$17.99 Hardcover
$11.99 Paperback TOON GRAPHIC
INTEREST LEVEL: Age 8+ READING LEVEL: Grades 3+ AUTHOR: NOAH VAN SCIVER ADDITIONAL STORIES AND ART: MARLENA MYLES INTRODUCTION: LEE FRANCIS IV AFTERWORD: DEONDRE SMILES LANGUAGES: English PAGES: 48 DIMENSIONS: 7.75" x 10" RELEASE DATE: August 08, 2023 Simultaneous release: HARDCOVER ISBN: 9781662665226 | $17.99 PAPERBACK ISBN: 9781662665233 | $11.99 |
Bunyan featured in the New York Times!
"Van Sciver is a master of subtle mockery." – the New York Times, Children's Book Feature
About the BookDid you know that a mainstay of American folk culture was in fact created as an advertising ploy?
Few people realize that Paul Bunyan, the legendary lumberjack, and his blue ox are the product of corporate marketing by a highly industrialized commercial enterprise. Cartoonist NOAH VAN SCIVER shows us the myth's creation as real life marketing man extraordinaire W.B. Laughead spins ever more wondrous tall tales. Van Sciver's story is bracketed by rich contributions from contemporary Native artists and storytellers with a very different connection to the land that the Bunyan myths often conceal. Readers will see how a lumberjack hero, a quintessential American fantasy, captures the imagination but also serves to paper over the seizure of homeland from the First Peoples and the laying bare of America's northern forests. A tall tale with deep roots . . . in profit-making! |
Book Buzz★ A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection ★
★ A California Reading Association Eureka! Honor Award Winner ★ ★ A Little Mavericks Graphic Novel Reading List Selection ★ ★★★ "Readers will come away ready to question what other falsehoods they’ve been fed about the history of marginalized people . . . An accessible and important reminder of how easily the truth can be coopted. "– Kirkus Reviews STARRED REVIEW "Enlightening. . . . [A] frank and accessible depiction of the environmental and economic impact of boom-bust industries . . . and how the Bunyan fiction perpetuated these systems." – Publishers Weekly "The combined cartoon and folk art styles work well to capture the giant lore of Paul Bunyan . . . A mighty attempt to take on a giant topic of forgotten history." – Booklist "It's so refreshing to see this alternate view of the legend.... An excellent resource for upper elementary school grades."– Youth Services Book Review "Logging culture may have produced some great stories. But it also cost America, and especially the indigenous people whose land all those trees once stood on, greatly. Both facts are important parts of our history. Van Sciver’s Paul Bunyan tells them both, and he does so in a way that is both potent and fun." – SLJ's Good Comics For Kids "Offers an opportunity for critical thinking with eye-opening results." – School Library Journal "A busy, thoughtful presentation that will leave readers with much to ponder about the making of this strand of the American mythos." – Horn Book “The legend of Paul Bunyan and his ox Babe is well-known, but this book goes beyond the typical stories you hear about Paul Bunyan.” -- YA Books Central |
About the Author
Additional Stories and Art by Marlena Myles
Foreword by Lee Francis IV and Afterword by Dr. Deondre Smiles
LEE FRANCIS IV is the Executive Director of Native Realities, an Indigenous Imagination organization that seeks to engage and inspire Indigenous youth and communities through pop culture media and culturally dynamic programming. Dr. Francis also founded the Indigenous Comic Con (now IndigiPop Expo) and opened Red Planet Books and Comics, the first Native comic shop in the world, in 2017. He received his Ph.D. in Education from Texas State University and currently resides in North Carolina with his family
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DR. DEONDRE SMILES is an assistant professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Victoria, BC, Canada. He is of Ojibwe, Black, and Swedish descent and is a proud citizen of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. Dr. Smiles's interests are many and include Indigenous geographies, human-environment interactions, and Indigenous cultural resource management and preservation. He serves as the principal investigator for the Geographic Indigenous Futures Collaboratory, one of Western Canada’s first Indigenous geographies-focused labs.
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TOON Graphic Features
The world of TOON Graphics and of comic book art is rich and varied. Making meaning out of reading with the aid of visuals may be the best way to become a lifelong reader, one who knows how to read for pleasure and for information—a reader who loves to read.
Paul Bunyan: The Invention of an American Legend includes extensive historical endnotes for readers to learn more about:
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Teacher's Guide
Prepared by Richard Kutner, the head of the TOON Educational Team, our Teacher's Guide outlines the ELA Common Core Standards to support standards-based instruction in the classroom using this TOON Graphic.
The objectives for students in grades 3-5 include:
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