4/2/2023 0 Comments Plot for invisible emmie![]() Thank you to Terri, Breena, Kayla, Tom, and Terry for a fabulous discussion. But, if this genre gets kids into books, then let’s allow and encourage graphic novels. If students enjoy graphic novels, they are READING! Yay! I do not recommend a steady diet of any one genre, including graphic novels. Terry Ebbeling : I would tell those reading “gatekeepers” of graphic novels that there are different strokes for different folks in all areas of life, including reading. (I was forced to read Tom Sawyer Abroad in 7th grade and am still mad.) Trust me, Dog Man lights up a lot more brain cells than Tom Sawyer Abroad. I think we should judge books on how many brain cells they light up. Do they also assume that a novel by Joe Smedlap is better than a sonnet by Shakespeare? Or zero, in the case of wordless graphic novels. They assume 100,000 words is better than 1,000. Tom Angleberger : I think people are hung up on word-count. Graphic novels vary just like prose books. ![]() And then some are just plain fun, and that’s okay. As I mentioned, graphic novels can be quite layered as well as visually stunning and rich in story. Terri Libenson : It couldn’t be further from the truth (and if it helps, I avidly read comics as a kid, and now I read such a wide range of books, from non-fiction to fiction, including – yes – graphic novels for adults!). ![]() Take time to read some of the new middle grade graphic novel classics (ask a middle schooler and they will surely have a list for you!) and keep an open mind to the possibilities these stories and this exciting format have to offer. Perhaps there is fear because graphic novels are a relatively new medium, but so were computers and tablets, and most schools utilize those to great success. If you believe that fostering a love of reading in younger generations is important, you’re only getting in your own way when you disregard graphic novels.īreena Bard : They should try reading some :) Really though, the fact that graphic novels are told with pictures should not disqualify them, and in fact makes them more accessible and engages students’ brains in a really unique way. I also get comments all the time from parents that their reluctant readers become eager readers when it comes to graphic novels. I don’t think the skills developed reading comics are any less important or useful than those that students gain while reading prose novels. When reading prose, you have to imagine the visuals based on the descriptions given to you and fill in details about the world around the characters, but when you’re reading comics you have to fill in the characters’ inner worlds and use context clues from the art to decipher what they’re thinking and feeling. It can be a really engaging and emotional experience. To really read a graphic novel, you have to read not only the text, but also to observe environments, body language, and facial expressions. Kayla Miller: Comics ask readers to use different skills than prose books. ![]() ![]() What would you like to say to those well-meaning adults who act as gatekeepers regarding graphic novels? To those who see graphic novels as inferior reading? And as long as adults react to graphic novels by wringing their hands or turning their noses up, graphic novels will also have a certain rebellious spirit that might attract middle school readers as well. Kids are free of the biases that keep many adults away from comics, and they aren’t pressured to maintain a high-brow reading list. They are exposed to a diversity of ideas and people, and as they begin to open their minds, they are perfectly primed to receive a radical new method of storytelling. Breena Bard: Middle schoolers are taking their first steps toward independence, developing their own beliefs and opinions in a way that they hadn’t before. What does that communicate about the market for upper middle grade/ lower young adult readers? Are graphic novels purposefully aimed towards the middle school reader, or is there something in the graphic novel format that perfectly mashes with the middle schooler’s brain? Middle school students seem particularly drawn to graphic novels, and often graphic novels are set in middle school. ![]()
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