History Comics: The Wild Mustang: Horses of the American West

by Chris Duffy, Falynn Koch (Illustrator)

Overview

An American Library Association 2021 Best Graphic Novel for Children

Turn back the clock with History Comics, First Second's new nonfiction graphic novel series! In this volume, learn how wild mustangs were first introduced to America and how they still roam free today.

On the North American plains, wild mustangs have roamed for generations . . . shaping human history and struggling to survive it. For the Spanish, they were a tool of conquest. For Native Americans, they brought on a new way of life where horsemanship and horse-trading were central. And for the entire world, wild mustangs became a renowned wonder of the American West. There are still thousands of mustangs in the wild today, but they struggle to survive in an ever-changing landscape and their future is by no means guaranteed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250174284
Publisher:	First Second
Publication date:	02/23/2021
Series:	History Comics
Pages:	144
Sales rank:	197,438
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	9 - 13 Years

About the Author

Chris Duffy has written many comic books for Marvel and DC Comics, and has edited comics and graphic novels for Nickelodeon Magazine, United Plankton Pictures, DC Comics, and First Second, where he edited the New York Times bestseller Fairy Tale Comics. He is currently a senior editor at Workman Publishing, and lives in Cold Spring, New York, where he has seen a number of horses, but hasn’t managed to ride one yet.


Falynn Koch was born and raised in Buffalo, New York. She has an MFA in sequential art from the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta and is a graduate of the International Culinary Center in New York City. She loves to travel and explore the outdoors with her husband and occasionally her dogs. Her books from First Second include Science Comics: Bats, Science Comics: Plagues, Maker Comics: Bake Like a Pro!, History Comics: The National Parks, History Comics: The Wild Mustangs (with writer Chris Duffy), and Science Comics: Elephants (with writer Jason Viola).

Editorial Reviews

01/01/2021

Gr 4–6—In a decidedly irreverent ride over the ups and downs of wild horses in the Old and New West, several Gumby-like rock drawings, both humanlike and equine, spring to life. Schooling the less than knowledgeable humans, the snarky horse trots through historical eras, from the introduction (actually, reintroduction) of horses to the New World by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage in 1493, to the juggling act Federal Bureau of Land Management performs today to keep wild populations humanely in check. The tour covers equine prehistory, anatomy, social behavior, and—in a tone that's a little too buoyant for the subject—how the animals' arrival in the American West transformed the Comanche and other Native American residents into dedicated horse thieves. As, over time, domesticated horses escaped to become huge wild herds, the work of mustangers like Johanna July in the late 1800s to capture wild horses one by one turned into systematic slaughter until the public campaigns of Velma "Wild Horse Annie" Johnston and other activists in the 1950s brought that part of the story to a (reasonably) happy ending. Along with playful details, Koch tucks proud, graceful horses aplenty, both wild and at work, into her mix of square and free-form sequential panels. VERDICT Corrals both the romantic and revolting sides of the story: Elementary and middle school readers who saddle up are in for a heady ride.—John Peters, Children's Literature Consultant, New York

School Library Journal

A Junior Library Guild selection

"Koch tucks proud, graceful horses aplenty, both wild and at work, into her mix of square and free-form sequential panels. Corrals both the romantic and revolting sides of the story: Elementary and middle school readers who saddle up are in for a heady ride."—School Library Journal

"Dynamic comics-panel illustrations use self-referential techniques to move the humorous narrative forward, while "Mane Idea" asides explore topics like horse diet and digestion." —Horn Book

From the Publisher

2020-12-15
An educational journey about horses that spans history from the Miocene to modern times.

The largely forgotten history of the millions of mustangs that roamed the American West, as well as the activists who set out to save them in the 1970s, is explored in this graphic novel. It’s told a bit like a classroom lecture, with an illustrated horse playing impromptu professor to two stylized figures that look like Keith Haring’s free-figure drawings. The pop-culture pictographs argue in a comical way with the talking horse as it clarifies everything from the origins of horses to the culling that ensued in order to clear the open prairie for farming. With realistic, detailed illustrations of Spanish ships, conquistadors, Native people, bison, and the Pueblo Revolt set alongside the two questioning silhouettes, the comic book employs everything from maps to X-ray images of a horse’s digestive system to get at the big picture of America’s history even as it maintains its focus on horses. The story of early Natives, traders, horse thieves, and settlers gives way to the Wild Horse Act and the Bureau of Land Management horse-adoption program that exists in our country today. While the conquest of America is perhaps attributed too heavily to Hernán Cortés and his horses—excluding any talk of pandemics and lateral violence—the story encapsulated here is impressive for its scope. Sadly, though, the self-referential tendency of the classroom lecture uses too much space.

A surprisingly comprehensive history of wild horses. (afterword, timeline, further reading, appendices) (Graphic nonfiction. 10-16)

Kirkus Reviews