Celebrating Raina Telgemeier! #GNCelebration

We are excited to begin our monthlong celebration of Graphic Novels.  Every Thursday in October, we'll be celebrating Graphic Novels here on our blog.  We are teaming up with blogger friends at Kid Lit Frenzy and Assessment in Perspective, so you'll want to check out their blogs every week too!  If you want to know more about our monthlong celebration, read our Nerdy Book Club post announcing it.  We also hope you'll join our Google Community where the party will come together!  We love Graphic Novels and we want to share that love with the world.

It was not easy for me to fall in love with graphic novels, but once I read Babymouse and fell in love with that character, I gave others a try.  (Thank you Jenni and Matthew Holm!).  I still find them a bit tricky as I have to constantly remind myself to spend time with the visuals--I tend to want to read quickly through the words and move on.  But knowing Graphic Novels and having many in my classroom has changed our Reading Workshop. I have several baskets of favorite authors and series in the Graphic Novel section. I have graphic novels in a variety of genres and I have graphic novels that span a variety of levels. So there are graphic novels for everyone.  I find that these are fabulous additions to our classroom and I am so glad I listened to Mary Lee and let her show me how to read these.  In preparation for today's post, I dug into the Graphic Novel tag on our blog and was amazed to see how many graphic novels we've shared on the blog over the years.  

To kick of our Graphic Novel Celebration, let's celebrate Raina Telgemeier!  I discovered Raina's work in 2010 when I read Smile. I fell instantly in love with it and couldn't wait to read more by this author. The idea of a Graphic Novel memoir was something I hadn't considered and I found the story to be fascinating.  This was one of the first graphic novels I read that helped me understand that graphic novels were not a "genre". Instead they could be any genre and Raina wrote a genre I had never read in a graphic novel.  It totally drew me in!

Since then I've read all of her books and have loved every one. She is already a favorite in our classroom as my children can identify her art and notice when they see a new piece in a graphic novel anthology (such as Comic Squad Recess!). My student relate to her stories and talk about "Raina" like she is sitting with us sometimes. Her writing and art combine to create some of the most amazing stories I've read.  She really changed my whole understanding of what a graphic novel could be and the impact it can have on readers.

Raina is a rock star in the graphic novel world. She was one of the authors who changed the way we thought about graphic novels and she continues to create amazing works.  If you did not get a chance to hear her interview on The Yarn about Graphic Novels, it is so worth listening to. It is an amazing interview by Colby Sharp and Travis Jonker.

Lately, Raina has been updating the Baby-Sitters Club books by Ann M. Martin. I love that these books that so many of us loved years ago, are back in graphic novel form. This gives students two ways to fall in love with the characters. A few years ago, Raina  did black and white versions of a few of the Baby-Sitters' Club books but now they are being published in FULL COLOR. And they are fabulous.  It is amazing to see my kids pick these up BECAUSE they know and love Raina's work.  I love that they can see the power of her work in so many different stories.  

I can't imagine what it takes to create one of these full color Baby-Sitter Club graphic novels. Needless to say, they are not being released as fast as we would all like as I am sure they take a while to create! But this week, the full color edition of book #3 was released:  Mary Anne Saves the Day. And we are giving away a copy as part of today's celebration! Complete the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win. Comment on this post for an optional entry!  

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Celebrate graphic novels with us today by reading or sharing one of Raina's books with students or colleagues! Go Raina!

Still Learning to Read: The Power of Graphic Novels

This is one of a series of blog posts that continue the conversation around Still Learning to Read--teaching reading to students in grades 3-6.  This series will run on the blog on Tuesdays starting in August 2016 and continue through the school year.

I looked around the room the other day and was struck by the number of students reading graphic novels.  It made my heart happy.  I have built our classroom collection of graphic novels over the past few years and have added so many quality titles and it was pretty incredible to see so many in the hands of my 3rd graders. I realized just how important these books have become to my 3rd grade readers.

 Not only are students totally engaged in their reading but they are learning so many things about becoming a reader:  Readers are finding new authors who they love.  Raina Telgemeir, Dav Pilkey, Dan Santat and Jennifer Holm are authors they love and recognize. The books are making their rounds in the classroom without any guidance from me. Kids are being introduced to books with more complexity because they are willing to give new things a try when something is in graphic novel format.

Mary Lee and I have written about graphic novels quite often over the years.  Looking back, I realized that it was in 2008 that I committed to reading graphic novels because I saw the power they have for kids. Over the past 8 years, I have become a more confident reader of graphic novels and have fallen in love with them myself.  I have discovered so many amazing books and authors and am so glad I've been able to add so many to our classroom.

There are great resources out there for teachers and parents on the benefits of Graphic Novels.  One is
Raising Super Readers: The Benefits of Comic Books and Graphic Novels from Scholastic and the other is Raising a Reader! How Comics and Graphic Novels Can Help Your Kids Love to Read with an introduction by Jennifer Holm Holm from CBLDF.

And if you need a great book talk on a graphic novel to share with your students, the amazing Livbits shares the amazingness of El Deafo and Cece Bell in one of her newest videos!

(Our new edition of Still Learning to Read was released in August!  You can order it online at Stenhouse! You can follow the conversation using the hashtag #SLTRead or you can join us for a book chat on Facebook that began this week by joining our group here.)

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GRAPHIC NOVEL CLUB BEGINS

This week, we started a 5th grade Graphic Novels Club in the library. The Club will meet twice a month during lunch and recess. We had 19 kids attend and each came with lots of enthusiasm. Ray Barrett, one of our great Dublin Library librarians will be running the group through the year. Ray knows graphic novels well and I have already learned about lots of titles that I wasn't aware of. Since he is running the club, I was able to sit back and listen to the conversations between Ray and the students. He introduced the club by sharing many new titles with them. The kids were aware of some of them but many were new to all of us. Then they all chit chatted about the Graphic Novels they'd read and enjoyed as well as those that they hoped to read soon. Everyone left with one title in mind that they'd like to read before our next meeting. Ray and I will work together to gather the books they requested.

I was amazed at the level of talk and the knowledge that most of these kids had about graphic novels. I was also excited about the variety of things they were interested in reading. No one was worried about what other kids were choosing to read--they all felt pretty confident in their choicesI think that one thing Graphic Novels are doing for kids today is stretching the genres and authors they read. They seem more willing to try a new genre if it is in graphic novel form. .

It seems that we can't keep graphic novels in the library. Even though I felt like I added many Graphic Novels to the collection over the summer, there are never many available for check out. They are always checked out!

I am excited about the year ahead. We are so lucky that Ray has offered to run this club for us. Graphic Novels are not a genre that I choose to read often but I am hoping that this club will inspire me to read more of them. Ever since I read Terry Thompson's professional book, ADVENTURES IN GRAPHICA, I see the importance of this genre for all readers. The blog THE GRAPHIC CLASSROOM has also helped me learn about new books for elementary readers.

I think The Graphic Novel Club will be a great experience for the kids and we'll all learn so much. I'll keep you posted as we move forward in the year.

Why Graphic Novels?

Explorer: The Mystery Boxes
edited by Kazu Kibuishi
Amulet Books (Abrams), 2012

Why Graphic Novels?
Because they're not always easy, and they're not always fluff.
The seven stories in this book all answer the question, "What's in the box?" but they all do it VERY differently.
Graphic Novel readers will enjoy finding the art and story telling of favorite authors Kazu Kibuishi (AMULET) and Raina Telgemeier (SMILE), and discovering the new styles of other graphic novelists.

Sticky Burr: Adventures in Burrwood Forest

by John Lechner

Candlewick Press, 2007

Sticky Burr: The Prickly Peril

by John Lechner

Candlewick Press, 2009

Why Graphic Novels?

Because there are text structures like a prologue and an epilogue, a newspaper, a map, a song, journal entries and diagrams in a story that features a SEED as the protagonist!!

Giants Beware!

written by Jorge Aguirre

art by Rafael Rosado

story by Rafael Rosado & Jorge Aguirre

color by John Novak

additional color by Matthew Schenk

First Second, 2012

Why Graphic Novels?

Because the characters stay with us and make us hope for a sequel. (Franki's review here.)

Quarterback Scramble (Sports Illustrated Kids Graphic Novels)

written by Brandon Terrell

illustrated by Gerardo Sandoval

colored by Benny Fuentes

Stone Arch Books, 2011

Why Graphic Novels? 

So we can talk about stereotyping, and stated vs. implied themes, and how books are marketed.

Earthling!

written and illustrated by Mark Fearing

created by Mark Fearing and Tim Rummel

Chronicle Books, 2012

Why Graphic Novels?

Because they are not always quick reads. Sometimes they are 245 pages and 9 chapters long.

They make us think again about our Earth-centric view of the universe.

They give the terror of missing your bus and being the new kid at school a whole new dimension.

Why Graphic Novels?

Why not? They're FUN!!

ALIA'S MISSION:SAVING THE BOOKS OF IRAQ

As you know, I am not much of a graphic novel reader. You are probably shocked that I am actually reviewing a graphic novel since Mary Lee is the blog expert on these! But I am trying. I have my favorites--To Dance, Babymouse, Jellaby. I just received a copy of ALIA'S MISSION by Mark Alan Stamaty and will add it to the list of graphic novels I am glad I read. It is the story of the library who saved the books of Basra. I have read the story before but I must say that the graphic novel form fits the story well. It is definitely a story that is better told with graphics and art together with text. The black and white illustrations add to the tone of the book and the history. The graphic novel tells the heroic story and the graphics do a great job of showing the emotions that went along with getting the books out of the library. It is a very powerful book and I am starting to see myself as a reader of graphic novels.

I am becoming more and more interested in this genre. (Mary Lee has helped me along with that.) As a teacher, I want my students to understand that graphic novels are more than Superheroes. I think that is why I am always so intrigued by these books on true and serious topics.

I think graphic novels provide a great "in" for kids who are reluctant readers. For years, all these kids had when choosing this format were comic books about superheroes or cartoon characters. Now, graphic readers can read a variety of genres and topics--and the number of these books for younger children are growing. That is all good news!

This is definitely one I'll add to my 3rd/4th classroom library. The topic of war is a hard one but it is well done. It probably isn't appropriate below 3rd grade and I can certainly see it being read through middle or high school. A great addition to any collection.

I am being more interested in using graphic novels in my classroom. After hearing speaker, Terry Thompson, I am going to work on collecting and using these in smarter ways. Terry Thompson is the author of the upcoming Stenhouse book for teachers, ADVENTURES IN GRAPHICA: USING COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS TO TEACH COMPREHENSION 2-6 which will be out soon. He is brilliant and a huge resource for ways to use these books to support our students as readers. (I'll review the book as soon as I get a copy but this is to let you know that it will be a good one--especially for those of us who don't know where to begin with graphic novels.)

Graphic Novel is a Format, Not a Genre

Every Thursday in October, we'll be celebrating Graphic Novels here on our blog. We are teaming up with blogger friends at Kid Lit Frenzy and Assessment in Perspective, so you'll want to check out their blogs every week too! If you want to know more about our monthlong celebration, read our Nerdy Book Club post announcing it. We also hope you'll join our Google Community where the party will come together! We love Graphic Novels and we want to share that love with the world.

Last week while my students were taking a math test, I went from shelf to shelf around my classroom, gathering books for this post. That's right -- there's not a "Graphic Novels" shelf in one spot in my classroom. There are graphic novels shelved with autobiography and memoir, fables, mythology, and short stories. There are tubs for the graphic novel series (BabyMouse, Lunch Lady, etc.), but graphic novel fiction and fantasy are shelved by author's last name with the other fiction chapter books.

That's because graphic novels are a FORMAT and not a genre!

FABLES

Fable Comics

edited by Chris Duffy 

FAIRY TALES

Fairy Tale Comics

edited by Chris Duffy

MEMOIR

To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel

by Siena Cherson Siegel

SHORT STORIES AROUND A THEME

Explorer: The Mystery Boxes

edited by Kazu Kibuishi

MYTHOLOGY

Zeus: King of the Gods

by George O'Connor

HISTORICAL FICTION

Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: One Dead Spy

by Nathan Hale

HISTORY

Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina & New Orleans

by Don Brown

This is a history book that is not for the faint of heart. In the graphics, towns are erased by crashing waves, people and pets drown and starve, crowds are locked out of the SuperDome, and aid is slow in coming. In the same way that the images force us to see the truth of what happened in New Orleans, the text is completely straightforward and honest. In fact, when you get to the end of the book and look at Don Brown's source notes, you will see that nearly every (maybe every?) line of text is referenced to a primary source. This is an amazing mentor text for accurate journalistic writing. Don Brown didn't get emotionally involved in the story he was telling; he was simply the conduit to tell the story, to remind us about what went wrong so that hopefully we can get it right the next time. (Heaven forbid there's a next time.) And he told it true as a tribute "To the resilient people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast" who have been working ever since 2005 to rebuild their cities and their lives.

With all the light-hearted, fun-to-read graphic novels that are available, you might think this is an odd choice for our give-away today, but this is an important book that will expand your notion of what a graphic novel can be and what graphic novels can do for readers.

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Continuing Education -- Graphic Novels

A brief timeline of my graphic novels education to date:

• In November of 2005, I read the first volume of the Scholastic color re-issue of BONE. In my reading log, I noted this historic event: "My first graphic novel." In January of 2006, BABYMOUSE hit the bookstores.
• Last October (2006), I volunteered to be on the Graphic Novels panel for the Cybils . (Press Release here for more information on the Cybils.) I did this to jump-start my graphic novel education, and it did the job.
  
• Last November (2006) at NCTE, I heard Scott McCloud speak. Scott McCloud is "an American cartoonist and a leading popular scholar of comics as a distinct literary and artistic medium," according to his Wikipedia entry. I read his book MAKING COMICS as the "textbook" for my education in graphic novels, and then over the course of the next couple of months, I read about 40 graphic novels, most of which were Cybils nominations.

Maybe I shouldn't have just revealed how much of a newbie I am to the world of graphic novels, but you know, in some circles (over 30, never read graphic novels), I'm a virtual expert.

This morning I finished the three volumes of the SCOTT PILGRIM series by Brian Lee O'Malley. Scott McCloud said (I have this in my notes) that O'Malley's work, and others like his, will "bridge the gap between Japanese manga and American comics. This generation of artists will speak directly to our kids." That's why I read these three books. And while they might speak directly to kids, they don't speak so directly to me.

The series is summarized in Wikipedia thus:

The series is about 23-year-old Canadian Scott Pilgrim, a slacker, hero, wannabe-rockstar, who is living in Toronto and playing bass in the band "Sex Bob-Omb." He falls in love with American delivery girl Ramona V. Flowers, but must defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends in order to date her.

That much I got, although I almost didn't finish the first book because the set-up of the plot was just too weird for me. Once O'Malley got to Ramona V. Flowers and defeating the seven evil ex-boyfriends, I understood what to expect from the rest of the books. Some version of one evil boyfriend per book.

Did I know that all the names of the bands mentioned in the books are references to video games? No, because I have a reading history, not a gaming history. But did it matter that I didn't get all the video game references? (Or, for that matter, most of the rock music references?) Nope. Because I got the story. Most of it. And thanks to Scott McCloud, I could probably even point out some of the American comic influences and some of the Japanese manga influences.

What does all this mean and why am I writing about it here? If we ask kids to read outside their comfort zones and try new genres, we should, too. If we want to be able to tell kids first hand what it's like to stick with a book and be glad we did, we should have been there/done that.

What kinds of books/genres have you read that are outside your comfort zone, and what did you learn from that experience that you can share with your students?

Graphic Novels in Education

I'm impressed. The lag time between the explosion of graphic novels and ideas for what else to do with them in the classroom besides let kids read them has been fairly short.

The NCTE Inbox Blog has information about a new NCTE professional book, Building Literacy Connections with Graphic Novels: Page by Page, Panel by Panel, ed. James Bucky Carter. Unfortunately for elementary teachers, this book is for teachers in grades 7-12.

However, the ReadWriteThink lesson "The Comic Book Show and Tell" looks as if it could be adapted for younger readers and writers. Especially nice is the Comic Vocabulary Interactive, which gives definitions and visual examples of text, layout and design, and angles. I'd like to gather multiple copies of BabyMouse books from the library (once again, what would I do without the public library?!?!) and try to adapt this lesson for my graphic novel-obsessed 5th graders.

"Graphic novels and comic books provide rich opportunities to explore multimodal literacy. They’re anything but simple. The sophisticated relationships among images and words and layout encourage deep thinking and critical analysis. If we can help students “get” graphic novels, we will simultaneously teach them the literacy strategies they need for navigating many of the other multimodal texts they encounter in their daily lives." Traci Gardner, NCTE Inbox Blog

James Bucky Carter's Blog EN/SANE World
Graphic Novel Reviews for kids and teens at No Flying No Tights
Cybils Graphic Novel Finalists

Graphic Novel Week: Interview with Terry Thompson

Yesterday, we reviewed Terry Thompson's new professional book for teachers, ADVENTURES IN GRAPHICA: USING COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS TO TEACH COMPREHENSION, 2-6. Today, we have an interview with the author about the book and his work in this area. Enjoy!


FRANKI: Are you a comic book/graphic novel reader yourself?

TERRY: I get asked this a lot, and the answer surprises many people. The common assumption is that I have stacks and stacks of comic books and that's all I ever read. Though I'm a huge fan of DC Comics' Nightwing and Green Lantern series, graphica is only a small slice of what I read. This mirrors the theme in my book about how comic books and graphic novels should supplement (not replace) the variety of literature our readers experience. Graphica shuffles into the "to be read stack" on my night stand about every 4th or 5th book.
When I read graphica, I have to admit that prefer graphic novels over comic books. Since I'm not one who can wait an entire month to find out what happened after the cliffhanger ending of an issue, when I do read comic books, I prefer to have all the issues of one story arch at the same time. Since lots of plot lines in comic books span several consecutive issues, I have to wait a few months before my stack of issues includes the entire story.

FRANKI: Tell us about the word GRAPHICA.

TERRY: Funny you should ask. A friend of mine jokes that I made it up! When he first saw the book, he wrote me an email and said, "Is graphica even a real wordica???" In actuality, graphica is a rarely used industry term that does, in fact, refer to the comic/graphic novel format. I chose to use it for the book, because I felt the medium really needed a more definitive word that encompassed all that it can offer. Because the term 'comics' can refer to comedians or comic strips in the funnies, and 'graphic novels' limits us to only one type of format within the medium, I brought the word graphica out of hiding to give us a common term for the medium as well as a mutual frame of reference for the literature it refers to.

FRANKI: When did you start seeing the value in using graphica?

TERRY: In chapter one, I tell the story of my experience with Bradley and how a single comic book that I picked up at the local comic book store literally transformed him as a reader right before my eyes. That was the moment that I realized I needed to learn more about the medium and what it could offer my students instructionally. Between that research and trying graphica with other struggling readers, it didn't take long for me to realize that I'd landed on a potential gold mine of literature that - before then - had never dawned on me as a way to support my teaching.

FRANKI: Do you find that most kids understand graphica more easily than many adults? Or are there students who have difficulty with it?

TERRY: Yes. And yes. I think that one of the aspects that draw kids to graphica is that it inhabits a childlike world of art work, movement, and themes. Since many of our kids are used to being stimulated visually (videos, games, computers), the format seems to speak to them in a way that traditional literature doesn't - and they take to it with relative ease. On the other hand, while most of the adults I've worked with embrace graphica as valuable, they admit that they don't always 'get it' - it's almost like how the kids are the only ones who can hear the reindeer bells in the Polar Express. Almost. With that being said, though, we have to remember that graphica is just like any other literature we offer our students. Most of our students will take to graphica, but some won't - and we need to allow for that. It's just like working with other genres and mediums. Kids are different and they take to various types of reading differently. Whether they're finding the artistic representations of meaning difficult to navigate or they simply have a preference for more traditional types of literature, there are kids out there who will have difficulty with graphica. And that's ok. We don't live in Stepford.

FRANKI: What are the biggest gains you've seen kids make when graphica is part of their reading?

TERRY: When kids read a lot of comics and graphic novels, I've noticed their ability to describe their mental images in clearer detail and in a way that better supports their ability to make meaning. Because the artwork is such a clear example of what good readers do when they visualize, the act of visualization on the part of readers of graphica appears more precise and fluid. I'm also noticing that these readers seem to be making gains in stamina. Since the illustrations support the text and the students are interested and motivated, they'll read for longer amounts of time than they might read traditional text. The effects seem to be playing out in that they have an increased endurance for reading - even when they're reading traditional texts. However, the biggest gains of all have been in students' increased levels of motivation to read. I've seen tons of passive readers become active about the task of reading - simply because they had a sincere desire to read the medium.

FRANKI: You talk a lot about transferring skills learned in comic books and graphic novels to other types of text. Can you explain this?

TERRY: Certainly. I call this 'translating the transfer' and, to me, this is the most valuable payoff that using graphica instructionally can offer. Teaching with comics and graphic novels offers visual representations of many of the invisible comprehension strategies we use when we read. For example I mentioned earlier that the artwork in the panels of a comic book can be a terrific example of what it means to visualize while reading. For many of our students, this is an 'in the head' process - but seeing the skill visually on the page, accompanied by the text, can ground this important but invisible comprehension strategy. As we use graphica to make the invisible act of comprehension visible, we can 'translate' for students how they can 'transfer' this learning back to traditional texts. Continuing with our example of visualization, I might remind a reader of graphica who's struggling to make mental images in a chapter book to try to imagine the reading like a comic book panel in her head. What colors would you see? What action would be happening? What characters are present? Who would be talking? What are they saying? How are they saying it? What types of onomatopoeia might be occurring? How will your mental image change as you continue through the text and create the next panel. In this way, graphica can serve as a scaffold to make comprehension strategies more tangible to our students who might otherwise struggle with them. All we have to do is show them how.

FRANKI: How do you suggest that teachers who are not readers of this type of text become comfortable with it?

TERRY: I think it is so important that teachers of reading be readers themselves. If we expect our students to read graphica (or any other genre or medium), then it is important that we have had experiences with it as well. In the same way that I'd propose that someone new to teaching poetry explore some more grown up offerings of the genre, I suggest that teachers new to graphica take some time to read selections that are more geared to seasoned readers. In this way, their processes of making meaning will be more authentic. Jumping in feet first and having a personal experience with graphica is an excellent way to get more comfortable with it. In no time at all, navigating the medium will be second nature to them - and this will only fortify their instructional use of it. To adults who are new to graphica, I often suggest the classics like Will Eisner's groundbreaking graphic novel A Contract With God or Art Spiegleman's two part graphic novel series Maus. Sid Jacobson's graphic adaptation of the 9/11 report is amazing, and several adults I've suggested it to have contacted me afterwards to tell me what a life changing experience it was for them (and it truly is amazing). Additionally, graphica is written in so many different genres that new readers might also do well to find a selection that matches their favorite like romance, memoir, science fiction, and - yes - even super heroes!

FRANKI: Have you learned anything new about the topic since you completed your book?

TERRY: In the book, I talk a lot about how motivated kids are to read graphica and how just making them available will create readers out of many of our resisters. As the manuscript went into the final copyediting phases, I settled on a new and important understanding that I wish I could have included in the book. I've noticed that, while that motivation to read comics is powerful, it can wane if students aren't introduced to graphica that meets them where they are. First impressions are everything. If readers are given a selection of graphica during their first encounter with the medium that is too challenging or doesn't fall within their zone of interest, some readers will decide immediately that comics are yet another type of text that they can't enjoy. This seems doubly difficult when the student was really looking forward to reading the medium. In these cases, the reader's excitement isn't enough. If we want to ride that wave of enthusiasm effectively, we have match students with graphica that is manageable for them and encourage them to monitor whether the selection is just right for them or it needs to be abandoned for a better choice. The popularity and nuance of being a graphic novel isn't enough. If we don't meet the reader's enthusiasm to take on graphica with appropriately matched selections, we may see that wave crash all too soon and its potential to make a difference lost to us unnecessarily.

10 Graphic Novels Recommended by 3rd Graders

Every Thursday in October, we'll be celebrating Graphic Novels here on our blog. We are teaming up with blogger friends at Kid Lit Frenzy and Assessment in Perspective, so you'll want to check out their blogs every week too! If you want to know more about our monthlong celebration, read our Nerdy Book Club post announcing it. We also hope you'll join our Google Community where the party will come together! We love Graphic Novels and we want to share that love with the world.  And don't forget to visit Kid Lit Frenzy today for your chance to win a prize!

Graphic Novels are quite popular in our classroom. Last week, I talked to my kids about this post and this monthlong celebration and asked them which 10 Graphic Novels they'd recommend to other 3rd graders. This is the list they came up with. These are the books that are being read like crazy in our class right now.

Babymouse (all of them!)

Squish (all of them!)

Lunch Lady (all of them!)

Comics Squad

Smile

Sisters

Baby-Sitters Club Graphix 

 The Misadventures of Salem Hyde

Hilo

Mal and Chad

Gorging on Graphic Novels

The hottest books in my classroom in the first six days of 4th grade?

Graphic novels.

Maybe it's because my students have never had access to such a wide variety.

Maybe it's because my students have never so obviously been "given permission" to read graphic novels.

Maybe it's because lots of my students didn't read over the summer, or aren't fluent in English, and they need the support of the pictures in a not-babyish book.

Or all of the above.

Did you see Terry Thompson's (author of Adventures in Graphica, tweeting @terrytreads) guest post on The Book Whisperer Blog last week? He very concisely talks about how graphic novels are perfect for motivation, scaffolding, and versatility.

Each day this week, I'll be reviewing one or more new graphic novels that will be going into (or are in) my classroom library.


Luz Sees the Lightby Claudia Dávila
Kids Can Press, 2011
review copy provided by the publisher

Luz is a spunky chica who learns the hard way that she needs to make better choices for the Earth. There are blackouts in her city that cause her to realize how dependent she is on electricity. She really wants a pair of expensive imported sneakers, but she has to abandon that dream along with frequent car rides to the mall. As she becomes more enlightened (as she "sees the light") she becomes a neighborhood activist, working with her friends to turn the vacant lot in their neighborhood into a beautiful garden.

Maybe it's a bit didactic, but how many spunky chica main characters do YOU have in your classroom library??? (Me, neither. Now I have one.)

Recommended for readers in 3rd-6th grade, and a perfect tie-in for a science unit on energy.

Text Set: Middle Grade Graphic Novels

frankisibberson.com. Texts for this Text Set have been posted daily on Instagram. Follow @TextSets there to get daily updates!

This week's Text Set is a set of Middle Grade graphic novels. I try to keep up with my middle grade graphic novel reading because so often I am working with a reader who loves graphic novels.  And graphic novels are often so important to a reader's growth--these are the books that help many readers fall in love with reading.  The books I'll share are perfect for independent reading and they'd also each make for a  fabulous middle grade read aloud if projected on the screen. Each graphic novel in this Text Set features strong characters. Enjoy! 

Twins by Varian Johnson will have wide appeal for readers. It is realistic fiction and a great story of sisters.  The two twins in this book are figuring out how to have their own identities as they grow up.  I love that this book can also introduce readers to middle grade author, Varian Johnson. Or it can support readers of Varian Johnson who want to try a graphic novel!  

We don't see many books about the impact allergies have on children. This brand new graphic novel Allergic by Megan Wagner Lloyd does a great job of showing that and of telling the story of a child severely allergic to dogs and the grief that this causes. Many kids will see themselves in this book. 

Snapdragon by Kat Leyh is a story with a bit of witchcraft and creepiness! A fun story for readers of fantasy but also for readers who love a good character. Snapdragon and her friend Lu are characters with depth and the various storylines offer some complexity.  Some characters are queer and trans, and that is not the focus of the story. It is just a part of who they are within a story about bravery, friendship and more.  I especially appreciated the adult characters in this story and their relationships with the children.

Witches of Brooklyn by Sophie Escabasse is another fun fantasy featuring witches.  (This is the first in a series.) After being forced to move in with an aunt she's never met, Effie grows to love her aunt and her partner.  She also discovers that they are not actually herbalists (as they claim) but they are witches.  This graphic novel has just the right amount of magic and fun mixed in with themes of family and growing up.  In an interview, the author talked about the aunts and this is what she says, "I also wanted to show old people that are really fun to hang out with. Old people that anyone would love to have as friends and/or family. Tired of the “youth or nothing” philosophy. I like the age gap between my characters. It was important for me to show different generations sharing and living things together. " I loved this book even more when I read this! You can read the full interview here.

Measuring Up by Lily LaMotte is the story of Cici who has just moved to the United States from Taiwan.  Although she is settling in, she misses her grandmother terribly and tries to figure out how to have her grandmother visit for her upcoming birthday. She thinks she can afford the trip if she wins the cooking contest! However it isn't as easy as it seems. Cici learns so much in the process!

This week's books were linked at Cover to Cover Children's Bookstore. If you are looking for a fabulous children's bookstore to support, this is an amazing one. We are lucky to have them in Central Ohio!

You can find a downloadable pdf of this list at frankisibberson.com. 

Graphic Novel Reading-Thanks to Book-A-Day

I had no idea how I would manage Donalyn Miller's Book-A-Day Challenge. I knew that summer would provide some days that I would have lots of time to read, and some days that I would have almost no time to read. When I asked Donalyn about this, she said, "Pick short books. Think picture books and graphic novels." So, while I've done lots of novel reading, I've also plugged in lots of graphic novels and picture books. The things about Book-A-Day for me so far, is that it has changed my mindset about reading. So far, in the two weeks of summer, I have read a book every day. But I have been careful with my selections when the day is already packed.  This has actually given me the chance to catch up on some reading that may never have made it to the top of my pile. I have caught up on some picture book and graphic novel reading on those days when I don't have hours to commit to reading. An added bonus about the Book-A-Day challenge.

This week, I read several graphic novels.

Bambinowas the first graphic novel I read this week.  It is a short biography from the Capstone Graphic Library collection. I was impressed with this biography of Babe Ruth for many reasons. First of all, it is a thin book-pretty accessible for lots of kids. Secondly, the book only focuses on the one season in Babe Ruth's career when he beat his own home-run record. I like the focus on the one season, rather than a book about his whole life.  The book packs a lot of information and I find myself more interested in Babe Ruth than I had been.  I am going to look into more of the books in this series.


I then read Zebrafish by Peter Reynolds and Fablevision.  I think kids will like this one a lot.  First of all, it is about kids who form a band.  So many kids will love the whole idea.  The kids want to make a difference in the world and plan a benefit concert. The book deals with issues of growing up, illness, making a difference, and friendship.  A quick read that I think will give middle graders lots to talk about.

I also read Page by Paige by Laura Lee Gulledge. This is more of a young adult novel. I see it as more middle school/high school.  The story is about a girl named Paige who moves to New York City. It is a growing up story in which Paige learns to be herself, explore her feelings through her art, make friends, fall in love and more.  There are a few edgy parts to the book--one that makes it perfect for middle school/high school.  A great story about a character I came to love early in the book.  I thought this was a well-done book trailer on the book.



Finally, I read SMILE by Raina Telgemeier.  This is one that's been on my stack for a while. This is a great middle grade/middle school novel. It is pretty autobiographical from what I read from the author. Raina is in sixth grade when she falls and knocks out her two front teeth. For years, she has to undergo orthodontic work to put her mouth back in order--a hard age to be going through this.  This book chronicles lots of the experiences and weaves the story of being a middle schooler, dealing with friends etc. with the dental treatment that is a constant part of Raina's life. This is definitely one of my favorite middle grade graphic novels.

So, I thank Donalyn Miller for this Book-A-Day Challenge. It is not turning out as I expected but my mindset to read a book-a-day is allowing me to get to books that may have remained on my pile for years.