Graphic Novels

Author: Jennifer L. Holm
Title: Middle School is Worse that Meatloaf
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Date: 2007
Age Level: Upper (5-6)

Summary:
This is a graphic novel telling the tales of Ginny, a 12 year old starting middle school, through notes and receipts, and other creative forms other than straight writing.
Strengths:
· This book is a great way to get students who are hesitant to read to get started. Because there are not big blocks of writing, and the pages are filled with just notes and other such items, it is more fun and easy to read.
· This book is humorous, and easy to relate to for students.
· This book shows how difficult it can be to lose a parent and have the other get remarried, which is something that students in the class may be able to relate to.

Concerns:
· This book may be a bit hard to follow for students who are not completely focused on reading it.
· This book says some things about eight graders that I do not think are entirely appropriate for elementary school students, such as the fact that one eighth grader drank a wine cooler on the bus and tried to kiss her teacher.

Classroom use/Other comments:
· This book can’t really be read aloud to students, and thus would be better suited for being read by students on their own. It would be a great addition to the classroom library because it is a different format that most books, and is fun and exciting to read.


Author: J. Torres
Title: Days Like This
Publisher: ONI Press, Inc
Date: 2003

Age Level: Upper (5-6)

Summary:
This is a comic book about 3 girls who are discovered by a woman starting her own record company, who want to make it big in the music world.

Strengths:
· This book uses dialects to show multiculturalism.
· This book is a bit dated, but can help introduce students to information about the past, and what records were.
· Realistic conflict is shown in the storyline, such as Christina’s father disagreeing with the idea of her making a record. This is something many students will be able to relate to.

Concerns:
· In this book, the African-American woman refers to the white woman as “Mrs. Anna”, but Anna calls the African-American woman simply “Lillian”. I thought that seemed discriminatory, and may cause for questions.
· There is an allusion to drinking because you are upset about something, which is not appropriate for students.
· The heavier girl is called out as being ‘fat’, whereas the other two girls get referred to as ‘skinny’.
Classroom use/Other comments:
· This book could be read individually by students, and could perhaps be acted out as a class play.


Author: Satoshi Kitamura
Title: Comic Adventures of Boots
Publisher: Farrar Straus Grioux
Date: 2002

Age Level: Elementary (3-4)

Summary:
This is a comic book of a few short stories about a mischievous cat named Boots.

Strengths:
· This book demonstrates some problem solving techniques.
· Children may appreciate that this book has nothing to do with schoolwork, but can be something they can read on their own just for fun.
· This book may be a way to get struggling readers to enjoy reading. It is simple, easy to read, and quick to get through.

Concerns:
· This book doesn’t really seem to have a point to it.
· The storyline of this book is very basic and broken up, because it is a number of short stories. This makes it kind of hard to follow, and even harder to get into it and be interested by it.
Classroom use/Other comments:
· This book could be used in a classroom library for students to read to themselves. The teacher could turn this into a reader’s theatre, or just have students take turns reading the parts of different characters aloud.


Author: Ted Naifeh
Title: Courtney Crumrin in the Twilight Kingdom
Publisher: ONI Press, Inc
Date: 2004
Age Level: Upper (5-6)

Summary:
This is a comic book about two friends who have been apart for awhile and are now learning all of the ways that they have changed since they last saw each other, but still want to look out for each other.

Strengths:
· This book shows conflict between friends who have been apart for awhile. This is something students may have gone through themselves, and thus may be able to relate to.
Concerns:
· The narrator speaks in a dialect that is difficult to read smoothly, so it is a bit difficult to read. This may be hard for struggling readers.
· The characters commonly call each other “buttface”. Although this is not a ‘bad word’ per se, it does seem to encourage name calling.
· This book shows ghosts and other unreal characteristics of people, but plays them into the storyline as if they were real. I think that may be confusing for students.
· This book may be a bit too frightening for students. It’s not outright scary, just has some creepy undertones to it.
· There are a few curse words in this book, though they are few and far between.
Classroom use/Other comments:
· This book could potentially be in a classroom library, though I don’t think I would have it in mine. Students could read it individually, but I would not recommend it to them myself.


Author: Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman and Robin Preiss Glasser
Title: You Can’t Take a Balloon Into the Metropolitan Museum
Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers
Date: 1998

Age Level: Primary (K-2)

Summary:
In this wordless story a young girl and her grandmother view works inside The Metropolitan Museum of Art, while the balloon she has been forced to leave outside floats around New York City, causing a series of mishaps that mirror scenes in the museum’s artwork.

Strengths:
· The fact that this book does not have words can really be seen as a plus, because it tells the story in a way that even beginning or struggling readers can understand.
· I like that in the illustrations the part that they are focusing on is in color, and the background is in black and white. It really draws the reader’s eye where it’s meant to go.
· This book teaches students in a fun way about a cultural experience of visiting the Met.
· This book also teaches students about New York City itself, and musicians, mimes, and other such happenings on the streets of New York.
· Some of the illustrations include actual photographs of artwork from the Met, which helps show students what it looks like.

Concerns:
· Not all students may respond well to the wordlessness of this book. Some students may prefer a book that has words to go along with the pictures.
· There are many side stories within the overall story of visiting the museum, and this may be difficult for some students. Some may get overwhelmed and shut down and not gain any information at all.

Classroom use/Other comments:
· This book is too long to be read as a class, in my opinion, even though it doesn’t have words. I think it would be best used if read individually by students so that they can spend as much time as necessary looking at the pictures and gaining information from it.