The Future Is: #2

I would have to say it's not plastics any more, but graphic novels. I "blogged" slide show portions of several before. The other week I was in Forbidden Planet (a well known comic book store in Manhattan) and you had to elbow your way past all the teenagers to view the latest titles on the racks. The graphic novel sections of big box bookstores are expanding. I think if we can grab kids' "web 2" attention with well done historical adaptations and give them the proper tech tools to create their own, then it would be an effective counter to the stultifying no child left behind literacy yutzes.
The folks at firstsecondbooks.com had some titles that caught my eye and I purchased several at Strand. A review of "Journey into Mohawk Country" Early in the winter of 1634, a young Dutch trader sets out from a tiny outpost on the southern tip of Manhattan Island to explore the Iroquois country, where the powerful Mohawk tribe controlled the most important trade routes in the region. Twenty-three-year-old Harmen Meyndertsz van den Bogaert and his friends traveled deep into what is now New York State, trading tools and weapons for food, shelter, and furs, and seeking to establish new tribal friendships that would strengthen the faltering Dutch trade. Throughout the journey, Van den Bogaert kept a journal of their adventures, recording their fears, successes, and the terrible hardship of making such a journey in the depths of winter. Here is that journal, nearly four centuries later, in Van den Bogaert’s own words. In Journey into Mohawk Country, George O’Connor’s passionate research and extraordinarily expressive illustrations bring this remarkable historical document to life. He skillfully draws upon the subtle hints and innuendoes of Van den Bogaert’s journal entries to lend a new level of richness, humor, and humanity to this long-forgotten episode in American history.
Here's a slide show from the first several pages