Thomas Paine Writes Common Sense

by Gary Jeffrey, illustrated by Nick Spender
Graphic Heroes of the American Revolution
Blue Earth County Library hardcover 22 pages
genre: non-fiction history

What a disappointment! This book was 16 pages of comic book style storytelling and four pages of non-fiction kid-oriented textbook. Neither parts were that informational or inspiring. There's so much potential with a series like "Graphic Heroes of the American Revolution," but I think the publishers missed the mark. Too bad.

I was surprised that on my shelves of books, I don't have Paine's Common Sense. I got a collection of his writings along with this little gem to brush up on my history lessons. The volume I got is dense to say the least . . . and I confess I skim-read.

I love that his writing impacted so many people! Words have power.
I learned that the famous line "These are the times that try men's souls . . . " is from his work The American Crisis (volume 1) and not from Common Sense.
I find it interesting that the huge volume with many of his writings did not include The Age of Reason (which the graphic book had cited as an attack on organized religion).

I am curious to read more, but not at this point in time. I do lament the fact that my K-12 education mostly served to make me dislike social studies . . . history, geography, economics, . . . and playing catch-up as an adult is not very delightful. (Don't know what grade or class, but I do remember doing a project on South America and the different countries. That was a cool learning experience!)