How Comics & Pop Culture Make a Reader

At a teacher conference the year my son was in kindergarten, the teacher expressed concern over his reading ability and talked of a possible referral to a reading specialist. He was learning, but at a slower pace than others. Of course all sorts of alarm bells went off, but I tried to not to overreact. This was also the year that Mo Willems' Elephant and Piggie books were making their debut -- what great timing! These books are simply the best early readers I've ever seen. They are true early readers, with very limited text, very simple illustrations and usually blank backgrounds (less distractions I think). Plus, the stories are funny and clever, with loads of child appeal. The illustrations are cartoon style, and the characters speak and think in balloons -- just like comic strips use. The background colors of the balloons correspond to the color of the character (pink for Piggie, gray for Elephant). This is simply brilliant – it makes is so clear to a young reader who is saying what. The typeface is large and larger or expressive when needed to convey emotion. Motion lines and emanata are frequently used. It seems so obvious when I review these books, but yes, they are comics. And if it wasn’t clear enough, when searching for an illustration so that everyone could see this for themselves, I found an Elephant and Piggie comic in comic strip form from Mo Willems’ blog:

Post Mo Willems, where does a young reader turn? I’m not sure, as mine has taken a varied and probably unusual path. Pokemon was allowed in our house because it was a game my son could play with his older brother and they did play it together for extended periods of time. To play the game, one has to be able to read. On a car trip over Christmas break in first grade, my son read the Pokemon Handbook for several hours. I mean total absorption. I’m pretty convinced that Pokemon was a major step on his way to literacy. Peer pressure was a great motivator as well. He was aware that others were reading the Magic Tree House books and really wanted to try them. Yet his speed of decoding didn’t always allow for full comprehension. So we checked out the audio version and the print version and he listened first (something you can do in the dark of those early winter days stuck in a car) and then read the books. This repetition wasn’t boring for him, but rather facilitated his reading them on his own.

Currently he’s in second grade and one of his favorite series this year has been Jeff Smith’s Bone books. He discovered these in his elementary school library, though in the public library he has to go to the YA section two floors up from the children’s section to get them. He knows he can’t just pick up any books from the YA Graphic Novel section though! This has led me to start searching for graphic novels and comics for younger readers. My Neighbor Totoro was a wonderful discovery – accessible, enjoyable, age-appropriate (he is only 7) and it keeps the Japanese format – reading from back to front, right to left. This feature only added to the appeal for my son and is great at raising an awareness of another culture, another way of doing things.

If you know of great graphic novels for the elementary age, I’m still looking for titles and always welcome suggestions. I have found two great websites for educators/teachers/librarians on graphic novels and comic books. One is The Graphic Classroom, which is created by a teacher and is all about incorporating graphic novels into the classroom. Another is the Good Comics for Kids blog from School Library Journal. I feel like this is only the tip of the iceberg though . . .