I’ve never been fully immersed into the world of graphic novels but for this course’s assignment, my group decided to read American Born Chinese. To put it simply (so as to not give too much away), it’s about a Chinese immigrant’s quest to ‘fit in.’ He seemed like a character students could easily relate to. I can imagine more than a few ways to structure lessons or units around this book. I highly recommend the read!
So now that I’ve gotten a taste of this genre, I’m looking to read more! Does anyone have any recommendations?
I didn’t teach American Born Chinese, but one of my classes read it via lit circle and they all really liked it! When I was in high school I read the autobiographical Persepolis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persepolis_(comics)) and really liked it.
During lit circles, I had my Grade 9s do Maus which is really common, but I feel that I didn’t do it justice, tbh.
The graphic novels that I have encountered have been the mainstream autobiographical type that is currently the main genre being taught. I am definitely interested in the graphic novel genre, but I feel that I would have to do more research on it.
I did a quick search of “good graphic novels for teens” and this list came up (http://www.ala.org/yalsa/2018-great-graphic-novels-teens). I did some clicking around and I think “The Creeps” by Frans Crause could be really interesting to show students to warm them up to the graphic novel (or comic strips).
(I tried to post pics, but it won’t let me ???? just google the creeps by frans crause and then click on images)
but anyway,
I think it would be cool to show them some examples and get them to write and illustrate their own. It would get them to think about text, sequence, images, colours, box sizes/shapes. Then you could tell them to not title it and post them around like a gallery walk, getting people to guess what the creep is. Additionally, you could put pieces of paper flat in front of them and get students to put check marks if they feel that it is creepy as well! Could be a good bonding activity!
I realize that this is a ramble and not really pertinent to your post… Oops!
I teach Death Note, about a college student who uses a grim reaper’s notebook to purge the world of accused criminals. There is also an anime series and about three live action movies.
A very heavy manga with mature themes is Osama Diazu’s No Longer Human, about a youthful manga writer who falls into crystal Meth addiction.
https://www.google.ca/url?q=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Longer_Human&sa=U&ved=0ahUKEwjy2f-a15LcAhXZIjQIHbYQDZMQFgg_MAw&usg=AOvVaw0Fh2sQG8pSUJvumf9w_kXL
Can be paired with Karl Taro Grenfled’s Speed Demons docudrama chapter from his novel Standard Deviations: Growing Up and Coming Down in the New Asia
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,103807,00.html
Can also be shown and discussed with the conquest scene of A Thin REd Line which shows method out starving Japanese soldiers
Finally, Higashi No Gen (Barefoot Gen), 1st of four graphic novels is about a family who is hit with the Hiroshima bomb. Also has an anime and live action
Can be paired with the BBC documentary Hiroshima as a love action docudrama about the same event