own right for Swallow Me Whole—tells a story in pictures that is just as compelling as what Long and Demonakos tell in words. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

In the tradition of Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis (Pantheon, 2003) and Art Speiglman's Maus (Pantheon, 1993/VOYA June 1992), Long's graphic novel is a fictionalized account about living in Houston in 1968. His family moved to Houston from San Antonio due to his father's job as a television reporter. Because Jack Long covered the barrio in San Antonio, he gets labeled as the "race reporter" and is sent to cover the demonstrations on the Texas Southern University campus. They live in a very racist neighborhood, where the Klan attaches fliers to the doorknobs. One of the spokespeople of the TSU demonstration is a black professor, Larry Thompson, who lives in one of the poorest wards across the "color line." Thompson's wife and neighbors are as militantly racist as Jack Long's neighbors, but the two men realize that the only way things are going to change is to come to a common understanding and communication. This begins with Long and his wife reaching out to Thompson's family with an invitation to their house. Covering a time period of societal unrest from Viet Nam to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Silence uses realistic black-and-white illustrations to convey a subject that is not black and white. The novel could be useful in a history or sociology course for advanced students. The language, although accurate to the time, is a powder keg and will create more problems than it is probably worth. It should, even with that potential, be in the collection. Reviewer: Suanne Roush

VOYA - Suanne Roush

Local TV reporting was not a glam gig in the late 1960s, especially when it covers racial ferment in the South. Long grew up in a KKK-leaning white Texas neighborhood, and his family walked a dangerous path in befriending an African American couple involved in the civil rights movement. In this lightly fictionalized account, Long's reporter father overcomes hesitation and supervisor prejudice to provide testimony that helped free five students accused of killing a white policeman during a sit-in at Texas Southern University. The sit-in was intended to protest harassment by hostile locals who had injured a black child while driving dangerously and yelling insults along the campus main drag. The title derives from a Martin Luther King quote: "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends." VERDICT A moving evocation of a tipping point in our country's regrettable history of race relations, Long and Demonakos's story flows perfectly in Eisner and Ignatz Award winner Powell's (Swallow Me Whole) graceful and vivid yet unpretty black-and-gray wash. A concise time line would have been helpful as back matter. Great for history classes and interested readers, teen through adult.—M.C.

Library Journal

Gr 6 Up—The year 1968 was a tense time to be growing up in Houston. Mark Long, the white protagonist of this gripping graphic novel-like Mark Long, the author—is the son of the local TV station's "race reporter." The more contact his dad has with civil rights protesters and law enforcement, the more motivated he becomes to speak up against racism at work and at home. Bigotry, police brutality, and civilian violence, as well as nonviolent marches and sit-ins, are depicted from the point of view of young Mark, his father, and a black activist and his family who become acquainted with the Longs. Well-chosen scenes—among them a prison rodeo and a black church service—move the story along while illuminating it from many angles. Dialogue is so natural as to be completely unobtrusive. Powell uses a mixture of large and small panels along with a variety of frame compositions and points of view to give the book a cinematic realism. From this intimate vantage point, racist incidents are shockingly ugly, while happy domestic moments—as when the kids from both families belt out "Soul Man"—are unself-consciously beautiful. The youthful protagonist and graphic-novel format will plunge readers into a time that can seem very distant. Ideal as a class read, absorbing for solo readers.—Paula Willey, Baltimore County Public Library, Towson, MD

School Library Journal

…convincingly depicts the systemic racism, blatant and subtle, that suffused and corroded everything during [the] period…[Popwell's] imagery amplifies the effects of the book's multiple perspectives—the overwhelmed kid's-eye view of uneasy family dynamics and open Texas spaces, the hyperkinetic chaos on campus, the cropped literalism of TV newscasts.
—The New York Times

Douglas Wolk

"…convincingly depicts the systemic racism, blatant and subtle, that suffused and corroded everything during [the] period…[Popwell's] imagery amplifies the effects of the book's multiple perspectives—the overwhelmed kid's-eye view of uneasy family dynamics and open Texas spaces, the hyperkinetic chaos on campus, the cropped literalism of TV newscasts." —The New York Times

"...an engrossing narrative about race in America, while honestly dealing with a host of other real-world issues, including familial relationships, friendship, dependency, "other"-ness, and perhaps most importantly, the search for common ground." —Publishers Weekly

"A moving evocation of a tipping point in our country's regrettable history of race relations, Long and Demonakos's story flows perfectly in Eisner and Ignatz Award winner Powell's graceful and vivid yet unpretty black-and-gray wash." —School Library Journal

"Long and Demonakos show the volatile racial tension in thoughtfully selected vignettes...The words of Martin Luther King Jr. (including the title quotation), segregationist George Wallace, and spirituals adopted by the civil rights movement weave through the narrative like refrains. Nate Powell’s nuanced art eloquently captures moments both poignant and lighthearted." —The Horn Book

From the Publisher