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Graphic novels are here, and they are here to stay! And that’s a great thing.
As much as it may seem to some parents these days, this is not a new phenomenon. Graphic novels (albeit going by different names and formats) have been around for decades. Whether it was collected editions of newspaper strips about a boy named Calvin and his best friend (a stuffed tiger named Hobbes), or Belgian reporter turned adventurer, Tintin, or even a plucky Gaulish hero named Asterix and his super strong best friend Obelix, comics aren’t new to readers. These were my gateway books into the magical world of sequential art. Like the children of today, I couldn’t get enough, I devoured as much as I could get my hands on, and the (far more limited back then) comic section of my local libraries was always my first port of call on
each visit. They helped to foster a love of drawing and a desire to get better at it, all while getting me to read more.
I wouldn’t say I was a reluctant reader, I enjoyed chapter books. But I was (and still am) a slow reader, which meant straight prose couldn’t deliver the instant gratification a kid like me, raised on Saturday morning cartoons, craved. I think, and I can see it with my own kids, this is still very much the case with some of our younger readers today. My children enjoy reading, partly because they are early on in their literacy journey and there is a sense of accomplishment when they find themselves finishing another chapter of a book that is ahead of their curriculum based reading level, or figure out words they haven’t seen before. But getting some of them to pick up a book in the first place can be the biggest part of the battle.
We are still in a war with instant gratification. Now it comes in the form of things like YouTube, even worse than when I was a kid…my attention span could at least see me through countless half hour shows back to back, whereas now short form content is king, and viewers are trained to keep swiping to the next thing every few minutes. This is where I think graphic novels have an important role to play in helping both reluctant
readers, and reading for pleasure.
The genre is so vast there truly is something for every reader, at any level. Younger readers who may be aging out of picture books but perhaps aren’t yet confident enough to tackle a chapter book, can find an easier transition through comics with fun, bright, bold colours and characters bursting off of every page. The dialogue may be less present, and that’s ok, that’s the beauty of sequential art. If done right, a comic should be able to be followed even without words.
This is helping to develop a new visual literacy, one where the art is doing as much of the heavy lifting of the storytelling as the words. Kids are learning to read visual cues to carry them forward through the story.
For reluctant readers, opening a book to what seems like a big wall of text can be daunting. But opening up a book where the words are spread out around the page and accompanied by amazing visuals might just be the way in for them. The importance should not be on the format of the book they are reading, but that we are getting them to want to read in the first place. I can’t even list the amount of new words I learnt in the pages of comics that helped to expand my young vocabulary (in a good way). And that’s a great thing. Graphic novels are books. Reading is reading. A win is a win.
And for the kids who prefer video content over books, which type of book might be more likely to bring them back into the fold? Perhaps one that doesn’t look entirely unlike some of the things they might be watching? Maybe graphic novels have an important role to play in helping to boost the dwindling number of people who read for pleasure. There is no magic bullet, and I’m not trying to imply that graphic novels are anything of the sort, but I can see that the format could be appealing to some lapsed readers.
Obviously, I love graphic novels. I enjoy the interplay of words and pictures (which is another skill readers can learn, and one unique to this format). And graphic novels, comics, whatever you want to call them, have so much to offer across every genre and reading level, making them not only important but essential to helping to continue to foster more readers.
They are awesome. Don’t dismiss them, embrace them. The kids are. And that’s an amazing
thing.
Shimmering Sugar Snaps - a classroom challenge!
My graphic novel sits firmly in the classic superhero genre. But my main character is anything
but a classic superhero. She doesn’t wear tights or have huge muscles, she doesn’t even have
a cape. Being a hero is about actions and how you treat others…and cool powers and maybe even a
catchphrase or theme song!
So here’s the challenge – create your own hero, it can be anything…a kid, an adult, an alien, an animal … anything goes.
Tell me what their powers are, and what makes them a hero. Do they have a sidekick to help
them? Or a pet? (Bonus points if you can come up with a super amazing catchphrase for your hero! As an
example my hero, Super Unicorn Princess, always says ‘Shimmering Sugar Snaps!’ It doesn’t
mean anything but it sounds fun, and you know it’s something only she says!)
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