Home of the Brave (Paperback)

Glimpse the breadth and power of the American experience through the voices and stories of everyday people in the first-ever graphic novel from the acclaimed nonprofit StoryCorps.

Listen. Honor. Share.

In the first graphic novel collection from StoryCorps, readers are given a glimpse of the beauty, power, and scope of the American experience as lived and told by everyday people. Selected from hundreds of thousands of interviews recorded in every corner of the country, these fourteen stories introduce you to a woman born into slavery who becomes a pioneering midwife in Black Mountain, North Carolina; an act of kindness during the Great Depression remembered, and repaid, decades later; a father on his deathbed who finally reveals his experiences in a concentration camp during the Holocaust; a family’s journey from cleaning offices to graduating college; an airline employee who unknowingly let terrorists onto a plane on September 11; and so much more.

With striking art by Sharon De La Cruz and an introduction by renowned young adult author Jason Reynolds, who once worked for StoryCorps himself, this collection illuminates the humanity and possibility in us all.

Dave Isay (I-SAY) is the founder and president of StoryCorps, a New York Times bestselling author, the recipient of numerous Peabody Awards, and a MacArthur “Genius” Fellow. In 2003, Isay founded StoryCorps, an independent nonprofit organization that has brought more than 750,000 Americans together—two at a time—to record intimate conversations about their lives, create a human connection, pass wisdom from one generation to the next, and leave a legacy for the future. Each conversation is preserved at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress—the largest single collection of human voices ever gathered. Millions of listeners hear StoryCorps’s weekly broadcasts on public radio, and select stories are also shared through StoryCorps’s podcast, animated shorts, digital platforms, and books. You can visit Dave Isay at StoryCorps.org.

Sharon De La Cruz’s passion for storytelling, particularly through comics, led her to the Tin House Summer Workshop, where she developed her debut graphic memoir, I’m a Wild Seed (Street Noise, April 2021). The book was lauded by Publishers Weekly for its “wit and exuberance” as a “limber, playful debut collection” that established her as a compelling new voice in the medium. De La Cruz holds a master’s degree from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program and has been recognized with a Fulbright Fellowship, a Processing Foundation Fellowship, a TED Residency, and a 2021–22 Red Burns Teaching Fellowship at ITP-NYU. She currently serves as an assistant arts professor at ITP-NYU. You can visit Sharon De La Cruz at SharonLeeDeLaCruz.com.

Sarah L. Thomson has written more than thirty books for young readers, including poetry, prose, fiction, and nonfiction. Her recent books include Cub’s Big World, which School Library Journal called “a big must-have,” and Deadly Flowers: A Ninja’s Tale, which Booklist called “genuinely thrilling.” She lives in Portland, Maine. You can visit Sarah Thomson online at SarahLThomson.com.