SARATOGA COUNTY — Think Percy Jackson, but during the Revolutionary War. 

In a collaboration between the Campaign for Saratoga 250 and the Saratoga 250 Commission, the graphic novel “Overhearing History: A Revolutionary Saratoga Story” was recently released as the first installment in a series that highlights Saratoga’s role as “America’s Turning Point” during the Revolutionary War. 

The historical fiction book, targeted to young readers (ages 8-12), is set in Saratoga in 1775.

Talks surrounding the novel began in early 2024, when artist Alex Portal presented the idea to the Saratoga 250 Commission, believing it was a way to further educate a younger audience about the Revolutionary War in Saratoga. Shortly after, historian and writer Anne Clothier joined on to write her first book. 

“I was very excited to discuss it further and then run with it,” Clothier said. “It’s definitely been a long process, and as a first time author, everyone has been wonderful and helpful, and it has been an absolute delight to work with Alex Portal.”

With a family who’s been based in Saratoga Springs for eight generations, Clothier took inspiration for her protagonists from various stories she was told growing up. 

“Growing up with stories of which ancestor lived where, and who came from where in New England, and all these different stories have kind of been swirling since my childhood in my mind, and it’s something that’s always fascinated me,” she said. 

“A lot of that curiosity, I was able to sort of bring out and bring some to life in this project,” she said.

The novel follows the story of a 12-year-old boy named Nathaniel Genesis during the 18th-century as the Revolutionary War begins, aiming to expose younger audiences to varying perspectives and the complexities of war during the time. 

“It has to do with bringing these different perspectives out and giving these different perspectives an opportunity to be shared and be heard,” Clothier said. 

“We know there were loyalists, we know that there were indigenous people, we know there were enslaved people, but actually getting to really consider what their perspectives might have been throughout all of this, and think about all of the different aspects of their lives,” Clothier said.

Over the course of the past year, time was spent working on the creative aspects, designing the art, creating a narrative and vetting all the historical information for accuracy by staff at the Saratoga National Historical Park. 

“I’m very grateful to everything that Alex has done, but all of the people that have helped us out along the way, local historians and the county historian herself, Lauren Roberts, has been extremely supportive of this all along,” Clothier said.

It wasn’t until the beginning of the year that the Campaign for Saratoga 250 was approached as a publisher, looking to find distribution to as many people as possible. The books are currently available on demand such as Kindle, Amazon and other digital publishers, with physical copies expected to be available in the next two weeks. 

“We wanted to produce and distribute something for that audience of families with your children that could be through a relatable lens,” said Bill Teator, executive director for the Campaign of Saratoga 250. “So this method, this media, gave us a medium.”

However, the series won’t end here, with this edition expected to be the first of three novels that Clothier and Portal will be working on, continuing to follow the journey of Nathaniel throughout the conflict that birthed the Americas. 

“I think in any era, but honestly right now, in particular, making sure that people take a moment to think about what others are going through, what others might be thinking and feeling, is very important,” Clothier said.