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When The Revolution Came To Town, An Arab Spring Kids' Graphic Novel

When The Revolution Came To Town is a new graphic novel written by Isra Moussaoui and Beth Bacon, and drawn by Noha Habaieb,


When The Revolution Came To Town is a new graphic novel by Isra Moussaoui and Beth Bacon, and drawn by Noha Habaieb. Which tells the story of an 11-year-old girl's experience of the first days of the Arab Spring, balancing the tumult of unrest on the streets, her family's desire to protect her from knowing what is going on, and her determination to win a poetry contest rooted in Arabic history.

Isra Moussaouri was a participant in the YES programme in which high school students from countries with significant Muslim populations live and study in the United States for an academic year. YES students serve as "youth ambassadors" of their home country, live with a host family, attend an American high school, acquire leadership skills, and engage in activities to learn about U.S. society and values; they also help educate Americans about their home country and culture. And Isra stayed with children's author Beth Bacon's family.

The idea for When The Revolution Came To Town emerged during quarantine, when Beth and Isra would talk about history, with Isra telling her stories during the revolution, and they are attempting to tell an honest and factually accurate account of the revolution, from the perspective of a young Tunisian child.

Beth Bacon is a children's author and has an MA in Communication Arts from New York University and a BA in Literature from Harvard University. Isra Moussaoui lived the Tunisian Revolution and Arab Spring as a child before moving to America. Noha Habaieb is a Tunisian artist and cartoonist who studied graphic design at the Arts et Métiers de Sfax in Tunisia and then in comics at the Saint Luc Liège school in Belgium, created the comics magazine Lab619 in 2013, and the Arabicity cards.

When The Revolution Came To Town, Tells An Arab Spring Kids' Graphic Novel
Representative art by Noha Habaieb from Instagram

Rosie Ahmed at Dial has bought the graphic novel When The Revolution Came to Town to be published in 2025. Isra Moussaoui and Beth Bacon's agent Jennifer Carlson at Dunow, Carlson & Lerner and Noha Habaieb's agent Wendi Gu at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates negotiated the deal.

Dial is an imprint owned by Penguin Books USA (but then again, isn't everyone these days?) and which publishes books for children "young and old".


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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