On Reading Graphic Novels discussion
Graphic Novels in School
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Rachel
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Jul 10, 2007 01:40PM

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***American Born Chinese by Gene Yang
To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel by Sienna Cherson Siegel
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
But there are lots, lots more out there! If you're looking for a graphic novel that has a certain level of literary merrit (i.e. for discussion) then I would recommend visiting the website for the First Second Books imprint (firstsecondbooks.com). Also, the No Flying, No Tights website might be helpful (www.noflyingnotights.com) especially for finding age-appropriate fun stuff they'll like to read. Good luck!
Hi Rachel and welcome to the group (if you are new)! Those suggestions by Angie are wonderful. I would also recommend you check out any of the titles listed on this website, http://www.ala.org/ala/booklinksbucke.... The graphic novel adaptations of Miyazaki films like Spirited Away generally are a lot of fun for kids and they, of course, enjoy watching the films as well. Sailor Moon is quite popular and for classic literature, the choices from Will Eisner should appeal to both boys and girls.
Here are some other sites to look at:
http://www.noflyingnotights.com/index... -Teens
http://sidekicks.noflyingnotights.com... -Kids
http://my.voyager.net/~sraiteri/graph...
http://www.tulsalibrary.org/booksandr...
http://www.multcolib.org/books/lists/...
and a gazillion other links listed here:
http://www.waterborolibrary.org/bklis...
Good luck! I almost wish I taught English.
http://www.noflyingnotights.com/index... -Teens
http://sidekicks.noflyingnotights.com... -Kids
http://my.voyager.net/~sraiteri/graph...
http://www.tulsalibrary.org/booksandr...
http://www.multcolib.org/books/lists/...
and a gazillion other links listed here:
http://www.waterborolibrary.org/bklis...
Good luck! I almost wish I taught English.

Anyone familiar with Illegal Alien (no, I didn't write it), Goodbye, Chunky Rice, or Jar of Fools?


During student teaching, I used choice snippets from Blankets.
An inventive teacher could even use more fantastical graphic novels such as Courtney Crumrin as a tie into Harry Potter in discussions about fitting in with peers.
I double-checked Lost at Sea and it has profanity that wouldn't be okay with middle school. But there are still great titles like Bone and so much more.
I also loved Maus. It's been quite awhile since I read it so I would have to review it before giving it an affirmative. But it is a truly moving account of Spiegelman's parents in the Holocaust.
Even XXXholic, a Japanese manga title, can be used as a literary tie-in. Volume 3 features a retelling of The Monkey's Paw. It would be great to compare and contrast the two tellings both in the change in format and in storyline.


I taught American Born Chinese this year to my Amherst College class, and they enjoyed it as one of their top three (Mother Come Home and Fun Home were the other top titles). I'd agree though that it could be suitable for that age group, as it does chronicle events in their lives.
One thing that came up in class that's in the story some is the pressure some Asian American kids feel to like Anime and Manga as a way of fitting in with white kids who like it, when they themselves are apathetic or ambivalent towards it. It made for two very interesting class discussions.
I recommend it.




Comics in the Classroom has some great comic recommendations and lesson plans. Alas, they recommended my book for High School classes but I still think it's good for JHS students:
http://comicsintheclassroom.net/oo200...

Runaways is about a multicultural group of teens who learn their parents are supervillians and go on the run.
Earthlight is a fantastic scifi story about a group of multicultural teens living on the moon. Volume 1's ending is one of the best cliffhangers that I have ever read!

He's read all the Bone books in color, and sat down in the bookstore and read the 1300 page black and white volume, as well. He enjoyed the graphic novel version of Redwall, and he got Amulet yesterday and enjoyed that, too (we're eagerly awaiting number 2!). I saw that Kazu Kibuishi has a couple more I'll want to try out (not least the upcoming Flight Explorer), but does anyone have any other recommendations for a child who is 1) 9 years old, 2) super-aware of not appearing "girlish," and 3) particular about the quality of art (ie. graphic art, not illustrated story; not Manga; see above-named author/illustrators.)?


Another really cute one is Jellaby. Good for reading together - lots for kids but with stuff adults will find great too!
Marvel has some Marvel Age comics that might be appropriate. I've read a few and don't think they are very well written though...

There are some great suggestions from everyone else. I go for a mix of classic and modern comics in my class:
Little Nemo
Popeye
Pedro & Me
Pogo
Lynda Barry's work
Tintin
Krazy Kat
Moomin
Calvin & Hobbes
Gon
Scrooge McDuck by Don Rosa
Some of James Kochalka's work
Translucent
Doing Time
Usagi Yojimbo
Inuyasha
Bleach
The Best American Comics anthologies
and so on...

Steven's list (we have a lot of my Calvin and Hobbes at home), and Cullen and Sadie's comments are much appreciated! Thanks! My boy has read the teen Spiderman stuff (he adores Spiderman), but has already grown out of it for the most part. He enjoyed the action-based stories of the Marvel Adventures vs. the plot/character-based story lines of the Marvel books written for older audiences.

2. In the Shadow of No Towers by Art Spiegel (9/11)
3. 9-11 Emergency Relief (assorted artists)
4. Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa (Bombing of Hiroshima)
5. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi(as mentioned above)
6. Linda Barry's work (as mentioned above)
I am enjoying this post and am interested in the responses given as well as the responses to come.
:-)

Elfquest by Wendy and Richard Pini. Now in their 30th year, they are offering everything to date for free on their website. Check back every Friday for additional material.
Also recommend the "Death" series by Neil Gaiman.

When the Wind Blows - Raymond Briggs (a disarmingly gentle, warm, humorous graphic novel, about a regular blue collar couple trying to understand, and to prepare for, the ultimate catastrophe.[taken from Amazon.com:])
Fungus the Bogeyman -Raymond Briggs
A large selection of Tintin and Asterix.
An assortment of manga such as Fruits Basket, Inuyasha, Marmalade Boy.. that sort of thing.
Wow. Short list.Strange, I was sure I could remember more about the books in that library.. guess not.

Maybe no one mentioned it because it's so obvious but Bone is a great selection for this age group (or any) and Jeff Smith is someone that's quite vocal about using graphic novels in the school environment.
Also, is you do a little searching you'll find that many classic novels (Call of The Wild, Treasure Island) have been turned into graphic novels.


Booklist also has a top 10 graphic novel list that has some awesome titles as well.

If you teach a mythology unit, any superhero origin story (or let 'em read Walt Simonson's run on "Thor") would be a welcome break from Edith Hamilton for a 12 year-old.

The alternative comix world tends to cater to adults with themes of sex and drugs detailed in vulgar, or at least realistic, language.
Regardless, I'd like to suggest the following title, with the qualification that you may want to save it for your thirteen year olds:
Skim by Mariko Tamaki
This is a new book written by a Toronto based author and illustrated by her cousin.
Skim narrates the story of the not-so-skim Kimberly Keiko Cameron, a half-Japanese, bi-curious, goth caught in the high school politics of her her all-girls' private school.
I've suggested this title because it explores difficult, yet salient, aspects of teenage life: sexual identity, teen suicide, social and schoolyard politics, the need for individuality, ambiguous love, friendship, and the dynamics between students and teachers. It may not be a bildungsroman but it's certainly a story of growth and coming-of-age.
Some of the language, and the experimental lesbian love affair between Skim and her teacher, may not make it past your curriculum advisor or the PTA, but I think that it's important to expose students to the real world and discuss with them viable solutions to these problems.
Take a chance.
http://www.amazon.com/Skim-Mariko-Tam...
I'd also like to suggest anything by Adrian Tomine, but perhaps you could start with Sleep Walk and Other Stories, which anthologizes the first four single issues of his alt-comic Optic Nerve.
His concise, yet pregnant, dialogue is only surpassed by his complementary fine, yet expressive, line drawings. It's modern angst at its best.
Included are stories narrated exclusively with illustrations, which would make for a wonderful discussion on non-verbal communication and graphic representation, essential to the comic medium.
http://www.amazon.com/Sleepwalk-Other...

Now I personally turn my nose up and most manga in the USA (I can't say all manga cause its been about 10 years since I lived in Japan so I can't say I'd dislike most of what they got in manga's birth place) because it mostly seems homogenized(sp?). The few manga that I do find intriguing are more classic samurai tales put out by Dark Horse such as "Blade of the Immortal" or "Lone Wolf and Cub". So I am by no means a big proponent of Manga in general.
Having said that, I saw fooy on that. If manga can get kids fired up about reading, and lead them to reading other more and more stuff, then I say let it happen. If a teacher can find a Manga series that is a strong and meaningful narrative, then go with it. And if a PTA and/or Principle is too close minded to see that you can get the same result from good fiction period as you can from the same old classics, then I hope they are happy with the carbon copies they pump out or a lower level of enthusiasm from their students. I think thats what anyone advocating Manga in school would be saying, or at least I hope thats what they are saying (and not, "sure lets read Dragonball Z in school cause its super fun", cause DBZ has about as much literary merrit as my toenail clippings).
Jesse "Baron Ironfury" Stevens


I would not teach an entire manga or series probably to a class. Instead, I would pull chapters or scenes out to talk about narrative, framing, and plotting. And I have. I used the first pages from several chapters of an untranslated manga, 3 Gatsu No Lion, to talk about different ways to begin a story.
Again, I pointed out that XXXholic by Clamp has a chapter that is based on The Monkey's Paw (a classic short story in most 9th/10th grade lit books) as a comparison/contrast to the W.W. Jacobs story.
I haven't used manga as a primary text but as tie-ins to whatever I'm teaching at the moment.
My school library also carries a nicely growing selection of graphic novels like Bone and some manga series.
I have to add that I've also enjoyed Runaways.
Has anyone read Age of Bronze yet? I've heard some good reviews but haven't had a chance to yet.

Maybe a helpful way of framing this discussion for administrators and parents is thinking about graphic fiction as a means of teaching visual literacy. Kids today are growing up with a lot of visual stimuli, usually paired with text--the entire internet, for example--and it is really important that they learn about how they process that information so that they are better able to question it.

I just read a great book on the evolution of the eye called Optical Allusions by Jay Hosler. Funny, but filled with information and he ties in further questions for discussion. Great for a science class.
And for the record, I read primarily only manga when it comes to graphic novels. There are some manga that would be good to teach the culture and folklore of Japan. Barefoot Gen would be an excellent addition to WWII readings for example.
I applaud any teacher who tries to think outside the box when it comes to reaching their students. It usually means that the teacher is passionate about what they are doing and that will come out in the classroom! So kudos, teachers!

As a media specialist, I find that many of the kids who are reluctant to read anything will pick up a graphic novel. Kids want to read something with substance, not drivel. In our collection here, we have V, Watchmen, Age of Bronze (which is prety good, I think), Persepolis, Maus, Sandman, and the like mixed in with Captain America, X-men, and JLA. Kids who gravitate to these books are looking for an avenue to enrich themselves, albeit that's not their initial thought (Hey, a book with pictures, I bet that's an easy read!). Having done this for three years now, I have to say that starting my graphics novel collection was the best thing I've done here.

Are there books that have come out since 2008 that you think would be great additions? We're especially looking for graphic novels from African American perspectives.

Try some manga by Osamu Tezuka, like the Phoenix series.

Books mentioned in this topic
V for Vendetta (other topics)Blankets (other topics)
Watchmen (other topics)