Appreciation of the Graphic Novel

I was never interested in comic books as a child, mostly because the selection for girls was limited in the 70's. My older brother was always reading them and had an endless pile stacked up by his bed. He would read and re-read them and then store them in boxes under the bed to read again later. The key point here is that he was reading and re-reading. His fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension were improving with each reading and the comics would leave him waiting in anticipation for the next episode. Yet, they were not widely accepted as appropriate reading material.

Fast forward 35 years and we find that the comic book has morphed into the graphic novel. You still won't find the pamphlet style comics on a library bookshelf, but if they are formatted as a book they become a graphic novel. Also, the selection of graphic novels now include non-fiction, fiction, biographies, autobiographies and are written for adults and children. They are accepted by almost everyone as approved literature. The graphic novel is no longer just for boys, but for everyone.

I have been using the graphic novel for quite a few years now with reluctant readers. Happy if I get them to read an entire book, but I didn't even think about the other benefits that they are gaining. Fluency from reading and re-reading, the interesting and unique vocabulary that is presented in context and the ability to use the graphics to decode the text and meaning. The graphic novel has come a long way and I look forward to incorporating them into my curriculum as rich and complex text.