Graphic Novel Week--Learning to Read These Things

So, I have participated in Graphic Novel week because I think that these books are huge and important right now. I find them fascinating and I am pretty sure that we could do some amazing work with kids using these. I also think that this may be just the kind of book that those kids who have never bought into reading, may love.

But, I am not a reader of Graphic Novels. I have read a few--I am a huge Babymouse fan. I have read some great nonfiction GNs (To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel). But, really, I haven't stretched to many others. As I have been reading Mary Lee's reviews this week, I decided I needed to give them a better try. So I purchased HIKARU NO GO #1 after I read Mary Lee's review of it earlier this week. She said that three of her boys-who were very different readers-- were totally hooked. So I decided I had to see what made the series so addicting.

Well, I picked #1 in the series up last night and found that ML was right--it is Manga. It opens on the left side, you read from left to right, etc. Totally threw me. Wanted to take it back to the store immediately. I was talking to my friend and colleague Josie this morning--showing her the book, telling her how much I did not want to read it. We were trying to figure out why Mary Lee seemed to be able to read these, but we could not. (We know she is very smart but we thought that we should be able to figure out how to read books that her 4th graders were reading.) So, we emailed her to ask what her trick was. Here is what she said:

Slow down.
Read differently.
Spend time on the pictures.
Watch it like TV or a movie with subtitles.

Good advice, I must say. So, I tried again, listening to her advice. I think the "SLOW DOWN" and "SPEND TIME ON THE PICTURES" were the two things I was not doing. Slowing down is really not in my personality and I soon realized that I had just been speeding through the words and ignoring most of the pictures.

You will all be happy to know that I am now on page 41 of this book and am enjoying it a lot! There is really nothing about it that would have drawn me to it--but I put my mind to it and followed Mary Lee's advice. I think it was a turning point for me. I am pretty sure I am going to get through the book and I think I am going to like it. Then I think I will get through more Graphic Novels that are more complicated than the ones I have been reading.

I am writing this because I know there are a lot of us out there who are not yet comfortable with this medium. I am one of them. I am writing to share Mary Lee's brilliant advice--that seems very obvious, I know. And to tell you that it is worth doing. As adults, we get into reading the kinds of books we enjoy and are comfortable reading. As reading teachers, I always think that it is worth it to put ourselves in a position where our reading is hard--to experience what the kids often experience with new genres, etc. I think it is worth doing because it is a big thing and our students will be reading them. How can we recommend books and talk to our students about books that they love if we don't know them and have no experience with them? And people are talking about them and I hate to be left out of conversations about books!

But, what I am learning is that these books are pretty cool. A pretty interesting and different read. The most important thing I am learning is why people are so drawn to them. I am starting to understand and that is worth a post, I think!

I plan to add a few more titles with Mary Lee's guidance to my 48 Hour Read Stack!

Graphic Novel Week: New From Scholastic

Magic Pickle: The Original Graphic Novel!
by Scott Morse
Graphix, May 2008
already out in this series:
Magic Pickle and the Planet of the Grapes
Magic Pickle vs. the Egg Poacher

Dr. Jekyll Formaldehyde creates a superhero pickle who fights against the Brotherhood of the Evil Produce. Food puns abound and footies get fried off of pajamas. Kids who play with food and kids who believe that a magic pickle is operating out of a secret lab under their bedroom floor will enjoy this book.

(Detailed review here; Scott Morse's blog here.)

Knights of the Lunch Table: The Dodgeball Chronicles
by Frank Cammuso
Graphix, July 2008

Arthur King is the new kid at Camelot Middle School. His science teacher is Mr. Merlyn and he manages to open the "busted locker...that nobody can open. The one with the rhyming graffiti on it...this kid, Terry White, had that locker." A working knowledge of the Arthurian legend definitely adds to the fun of this book, but anyone who's been the new kid at school, the underdog up against bullies, or the victim of an evil school principal will celebrate the triumph of Artie and his new friends against the Horde and Mrs. Dagger. And you've gotta love a magical locker with a cute grin that produces sandwiches with the crusts cut off.

(Frank Cammuso's website here.)

Graphic Novel Week: Hikaru No Go

Hikaru No Go, Volumes 1-11
by Yumi Hotta
published by Viz Media

Three boys in my classroom are completely absorbed by this series. All three are very different readers. One is a very capable reader who, up until Hikaru had been plowing through the Warriors series at an amazing rate. He is an avid member of our school's chess club. Another, a good reader, has had a hard time finding and staying committed to books this year. He is a beginning member of our school's chess club. The third is one of my reading success stories for the year -- now a pretty good reader, but one who still needs the picture supports that a graphic novel offers. Hikaru No Go has been the right book(s) at the right time for all three boys in three very different ways.

Hikaru No Go ("Hikaru's Go") is a native manga series -- originally published in Japan, it reads right to left. In the story, Hikaru finds a bloodstained Go board in his grandfather's shed. (Go is an ancient Asian strategy game.) The spirit of an ancient Go master, Sai, who hasn't played Go in a really, really long time (not since he possessed a Go player back in the Edo period in Japan) inhabits Hikaru's mind. Hikaru doesn't know anything about Go and, in the beginning of the series, has no desire to learn. It's the perfect set-up for the reader to learn about Go right along with Hikaru. At first, Hikaru lets Sai play through him, but eventually, Hikaru becomes a good player on his own.

Besides reading the books, this trio has started playing Go every chance they get. They began on a 9x9 board (a grid) that one of them drew on paper, using "stones" that he cut from two colors of scratch paper. They have progressed to using the grid of a checkers board and the half-marbles that previously were used for Mancala. Rumor has it that one of them is getting a real Go board soon, and they are looking into playing Go online.

In writing workshop and in enrichment time, two of them have been working on a detailed report about Go, and the third has created a very basic beginner's guide to getting started in the game. As they teach their friends to play Go, they are bringing new readers to the series.

These books were in my classroom all year last year and they never caught on. They may never be quite the hit they've been this year for these readers. But they've more than paid their rent for their shelf space in my classroom!

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.

Graphic Novel Week: ADVENTURES IN GRAPHICA by Terry Thompson

I just received my copy of ADVENTURES IN GRAPHICA: USING COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS TO TEACH COMPREHENSION, 2-6 by Terry Thompson. I mentioned it a while back--looking forward to its release.

This is a much needed book--one I have been waiting for for a while.

One of my favorite lines in this new book is, "So, it all started with a struggling reader and a comic book, and I've been hooked ever since." Terry Thompson realized long before many of us, how to use graphic novels and comic books to meet the needs of all of his readers, especially those who struggle.

There is so much to love about this book. First of all, it is VERY comprehensive. Thompson includes everything from definitions of the types of graphica to classroom examples. This is by far, the most comprehensive book I have seen for teachers of reading on the topic. He has found ways to use graphica to teach so many important reading skills. He fits graphica into all components of the literacy block--guided reading, lit circles, shared reading and read aloud. He talks about the actual teaching and also gives ideas for making comics accessible to students and for helping keep them from getting wrinkled, ruined, etc.

Much of this book will help teachers use graphica with all of their students. But he does have specific tips and thoughts for working with boys, girls, and English Language Learners.

One of the things that I find the most powerful is the way that Thompson talks about comprehension with comics and graphic novels. He shares great ideas and strategies for using these to help students with higher level comprehension skills. Then he talks pretty specifically about how to use what they learn in this medium to transfer to other formats of text. He understands the draw of comics and how to use those well, but then to expand the learning to other types of text.

Another thing that makes this book so amazing is the resources that he helps us with. As an elementary teacher, and a non-graphica reader, it is hard for me to determine which books are appropriate for my elementary students. Thompson gives us many resources--websites, titles and publishers--that are appropriate for readers in grades 2-6. He also provides a selection guide to help teachers think through specific characteristics of this medium when selecting text for students.

Like I said earlier, this book is very comprehensive and I am thrilled to have it. This is an area that I have wanted to think more about lately. Before ADVENTURES IN GRAPHICA, I'd find a bit of info here and a bit more there, but I had trouble pulling it all together and figuring out how to best us these in my teaching. This book pulls it all together for me plus gives me so much more.

On a side note, rumor has it that this book is SOOO popular that it was seen on at least one runner at this year's Boston Marathon. See below:

Graphic Novel Week: Jeff Smith and Scott McCloud

On a beautiful Saturday afternoon in May, Mershon Auditorium was predictably only about 2/3 full. The mix in the audience was a little heavy on the 20-50 year-old "cartoonhead" men (Smith's term, not mine), with some kids aged 8-12 (mostly boys, parents in tow) mixed in, and a sprinkling of other
assorted artsy/librariany/teachery/
dragged-along-for-company types.

Scott McCloud tried valiantly to stick to his list of questions, but luckily the conversation was mostly free-flowing.

On Jeff's early years: Jeff Smith moved to the Columbus area in kindergarten, and lived in Worthington growing up. He never really wanted to make comics as a youngster, because that seemed as exotic as wanting to be a movie star.

When did he realize there was an artist behind the comics he read: He knew it all along, at least theoretically, because Walt Disney himself introduced The Wonderful World of Disney every Sunday and we all knew that Disney himself was responsible for all the drawing of every Disney character in comic books and film...

How he got started drawing comics as a kid: "I tried to make up characters," as he believes all kids do. (I did. Mine were an ant and a snail.)

Jeff "really did roll up comics and stick them in my back pocket."

His first hero was Pogo.

His first drawing of the Bone cousins was when he was about 6. He drew a character that looked like a phone receiver (some folks in the audience could remember those). The name Phone Bone came later, borrowed from Mad Magazine's Don Martin, whose generic character name was always "Mr. Phone Bone." Smith has met Don Martin, who was pleased with the hidden tribute to his work in Phone Bone's name.

Interesting tidbits for writing teachers: Because the early Bone comics went back to print so frequently, he had (and took) the opportunity to change things he didn't like. By the time all of the Bone comics were collected in the 1300 page black and white book, he had done a ton of revision!

The inspiration for his characters can be found in his life: Thorn's gestures and mannerisms are those of Vijaya, his life partner, and the Bone cousins are all manifestations of different facets of Smith's own personality.

The serialization of Bone in the early years meant that Smith got lots of feedback from readers as he went. He saw that interaction with his readers as vital to the development of the plot.

How have things changed for him since Scholastic came into the picture: "Look -- there are women and kids in this audience." Smith talked at length about the acceptance of comics in mainstream culture in the last five years.

Insider trivia: Check for similarities between Smith's dragon and Doonesbury's Zonker.

What does he read besides comics? The Odyssey, Moby Dick, Huck Finn, Arthurian legends, classical fairy tales...stories that start off seeming like kids' books but that turn dark and complex. All of that reading took place pre-Bone, however. He doesn't read fiction now because he wouldn't be able to enjoy it. Now that he writes extended fiction stories, he feels he would spend all his energy figuring out how the author had constructed the story.

Who was his intended audience for Bone? None. There were no intentions. He wrote Bone "For myself. For adults. For grownup 'cartoonheads.' " BUT...it's the book he would have wanted to be able to read when he was 9 -- a "big story in comics." He's thrilled that parents and kids around the globe have claimed Bone for a new generation. And the reason Scholastic got the color version deal is that they really "got it." They knew it needed to be a book on the shelf. (Oh, btw -- book 8 will be out in July!)

The pivot question: Desert island. One collected works: Walt Kelly, Charles Schultz, or Carl Barks? After a bit of hemming and hawing -- Walt Kelly.

***
Boneville website
Jeff Smith on Wikipedia
Scott McCloud here and here

Graphic Novel Week

Elsewhere in the Kidlitosphere it's all about Vampires this month, in honor of FirstSecond's Vampire Month.  

Here at A Year of Reading, we are going to veer off on our own tangent by celebrating Graphic Novel Week, with or without the vampires.  

Here's the line-up:

Saturday, May 10 -- Jeff Smith and Scott McCloud will give a talk at Mershon Auditorium as the opener to Smith's exhibit "Before Bone" at the OSU Cartoon Research Library.

Sunday, May 11 -- Mary Lee will report on Saturday's event.

Monday, May 12 -- Franki will review Terry Thompson's new book Adventures in Graphica: Using Comics and Graphic Novels to Teach Comprehension, 2-6.

Tuesday, May 13 -- Franki's interview with Terry Thompson.

Wednesday and Thursday, May 14-15 -- Mary Lee reviews several new graphic novels and ponders how graphic novels have impacted the reading of her students this year.

Friday, May 16 -- Will Graphic Novel Week and Poetry Friday converge?  Stay tuned to find out!

Poetry Friday -- Pick My Chin Up Off The Floor

Flabbergasted

I have witnesses.
Eight teachers from Tennessee
spent the day observing
in my classroom.

They heard her say it.

They heard the fourth grader say
"Hypothetically speaking..."
as we discussed
the characters
in
Greetings From Nowhere.

I'm still dumbfounded.

But I have witnesses.
It really happened.




The roundup is by writer2b at Findings.

The Fish Who Cried Wolf

The Fish Who Cried Wolf
by Julia Donaldson
illustrated by Axel Scheffler
Arthur A. Levine, 2008
review copy compliments of the publisher


Awhile back we read a bunch of "cry wolf" variations, so I had high hopes for this book.

This is the story of Tiddler, a plain little fish who tells very colorful tall tales. He's late for school almost every day, but he has a great excuse each time. One day, he's so distracted thinking of his new story that he fails to notice the fish net that scoops him up. The fishermen throw him back because he's just a "tiddler." Tiddler is lost in the ocean, but he follows the trail of his stories to get back home again. Not quite a "cry wolf" story, but thought I'd withhold judgment and see what the kids thought.

They couldn't get over how similar the book is to the movie "Finding Nemo." The characters, the plot line, everything. I don't know the movie, so I asked, "Coincidence-similar, or plagiarism-similar?" Similar enough to feel like plagiarism was the verdict of the 10 year-olds on the jury.

And then someone said, "And there isn't even a wolf in it!" *sigh* We had to have yet another discussion about idioms and figures of speech. After we cleared that up, they went on to express their dissatisfaction that the story bills itself as a "cry wolf" story with the title, but it doesn't really follow the formula. (Whew! It wasn't just me!) Then we started brainstorming better titles. The winners were: Tiddler's Tall Tales, The Tale of Tiddler, and (although it was suggested rather sarcastically I think it does reflect their irritation with the apparent extravagant borrowing from "Finding Nemo") Lying Nemo.

So here's a book with great potential that was a bit disappointing, but still sparked a lively conversation!

What To Do About Alice?

What To Do About Alice? How Alice Roosevelt broke the rules, charmed the world and drove her father Teddy crazy!
by Barbara Kerley
illustrated by Edward Fotheringham
Scholastic Press, 2008
review copy compliments of the publisher



Barbara Kerley's website
Classroom activities for What To Do About Alice

***
Check out reviews at:
Big A little a
Becky's Book Reviews
Wild Rose Reader
the excelsior file
7-Imp

***
The topic of my minilesson in reading workshop was "Pay Attention to the Way the Character in Your Book Changes." I led off with Crash, by Jerry Spinelli, and my already-familiar story of staying with that book only because I knew Jerry Spinelli HAD to make Crash, one of the most despicable characters (my opinion) in children's literature, change by the end of the book, and I wanted to be there to see it.

Then I showed them the way Pam Muñoz Ryan clues the reader in to her main character's changes in Paint the Wind by making each section of the book a faster and faster gait of a horse, beginning with walk and ending with gallop. I told them that both of the main children characters in Ryan's book are not very nice to begin with, but that the author shows you their family situations and you understand why they are like that. And they both do change.

Next, I shared The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, which I was in the midst of listening to at the time. I told them about the annoying character Constance Contraire, whose very name even means "always irritating," and how the characters in the book are in the same place as the reader in wondering why she's that way and when she's going to change. (She never does change, and for myself and all the other readers like me who didn't put together the numerous clues we were given, the author explains why at the end of the book. Clever author!)

I ended the minilesson by sharing the story of an amazing, strong-willed, unusual character who doesn't change: Alice Roosevelt, in What To Do About Alice, by Barbara Kerley. We wondered at this remarkable woman's life-long resistance of the status quo, and were amazed by how fully she lived her life from childhood through old age -- always on her own terms.

Then I sent them off to read and to pay attention to the ways their characters did and didn't change.

Later that day, during read aloud (Greetings from Nowhere by Barbara O'Connor), the topic of characters who change and don't change came up again. But that's another story for another post. Stay tuned.