A Native Lad: Benny Benson Tells Alaska’s Story is based on
the script of a play by Sarah Hurst, first performed at Tatitlek
Community School in January 2010.
The story consists of 16 scenes marking major events in Alaska
history, narrated by Benny Benson, the designer of the Alaska
flag. Benny travels in time to meet a modern-day high school
student named Abigail, who is wondering where her PFD check
comes from. The scenes cover the Alaska Purchase through to the
statehood movement, the struggle for the Alaska Native Claims
Settlement Act and the discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay.
This graphic novel, illustrated in a varied range of style by nine
superb Alaska artists, can be used in a classroom setting to teach
Alaska history to grades 7 through to college level, or it can
simply be read for enjoyment by children or adults. Forty pages
of supplemental notes further explain each scene and provide
questions for group discussion as well as sources of additional
reading to research topics in detail.
About the author
Sarah Hurst is an author and journalist from the UK who lived in Anchorage from 2001 to 2013 – moving there to live with her future husband, whom she met on the internet while living in China. After assisting a producer making a documentary for the 50th anniversary of statehood in 2008 she wrote a play about Alaska history that she subsequently turned into a graphic novel with the help of nine artists. She is now back in the UK, where she writes mainly about Russian politics.
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