  | Full Text Reviews: Booklist - 01/01/2018 *Starred Review* In the spirit of their own winsome Action Philosophers! (2006) and Comic Book History of Comics (2012), Van Lente and Dunlavey launch a new middle-grade series featuring, as the cover proclaims, “Real history! Fake jokes!” The blurb, however, does no justice to either the density of historical facts or the breathless pace of the humor. Turns out much of what we know about our first president is hooey (the cherry tree? Never happened. They didn’t even grow cherries on the Washington tobacco farm). Van Lente takes us through Washington’s early career as surveyor and spy, his numerous retreats and losses at war, his slave ownership, incomparable fortitude, heroism, moral evolution, and sometimes reluctant service to his burgeoning nation. It’s a complex portrait, and it doesn’t make for a quick read. Every panel is packed to the edges with neatly structured and narratively interesting historical facts. So, too, is every panel packed with written and visual humor, a shockingly high percentage of which is actually funny. While this balances the information somewhat, the energetic feel of the pages is down to Dunlavey’s art. His jaunty figures and kooky faces leaven even the most solemn moments—the Constitutional Convention, Washington’s moral struggle over his own slave ownership—with manic levity that lightens what could have been a plodding exercise into a sheer joy. - Copyright 2018 Booklist. Loading...
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