A Guy, a Girl, and a Teen Book Blog

A Guy, a Girl, and a Teen Book Blog

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Ode to Graphic Novels: A Word to Parents and Teachers

It's no secret that I love graphic novels. Honestly, they are some of my favorite books to read, but I'm aware that some parents and teachers have their concerns about the format. Far too many times I've seen a child in my library thrilled to check out a stack of graphic novels only to be told by a parent to put them back and get a "real book." After discussing the merits of graphic novels with co-workers and parents two or three times in the last week or so, I thought it might be helpful to give you the short version of why I think it's more than okay for your child or your student to read and love graphic novels.

1. Anything that gets them reading is a good thing.
If your child can find something they enjoy reading that is age-appropriate, then please don't take it away from them. I'm convinced that one of the biggest hurdles a child faces in their education is the learning-to-like-reading hurdle. If they find a graphic novel they love, they just might take the first step into become a lifelong reader. Should you only let your child read graphic novels? Probably not (Do you let your child eat only ice cream?), but the range of content in this format will probably surprise you, which leads me to...

2. There are some high quality graphic novels in all genres out there. 
Graphic novels are a format...not a genre. You can find well-reviewed and well-loved graphic novels about anything under the sun, and I don't just mean fiction. Some of my favorite graphic novels are non-fiction titles and biographies (such as Satrapi's Persepolis and To Dance by Siena Siegel), and I adore reading graphic adaptations of classic novels (like Marvel's Jane Austen series). These classic books adaptations are especially great for reluctant readers because they are getting exposed to the original work (often with the original text) in a way that's fun for them. It's a wonderful way to ease them into a love of classic literature. If you give a reluctant reader a copy of Pride and Prejudice, he or she may initially get too bogged down in the language to like it, but give a reluctant reader a graphic novel of Pride and Prejudice, and he or she may like it. And once they like it, they will probably want to read the original, and since they're already familiar with the plot and the characters and a lot of the original dialogue, they may like that too...and they'll probably want a cookie to go with it (couldn't resist the Numeroff joke). ;)

3. Contrary to popular belief, graphic novels are "real books" and can actually make your kids smarter. 
Okay...I say that a bit cheekily, but graphic novels do include many higher-level vocabulary words, and they help kids develop visual literacy. What is this "visual literacy" I speak of? It's the ability to "read" images. It's how we follow movies and television shows. By using images in comic strip format, graphic novels teach us how to create narratives frame by frame and understand what's happening in the story when there aren't any words. The old adage is still true; a picture can be worth 1,000 words, and in our increasingly-digital and visual society, it's important for students to be able to interpret and comprehend visual arts as well as the written word, and graphic novels allow them to do both! One of my absolute favorite examples of this is a book that's a quasi-graphic novel - Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick. This tale alternates between a boy's perspective told in words and a girl's perspective told entirely in beautiful charcoal illustrations, and when the stories begin to intersect, it blows your mind! 

So that's my two cents on the subject, and I'll leave you with a short list of a few more of my favorite graphic novels with the Goodreads links:

7 comments:

  1. I've been assigned Persepolis to read in two of my writing classes at the university: a memoir writing class, and a graphics text writing class. I've read Maus too, but I haven't read American Born Chinese, and as a Chinese-American I am quite interested now. :)

    The graphic novel that completely blew me away and made me go, "THIS. Is. Literature." was Blankets by Craig Thompson. He manages to mix metaphorical drawings and texts in such a way that leaves you breathless at the end. His writing/art (hard to separate one from the other because they work so well together) is poetic and lyrical and heartbreaking. Give it a try when you have the time. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

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  2. Oh! and here is a Goodreads page of Blankets. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25179.Blankets?ac=1

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  3. Ellen, I did read Blankets in graduate school and enjoyed it too. I've actually gotten to meet the author of Persepolis when she spoke at my university in graduate school as well. She has such an amazing story. You'll love American Born Chinese; it's so clever.

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  4. About meeting Satrapi: you are so lucky! Your graduate school sounds fantastic. Thanks for the response. <3

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  6. About meeting Satrapi: you are so lucky! Your graduate school sounds fantastic. Thanks for the response. <3

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  7. Oops, sorry for the repetitive responses :$ I wasn't sure if it was posting!

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