History Smashers: The Mayflower

June 1, 2020
Grades 4-7 Challenging misconceptions with historical research, Messner proves that she's ready, willing, and entirely able to debunk almost everything you think you know about the Mayflower, the Pilgrims, and the first Thanksgiving. Planning to bolster your beliefs with primary-source documents? Think again, since those letters and journal entries were written by recent immigrants to North America, Europeans who didn't understand the Wampanoag people's language or culture but arrogantly assumed that it was inferior to their own. Well-researched, entertaining, and packed with facts, this account begins with a group of English separatists attempting to flee to Holland and ends after King Philip's War in 1676, when the English colony's governor sold their defeated captives (men, women, and children) into slavery. Some elements extend the story into the twenty-first century: a sidebar explaining how a Wampanoag woman revitalized W�pan�ak, the traditional language of her people, and created an immersion school for the community's children. Photos, paintings, and cartoon-style drawings illustrate the text. Published simultaneously with Women's Right to Vote, it's a promising start for the History Smashers series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

July 10, 2020

Gr 4-7-The latest addition to "History Smashers" focuses on the Mayflower. Readers may think they know everything about the ship, the pilgrims, and the first Thanksgiving, but the text gently corrects assumptions with facts. Truthfully, there was no landing on Plymouth Rock and the settlers didn't call themselves pilgrims. The text presents a frank overview of the crossing of the Atlantic and what happened to the resident Indigenous people after the English settlers landed at Cape Cod. This series speaks directly to middle grade readers, generating and sustaining interest with attention-grabbing text and art (comics and sidebars). There is a little something for everyone in the presentation. Readers might want to compare the primary source entries with Messner's explanations as well as works of familiar, stylized art seen in museums and textbooks. VERDICT This illustrated nonfiction book would be a great addition to any middle school library looking to provide accurate, interesting nonfiction resources. -Kim Gardner, Fort Worth Country Day Sch., TX

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 10, 2020
Opening the History Smashers series along with the simultaneously published History Smashers: Women’s Right to Vote, this entertaining, informative offering by Messner (The Next President) aims to decolonize the story of the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving. Drawing on historical documents and consultations with Linda Coombs, an Aquinnah Wampanoag educator and historian, Messner goes beyond the myths surrounding the English Separatists’ journey and gives context often left out of that history. Beginning with the English perspective (“Who Were the Pilgrims, Anyway?”), Messner describes what the sea voyage would have been like, what the travelers actually found when they arrived in what is now the U.S., and the Wampanoag people and culture native to the region the Separatists claimed for themselves. Messner also sheds light on the “first Thanksgiving” and packs the narrative full of historical quotes, helpfully translating history into accessible, contemporary speech. Historical paintings, as well as lighthearted, engaging black-and-white cartoon illustrations by Meconis, frequently in graphic novel–style panels, make complex and often grim history relevant to young readers. A cast list highlighting some individuals from the Mayflower rounds out this well-researched book, a multifaceted resource for any school or library. Back matter includes an author’s note and a bibliography. Final art not seen by PW. Ages 8–12.

Starred review from May 15, 2020
Adopting a casual, colloquial tone, Messner dismantles one received truth after another, drawing on a variety of resources and evidence to give readers the "real-deal story of the Mayflower" and its storied passengers. Never underestimating the capacity of her readers, she begins with a brief history of the Reformation in England before following William Brewster's group of separatists as they eventually made their way to the shores of Massachusetts and seized Wampanoag land for their colony. Shifting tone as appropriate, copious sidebars include a discussion on the relative reliability of primary sources, the inglorious history of Plymouth Rock, and modern efforts to reclaim the Wampanoag language, W�pan�ak. Quotations from primary sources are presented in an antique-looking display type and then translated into modern English: " '[The mussels] caused us to cast and scour, but they were soon all well again.' --Edward Winslow / Translation: They threw up and had diarrhea but felt better in a while." Most notable is the care with which Messner covers relations between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag; her description of first contact is brilliant in its refusal to cast the Indigenous people as other: "After [Myles Standish and his party had] gone about a mile, they saw five or six people and a dog." Meconis' humorous cartoons--sometimes presented as comics-style paneled sequences--complement archival illustrations, which readers are frequently invited to examine critically. The second in the History Smashers series, Women's Right To Vote, publishes simultaneously. Critical, respectful, engaging: exemplary history for children. (author's note, further reading, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 8-12)

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.