The Boston Tea Party

Graphic Library: Graphic History

by Matt Doeden, Charles Barnett III (Illustrator), Dave Hoover (Illustrator)

Bold illustrations and active dialogue bring American history to life in this epic graphic novel! The Boston Tea Party, by Matt Doeden, tells the story of a group of American Patriots who protested Great Britain's Tea Act. Going undercover during the night, the Patriots risked their lives to dump a shipment of British tea into Boston Harbor. With extensive back matter including a bibliography, extended reading list, glossary, and further internet sources, readers will gobble up this graphic novel detailing an important moment leading up to the American Revolution.

Genres: Graphic Novels, History, Nonfiction, Childrens, American Revolution, Graphic Novels Comics, Historical

32 pages, Paperback

Published December 31, 2004

About the author

Matt Doeden was born in southern Minnesota and lived parts of his childhood in Golden Valley, Minnesota, and Madison, Minnesota. He studied journalism at Mankato State University, where he worked at the college newspaper for three years. In his senior year, he served as the paper's Sports Editor, which put him in charge of the entire sports section, the sports writers, and the photographers. He covered mostly college sports, but also the Minnesota Vikings, who held training camp at MSU.

His work allowed him to meet and interview people like Dennis Green, Cris Carter, Robert Smith, and more. Matt went on to work as a sports writer for the Mankato paper, and then he got a job as an editor with a small children's publisher called Capstone Press, and in 2003 he decided to start his own business as a freelance writer and editor.

Since then, Matt has written and edited hundreds of books. Lots of them are on high-interest topics like cars, sports, and airplanes. He also writes and edits on geography, science, and even math.

Reviews

[Duane · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you have a reluctant reader who needs to find out information about the Boston Tea Party, then this book is for you. Done in a graphic novel style, the reader will enjoy the great illustrations and the easy-to-understand writing style. Not meant as a resource book, but rather a way to get someone into reading. A nice book.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a short graphic novel. I checked it out from my library, and read it to my boys. They really enjoyed it. The one negative being that it is pretty bare bones in terms of factual content. However, that's what you get in a 32 page graphic novel.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a retelling of the Boston Tea Party as a graphic novel. The pictures and text make it very accessible to children of a wide variety of ages. The information given in this book is accurate and clear without an extreme amount of text.

At the end of the book, there is a glossary and resources to learn more. There is also a brief description of the events that led up to the Tea Party after the main text has ended. This is an excellent resource to make learning about the history of America fun!

[Calvin Kwon · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book isn't very good because it's really boring. It's about the Boston Tea Party which is not actually a tea party. 50 people went on ships at night and dumped out weird crates of tea, which I don't like about this book. They didn't want to pay taxes from the Britains. And I thought this book was so boring because I don't like taxes.

[Maya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was pretty interesting. I dont useauly like comics but this book was good.

[raccoon reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

My son (7) picked this out and thought it was hilarious to consider- a Party? For TEA? He only has the word party to compare to things like "Birthday Party" or "Pizza Party" or "Dance Party" so he really had a difficult time wrapping his head around what this book might be about. So it came home with us from the library. It's just the right amount of history for a kid his age and it held his attention. I'm glad he's not opposed to reading nonfiction books (yay!) and I'm thankful there's a whole nonfiction graphic novel section at our local library for him to browse.

[Simon Sweetman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun short graphic retelling the Boston Teaparty narrative

[Alexandro · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an awesome book. I liked how t described the persons and what they say. First colonist had to pay tax on things one of they things was Tea. So the colonist thought S wasn't fair so they decided to not pay their tax to the British. So they next time the British came the colonists made a plan and a decision that they would not pay taxes and Would go into the British ships and would dump all the Tea into the water. So when the British ships came 50 colonist men disguised themselves like Indians and headed toward the British ships, amd dumped all Tea. A colonist saw a man who had Tea on his pocket and told the others. So the others took away the Tea had had. They cleaned the ships until there wasn't any Tea left. The British were angry however the colonist was happy of joy. The British told the colonist that they couldn't transport and get anything goods like food, clothing, etc. The colonists were afraid but at the same time they were angry so the fought for what they wanted. That was where the American Revolutionary War started. And thats where it gave a birth of a new nation, The United States of America.

[Ramona]

This is a graphic history book that retells the Boston Tea Party of 1773. It is told in a creative comic book style that retells the events that led to the Boston Tea Party. This is a great way in engaging children especially in grades 3 - 5 reading level: 3.3 in understanding history. It makes the historical event easy to comprehend. History is retold in a genre that is appealing to struggling students or students who are disinterested in history. It is engaging plus it is filled with all the information needed. It is a great book to use as part of a text set in a U.S. History class. The story is organized according to events that led to the Boston Tea Party.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book offers a basic retelling of the Boston Tea Party, including the major players as well as the events leading up to and immediately following the event. It's a good entry in Graphic Library's Graphic History series.

The story itself is short and does not have a great amount of detail, but the additional information provided in the back of the book gives readers resources to learn more. It's a decent way to bring history alive and make it more interesting for young readers.

[Gretchen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of three children's books that I read on the Boston Tea Party in preparation for a trip to Boston with an 8 year old. This is a graphic version of the events. The facts contained are the bare bones of the event, but it does contain a list of suggested reading a web site for those who had their interest piqued.

[Samina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book for students who struggle with non-fiction reads. This book tells the story of the Boston Tea Party through as a graphic novel. Students would really enjoy the format of the book and the pictures. I never thought of having a graphic novel non-fiction read. What a great way to engage reluctant readers.

[Anika · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good story about how the colonists revolt against having no say in the law, but having to pay taxes. I recommend this book for projects, papers or if you're just interested in history! I personally think this is one of the best graphic novel yet!

[Alliecat50 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This format really appealed to my 5 year old son. It was factual yet provided a lot of narration too.

[Kathy Ellen Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool graphic novel.
Good info on the revolution too!

[Ethan Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

really good

[Ben]

Summary: The Boston Tea party follows prominent figures from the American War for Independence through the events directly before, during, and after the Boston Tea Party. From the dressing as Mohawk Indians, to explanations of why they are throwing the tea overboard, we get a sense of what the Founding Fathers were looking to do when they tossed the tea into Boston Harbor
Review: I have used this book for struggling readers to better understand the Boston Tea Party. What I like most about it is that it does not skimp on the details and his also historically accurate, whilst incorporating interesting illustrations that lead students to the same conclusions that a lecture or more difficult reading would.
Book Connection: Paul Revere's Ride
Quote: "I sure hope the fishes enjoy their brew!"
This book could be used to teach students about different forms of resistance to oppressive rule.

[Kait Coss]

1.NA
2. Fourth-Sixth grade
3. Matt Deaden retells the story of the Boston Tea Party in 1773. Through comic style writing and colorful pictures, young students are able to understand and relive the period of time in which the 13 colonies were held under British rule.
4. I would have loved to have this book when I was learning about the Boston Tea Party. It was a book I didn’t want to put down even though I was already aware of how it would end.
5. (1) can coincide and be weaved into a social studies
(2) can become a play that students get involved with and learn even more about the topic