Year's Best 2012 Non-Fiction or Historical Fiction Graphic Novels

3 days ago

3 days ago

In line with ABC Wednesday's "Y" week and the close of 2012, I thought I'd share my favorite non-fiction and historical fiction kids' graphic novels with you.  Each of these works would be assets to home and school libraries and lessons. For those of you interested in a wider reading list, I have also included links by other librarians and graphic novel aficionados listing their 2012 favorites as well.


I thank you all for your visits this past year, and wish for all of us that 2013 be a year of peace, prosperity, good health, happiness and success.

Silence of our Friends by Mark Long, Jim Demonakos and Nate Powell (First Second Books, Grades 6+) - a true story about a while male reporter and his family living in Texas during the Civil Rights Movement. The father must make career and life choices while trying to do the 'right thing.' The struggles of segregation and the Civil Rights movement are clearly and sensitively depicted.

Baby's In Black by Arne Bellstorf (First Second Books, Grade 6+) tells the story of the early Beatles (pre-Ringo) and their life in Germany before Ed Sullivan and their rise to fame.  It is a wonderful look at Europe in the 1960's pop culture and the significant cultural 'happenings' and salons that shaped our modern culture today.

Marathon by Boaz Yakin and Joe Infurnari (First Second Books, Grades 6+) tells the story of Eucles and The Battle of Marathon. Eucles, an Athenian messenger in the year 49 ran over 300 miles to save Ancient Greece from being subjugated into the Persian Empire. The Battle of Marathon was the turning point in ancient history, and the foundation of the modern Olympic games.

Victory - Book 3 of the Resistance Trilogy by Carla Jablonski and Leleand Purvis (First Second Books, Grade 5+) Relates how a family in France, torn apart by World War II must deal with decisions made in Books 1 and 2, and the consequences each member faces as a result as the war draws to an end. 

XOC by Matt Dembicki (ONI Press, all ages) follows the journey of a great white shark from the Farallon Islands off the coast of San Francisco to Hawaii and back. The author uses exceptional prose, vocabulary and alliteration as he describes the life of a female shark and the perils (natural and man-made) she must face on her journey to spawn her pup.

Sumo by Thien Pahm (First Second Books, Grades 9+) is a wonderfully affirming story for teens and young adults that things will work out as told through an aspiring football player turned sumo wrestler.  Readers learn about the sumo wrestling culture and discipline while following the story of Scott's move from the US and his NFL dreams to Japan.

Little White Duck: A Childhood in China by Na Liu and Andres Vera Martinez (Graphic Universe, 2012) is a collection of eight moving stories based on the author's life of her childhood in China during the 1970' and 80's.  Here is an excerpt of a review from The New York Times ( "A Child's View of China" November 9, 2012 by Gene Luen Yang)

"“Little White Duck” isn’t Communist propaganda. It is at once more innocent and more sophisticated. What Liu and Martínez do is convey a child’s-eye view of a country in transition. Politics, culture and history play into their stories, but the reader’s awareness of them is a child’s awareness. The mural of Mao and the ancient gods and the colorful posters encouraging patriotic behavior are probably important, but fireworks, schemes to catch rats and pretty jackets with soft little white duck-shaped patches are so much more interesting."

I'm Not a Plastic Bag by Rachel Hope-Allison (Archaia, All Ages) is a wordless graphic novel that illustrates human impact on our oceans as it follows a used plastic bag that begins as refuse on the top of a leafless tree in the city and ends up as part of The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.  There is an extensive  appendix at the end of the book with information on The North Pacific Gyre (Great Pacific Garbage Patch),  Top Ten Items Found in Ocean Debris, Descriptions of Threatened Marine Wildlife, and How You can Help.

Continuing Non-fiction/Historical Fiction Series of value for home and school:

• Squish Series (Ages 7+)  Jennifer and Matt Holm continue to weave marvelous adventures and challenges for Squish, Peggy and Pod, our favorite single-celled 'young adult' characters.
• Hades by George O'Connor Olympians series (Ages 8+)  a collection of books each focusing on a different Greek God/myth.  These books contain detailed, accurate myths and stories, breathtaking art, suggested lesson plans, suggested supplemental reading lists, and a family tree of the Greek gods.
• Crogan's Loyalty by Chris Schweizer (ONI Press, Grades 4+) Schweizer uses the Crogan family tree to  relate famous historical events through the Crogans' perspective. This year's tale, Loyalty focuses on two brothers one who fights for the British and the other for the Coloniesin the American Revolution and must deal with their own issues of family and country loyalty.

"Best of 2012" links for further reading:

• Crave OnLine's The 21 Best Graphic Novels of 2012 
• NPR's "Graphic Novels That Flew Under the Radar in 2012
• GraphicNovelReporter: "The Best Graphic Novels of 2012"
• Bookshelf: Top Ten Graphic Novels of 2012 for Schools and Libraries
• http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-best-comics-of-2012-graphic-novels-art-comics,90282/ 

Thanks again for your visit.  Please leave your favorite 2012 reads in the comments.  I look forward to many fascinating visits and comments, to reading stimulating posts, and wish you all the very best in 2013!

Options, Shining Opportunities, Opening Worlds...

Options, Opportunities, Opening Worlds...That's what learning should be about.

Regardless of our kids' strengths, weaknesses and affinities - as teachers and parents it is our obligation to teach our kids to seek options in life - choices; to look at problems from multiple perspectives in the hope of finding optimal solutions; of allowing them to see a big, open world full of hope and opportunities. A mighty big order, but not intangible.

Some suggestions how:

• Look at the problem or the opportunity from multiple angles.  Brainstorm options.

We moved a lot when my kids were young and each stop they made decisions about schools to go to, activities to participate in, books to read, etc.  Don't get me wrong, my husband and I would 'stack the deck' so to speak - only offering choices we were comfortable with, but the choice between (acceptable) options was theirs.


In the Sesame Street video, cookie monster gets to chose between two bags of cookies.  It is the same amount of "cookie" - either many small cookies or one large one.  Even giving your child these types of options is empowering.

Knowing there are options, opens worlds and doors.  Knowing how to make decisions is a learned, acquired skill that requires practice and patience.  The more opportunities they have to observe you making choices and to practice their own, the more confident they will be and the better their decision making skills will be.

• Talk decisions out.

When making decisions - big or small - for yourself, you family, or your child - talk it out.  be they school options or dinner options, discuss them.

• visit schools, 
• visit potential vacation spots online what would they like to do (IF your comfortable with their involvement in this decision - you may just want to ask them which sites they would want to visit IF you go there)
• when shopping discuss options 
• organic vs. farmed vs. regular, pasturized vs. ultrapasturized, etc. 

Talk about the strengths and weaknesses of each option.  LISTEN to your child.  What does she like/not like?  Are these valid likes or dislike? If they are, acknowledge them.  If they aren't, figure out what isn't valid, explain it and discuss options.

There should always be options in life.  Help your children  comfortably discover and evaluate options.

• Read books and comic books, watch movies and videos that present various perspectives.  Here are a few suggestions:

•  Goodnight moon (by Margaret Wise Brown) and Goodnight Opus (by Berkeley Breathed)
• The Sons of Liberty comic book and Esther Forbe's Johnny Tremain
• Laika (graphic novel by Nick Abadzis) and October Sky  (by Homer Hickam)
• The Scarlet Pimpernel (by Emmuska Orczy), Les Miserable(by Victor Hugo),  and A Tale of Two Cities (by Charles Dickens)
• D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths and George O'Connors Olympians series (graphic novels). 

When you read different books on the same topic, or read a book and watch a movie on the same topic, talk about the different ways the same story was told.  Talk about the authors' options. 

• Network to find the best options and opportunities.  This is getting both easier and harder.  It is easier because things and people are so much more connected with the web, cellphone, etc.  It is harder because there are SO many options.  Always get references from people you know.

• Don't Overwhelm with options.  As I noted above, especially with young kids - stack the options.  Give them limited choices you are comfortable with.  First, you don't want to overwhelm them, you want to empower them, helping them to strengthen their problem solving skills.  Second, you don't want arguments, so if you can live with all the choices you are way ahead of the game. 

IF your kids do get overwhelmed with options:  Help break them down.  Help eliminate the poor options,  and tackle the better options together.  

One final IMPORTANT point:  Kids shouldn't make all the decisions.  They need structure and adults to model and help contain their world around them.  Pick and chose the opportunities and the options they have a voice in- at least when they're young. 

Options provide opportunities...seize them, guide them, shape them!  What are some of the options you provide your kids?  Please let us all know in the comments.

Reading, Graphic Novels, and Memory

In my last post, I discussed how reading and comprehending graphic novels demand large chunks of attention: attention to detail, attention to background, attention to language, and attention to art and lettering (size, font, and shape).  This week I would like to focus on graphic novels and memory.

Prose vs. Graphic Novels and the demands reading them place on memory.

Prose Novels: When reading anything in print we have to remember:

• The shapes and corresponding sounds of letters;
• We have to remember the corresponding sounds of letter blends, 
• We have to remember vocabulary (recalling the spelling of words to more efficiently decode them as well as their defintions), 
• We have to remember what we just read and if it makes sense vis-a-vis what you read a few sentences ago (metacognition - keeping track of our comprehension), 
• We have to remember rules of grammar and punctuation, and 
• When reading we have to constantly keep track of plot, time, motives, names, places and events.

Reading places demands on short term memory, long term memory, and active working memory.

Graphic Novels:  When reading graphic novels, we have to remember:

• ALL the demands on memory listed above for prose novels PLUS:
• We have to remember not only the words we read, but the sequence scenes we view in the panels.  
• We have to remember what occurred in the previous panel while constructing and inferring what was not included in the gutter.  
• We also have to remember the artist's different use of font and panel borders.  (Sometimes, for example squiggly lines around a panel means someone is thinking, sometimes it can mean they are angry.  
• We have to keep track of the particular artists' intent in the choice of letter fonts and sizes, and panel divisions and borders.  The art, while adding an emotional and very engaging component, also adds additional demands on memory.
• When reading comics or a graphic novel series we also have to remember small sequences of the story over a long period of time.  With comics, only a small segment of the story is printed at a time, with weeks between issues.  The reader has to keep track of plot, motives, intents, etc. [And, while we do this as well with sequels for books, the stories in each prose novel book are complete and easier to remember than the small segments readers are given at each comic installment.  The disjointed story makes it more difficult to remember.]

How to use graphic novels to build memory skills:

• Read comic books in regular installments.  Read them together with your kids and:
• Talk about them.  
• Brainstorm where you think the author(s) will take the next installment.
• Before reading the next installment, review what has happened so far.
• Discuss how the art helps you remember certain aspects of the story.  
• Discuss how the art provides cues to help your mind read and not have to think or remember reading strategies.  For example, different fonts and borders may help you realize this is a flash-back. Also, different art styles within a comic can cue your mind in terms of which sequence panels should be read in.  Once you realize the artist's intent, it frees your mind to focus on other issues.
• Whether reading these books together or individually, you may want to create story maps to visually "see" where the story is going (and help remember details). 

There are now many kids non-fiction and historical fiction graphic novels.  Pairing these graphic novels with science, social studies, history and language arts in the classroom will help provide graphic images as well as complementary content that will help make the educational content more meaningful and easier to recall.  Here are a few young adult nonfiction and historical fiction graphic novel suggestions (recommended age ranges vary):

•  American Born Chinese (Yang, G.)  a perspective of growing up as a multicutural minority student (recommeded for middles school and above);
• Laika (Abadzis, N.)- provides a Russian perspective to the Space Race (third grade and above);
• Mouse Guard (Petersen, D.) - perspective of life in the Middle Ages (fourth grade and above);
• The Olympians (O'Connor, G.)- provides a wonderfully visual account of Greek myths (third grade and above);
• Persepolis (Satrapi, M.) - the story of childhood in Iran (recommended for mature middle school - high school);
• Kampung Boy (Lat) - about a Muslim boy growing up in rural Malaysia in the 1950's (middle school and above);
• Malcolm X:  A Graphic Biography (Helfer, R.D.) - critiques the Civil Rights Movement and Malcolm X's life (recommended for high school);
• Campfire Graphic Novels have published re-tellings of classic stories such as Treasure Island and Moby Dick and some of Shakespeare's classics (Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, for example) that you may want to check out.

Most of all, you want to enjoy the reading experience!  Let me know what your favorite non-fiction and historical fiction comics/graphic novels are.