Paul Bunyan: The Invention of an American Legend: A TOON Graphic [Hardcover]

Did you know that a mainstay of American folk culture was in fact created as an advertising ploy?

Few people realize that Paul Bunyan, the legendary lumberjack, and his blue ox are the product of corporate marketing by a highly industrialized commercial enterprise.

Cartoonist NOAH VAN SCIVER shows us the myth creation as real life marketing man extraordinaire W.B. Laughead spins ever more wondrous tall tales. Van Sciver's story is bracketed by rich contributions from contemporary Native artists and storytellers with a very different connection to the land that the Bunyan myths often conceal. Readers will see how a lumberjack hero, a quintessential American fantasy, captures the imagination but also serves to paper over the seizure of homeland from First Peoples and the laying bare of America's northern forests. It’s a tall tale with deep roots . . . in profit-making!Bank Street College of Education's 2024 Best Children's Books of the Year
A 2024 Cooperative Children's Book Center Choice

Van Sciver is a master of subtle mockery. —The New York Times

★ The Paul Bunyan tall tale gets felled.... Readers will come away ready to question what other falsehoods they’ve been fed about the history of marginalized people.... A heightened sense of scale makes Bunyan practically leap of the page in grandeur. An accessible and important reminder of how easily the truth can be coopted. — Kirkus Reviews, starred review

&ldquo;A busy, thoughtful presentation that will leave readers with much to ponder about the making of this strand of the American mythos.&rdquo; &mdash;The Horn Book<lS&