Posted in: Comics | Tagged: graphic novel, Peter Lantos, scholastic, The Boy Who Didn't Want To Die, Victoria Stebleva

Peter Lantos' The Boy Who Didn't Want To Die to be a Graphic Novel

Peter Lantos' memoir, The Boy Who Didn't Want To Die is to be adapted as a graphic novel by Victoria Stebleva and published by Scholastic.

Peter Lantos' memoir, The Boy Who Didn't Want To Die is to be adapted as a graphic novel by Victoria Stebleva and published by Scholastic.

The Boy Who Didn't Want to Die: A Graphic Memoir from a survivor of Bergen-Belsen Paperback – 2 Jan. 2025
A story of survival, of love between mother and son and of enduring hope in the face of unspeakable hardship. An important read.
The Boy Who Didn't Want to Die describes an extraordinary journey, made by Peter, a boy of five, through war-torn Europe in 1944 and 1945.
Peter and his parents set out from a small Hungarian town, travelling through Austria and then Germany together. Along the way, unforgettable images of adventure flash one after another: sleeping in a tent and then under the sky, discovering a disused brick factory, catching butterflies in the meadows – and as Peter realises that this adventure is really a nightmare – watching bombs falling from the blue sky outside Vienna, learning maths from his mother in Belsen.
All this is drawn against a background of terror, starvation, infection and, inevitably, death, before Peter and his mother can return home.
Author Professor Peter Lantos is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and in his previous life was an internationally renowned clinical neuroscientist. His memoir, Parallel Lines (Arcadia Books, 2006) was translated into Hungarian, German and Italian. Closed Horizon (Arcadia, 2012) was his first novel.
Peter was awarded the British Empire Medal in 2020 for 'services to Holocaust education and awareness'.
He is one of the last of the generation of survivors and this – his first book for children – will serve as a testimony to his experience.

Elizabeth Scoggins, publisher non-fiction, brands and licensing at Scholastic bought the adaptation right directly from Lantos, while senior designer Sarah Baldwin acquired the world rights for Victoria Stebleva's adaptation from Doreen Thorogood at the Good Illustration Agency. The graphic novel will be published in January 2025.

Lantos said: "I am delighted that after the success of my book, it will be published as a graphic memoir. I hope that this format will reach even more children who wish to enhance the written words with images of the text." Stebleva added: "I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to work on Peter Lantos' graphic novel: his story touched me deeply. My goal as an illustrator is to create a visual layer for this extraordinary story of survival, love and hope that will resonate with readers of all ages." Scoggins commented: "It has been a true privilege to continue to work with Peter on this next step in his children's publishing career – helping to create a new version of the story of his experiences during the war is a real passion project, and I hope that even more readers will find themselves immersed in his incredible and moving journey."

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