NEWS
FROM BROOKLYN TO BROOKLINE
We spent a terrific morning with the fourth and fifth graders (below) at PS 29 in Brooklyn, New York, talking about everything from how to write a graphic novel to why Penny keeps ending up in mud puddles. Thank you to Stephanie Manske for arranging it, and to all the teachers who welcomed us to their classrooms!
IN THE LAND OF PAUL REVERE, KIDS SPEAK UP!
Third graders at Pierce School in Brookline, Massachusetts, have been reading our book—and their teachers kindly sent us some of the kids' smart and funny comments. (See more delightful excerpts and questions on our Cartoon Chronicles/Kids page.)
Leo: My likes about Road to Revolution! is how you added some fiction, not like the big books of nonfiction that sometimes get boring. What I also like is that you added speech bubbles instead of big sentences.
Rikita: I liked the part when Nick stole the handkerchief from the soldier and Penny shouted 'Fire!!' I liked when Nick said, 'Let go of me you pigs!' It's like I'm in the book.
Elia: I like it when the colonists fired and the British just marched up like the colonists were thin air!
Matthews: Why did you make somebody jumping out of a window? They could have died with a whole lot of blood on people, head, skirt, even shoes. So please don't do that again.
Ling: I liked how they dumped waste into the Charles River. I thought it was really disgusting. That told me that they didn't have bathrooms back then.
Gabriel: I think you did a good job on the book but I don't know because I'm not an author.
NEWS FLASH!
Road to Revolution! has been selected as a Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People 2010 by the National Council for the Social Studies. Books selected "...present an original theme or a fresh slant on a traditional topic, are easily readable and of high literary quality, and have a pleasing format and, when appropriate, illustrations that enrich the text."
We're honored and delighted.
STAN'S BIO
Stan Mack is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and a former art director of The New York Times Sunday Magazine. He pioneered a documentary style of cartooning with his notorious New York comic strip "Stan Mack’s Real Life Funnies," which ran in The Village Voice for 20 years. His Adweek magazine comic strip, "Stan Mack’s Out-takes," covered the New York media scene for a decade.
He has used his trademark style in newspapers, magazines and books, including Janet & Me: An Illustrated Story of Love and Loss and The Story of the Jews: A 4,000 Year Adventure. His latest book, co-authored with Susan Champlin, is Road to Revolution!, the first in a four-book series of historical graphic novels from Bloomsbury USA.
SUSAN'S BIO
The co-author of Road to Revolution!, Susan Champlin is a freelance writer-editor who has also been on the staff of a number of magazines, including People and Bon Appétit. She edited The Bon Appétit Cookbook and The Bon Appétit Fast Easy Fresh Cookbook, and is at work on a third—while collaborating with Stan on The Cartoon Chronicles of America. You can read her blog, "What Would Katharine Hepburn Do?," at http://wwkhd.blogspot.com.
ROAD TO REVOLUTION
by Stan Mack and Susan Champlin
Bloomsbury USA (2009)
Nick is an orphan who gets by on his wits and whatever he can steal. Penny is the daughter of a tavern owner and knows the meaning of honest work. Though from completely different backgrounds—and despite their instant dislike for each other—they do have one thing in common: They both want the British out of Boston! When a chance encounter brings them together, Nick and Penny see a way to help the patriots. But first they’ll have to earn the trust of some of America’s great revolutionaries—including Paul Revere and Dr. Joseph Warren—and muster the courage to confront innumerable dangers.
Action packed, laced with humor, and visually dynamic for today’s readers, Road to Revolution! cleverly intertwines fact and fiction for an unprecedented view of American history.
See what reviewers are already saying about the book:
"...readers get both a lesson in the beginnings of the Revolution and an exciting series of historical adventures. As Nick assists Paul Revere with his crucial midnight ride and Penny engages in dangerous spy work, young readers will get a powerful sense of the high stakes of these pivotal events. Mack’s art, clean and uncomplicated, renders period details and emotions quite evocatively and goes a long way to putting a human face on history." —Booklist
JANET AND ME
by Stan Mack
Simon & Schuster (2004)
In words and drawings both candid and human, Stan Mack follows his 18-year relationship with Janet Bode—a lighthearted fling that beat the odds to become an enduring love affair. The only thing they couldn't beat was cancer. For anyone who can't resist a beautifully told love story, for anyone who is touched by someone suffering from serious illness and looking for emotional and practical guidance, and for anyone who appreciates a life lived to the fullest, Janet & Me will resonate long after the last page is turned.