For Liberty: The Story of the Boston Massacre

For Liberty: The Story of the Boston Massacre

written and illustrated by Timothy Decker, 2009, Asheville, North Carolina: Front Street Press. (9781590786086).

Media: pen and ink

Awards and Honors:

2009 Cybil Nominated title for Non Fiction (MG/YA)

Author/Illustrator Website: http://timothydecker.com/

Annotation: A stark, graphic novel style account of the Boston Massacre, one most significant events in the lead up to the Revolutionary War.

Personal Reaction: Author and illustrator Timothy Decker builds this story of the Boston Massacre slowly in deliberate, measured prose, while his austere pen and ink drawings capture the drama and tension of the storyline. There's much lying beneath the surface in this deceptively simple book. Decker is economical with his words and images, yet he still manages to pack a wealth of historical detail into the story. Background on the political situation in the colonies and Great Britain is given at the beginning of the story and Decker concludes with the subsquent trial of the soldiers. This book presents a balanced account of a very dramatic chapter in United States history. Black and white illustrations complement the gravity of the historical event. For Liberty is different than many historical picture books in that there is no back matter such as a timeline or bibliography, but this book would make an excellent addition to any lesson on the Boston Massacre.

Use of Onomatopoeia: 

"Bells pealed throughout the city."

"They could hear the growing din as the talked." 

"The throng of colonists grew as did the roar of their cries." 

"The bells continued to ring as if signaling the new tragedy."

Use of Sophisticated Language:

"Quarter no fiendish soldiers in your homes. Welcome no ill bred thieves to your hearth. Protect your liberties in this doleful and dark time."

"...soldiers quartered in a populous town, will always occasion two mobs where they prevent one. They are wretched conservators of the peace."

Use of Rhythm/Repetition:

"The mob swelled.

The reasonable men went home.

The bellicose remained."

"Surely the mob would not assault a trained soldier.

Surely his men would not fire for fear of shooting their officer.

Certainly a show of force would dissolve the anger."

Curricular Connection: 

5th Grade History/ Social Studies, California State Board of Education Standards

5.5     Students explain the causes of the American Revolution.
1. Understand how political, religious, and economic ideas and interests brought about the Revolution (e.g., resistance to imperial policy, the Stamp Act, the Townshend Acts, taxes on tea, Coercive Acts).

Run Far, Run Fast

Run Far, Run Fast

written and illustrated by Timothy Decker, 2007, Asheville, North Carolina: Front Street. (1590784693)

Media: pen and ink

Awards and Honors:

Selected by White Ravens Catalogue – 250 Outstanding International Children’s Books of 2008.

English Language Section – International Youth Library – Schloss Blutenburg, Munich, GERMANY.

First Place Cover/Jacket – Adult Graphic Novel Series – 2009 New York Book Show.

Author Website: http://timothydecker.com/

Annotation: A young girl in plague ravaged fourteenth-century Europe flees her family and her town, wandering the villages and countryside alone in search of refuge until she meets a stranger who she hopes will be able to help.

Personal Reaction:
     A short and simple tale of one girl's experience is enriched with emotion and historical detail through stark black and white illustrations. Decker deftly employs crosshatched pen and ink drawings and graphic novel formatting in telling his story. Though the text is concise and dialogue is minimal, multiple wordless panels provide the reader with details about the characters, the setting and the devastating toll of the Black Death.
     Decker doesn't spare the reader the grim details of the plague; we see churchyards filled with freshly dug graves, shrouded bodies lying in village streets and the baseball sized swollen nodes of plague victims. He also includes historical details (such as a few panels featuring the rats which were vectors of the disease, a group a children playing "Ring-Around-the-Rosie", interiors of abandoned monasteries, and self-flagellating pilgrims) that lend this book to inclusion in lessons about the Black Death. 
     The tone of the story is bleak. The text is filled with lines like, "The pestilence swept away all the was. When it passed, when the fear and confusion ebbed, only sorrow remained". The characters all have similar featureless countenances with no mouths and sorrowful downturned eyes. Yet we see small reasons for hope when the girl meets a stranger who feeds her and shares with her what little understanding he has of the plague. On the last page of the book we see the girl and her younger brother sleeping in the stranger's house, while he reads quietly in a chair by the hearth. There is a pot on the fire and plants in the window box, yet even in this scene of relative domestic tranquility the stranger's bird-like plague mask hanging on the wall suggests that the characters are not completely secure. 

Use of simile: (p. 4) "Every year was the same until her tenth summer. The Pestilence entered the girl's world like a tide."

Use of repetition/ Use of personification: (p. 12) "A soldier told her the gates of the city were locked to keep the Pestilence out. But the Pestilence was already in the city."

(p. 18) "A soldier told her the city gates were locked to seal the Pestilence within the walls and thus protect others. But the Pestilence could not be caged."

Curricular Connection: Middle school world history: Black Death/bubonic plague