The Graphic Explosion

1. The Graphic Explosion By Allison Lee

2. Why are they so popular? • Sales figures indicated a threefold increase in 4 years. • Hollywood films • More bookshops stocking graphic novels • More websites • More public and school libraries adopting them. • More focus on use of them in the curriculum

3. Focus for today • Collection Development issues • Use of graphic novels in the curriculum Image from: www.amazon.com

4. Graphic Novels in the Library • “I love graphic novels as they offer me something different that mainstream novels just don’t offer. The illustrations bring me into the action, it’s like I’m right there, in the book.” • “It’s like there is this barrier that reading a novel with pictures is only for nerds, but its more then likely that these novels will encourage a passion for reading in later life.” (Student quotes)

5. Selection • Seek out information by: • Searching the Internet and reading news & reviews • Finding local suppliers • Signing up for newsletters

6. Selection Criteria • Popularity • Artistic Quality and Style • Quality of Colour or Black & White illustrations • Type of binding Extend criteria to include: • Way that gender, class or race is depicted • Violence – is it gratuitous or not?

7. Physical Arrangement Case study: Emanuel School • Specific shelf for graphic novels • Allows for covers face out display • Divided into Junior Fiction, Fiction and Senior Fiction • Classification codes given to series, e.g. XME for Xmen • Code = GRA or GRA or GRA or GRA F XME JF SF KUP TUP CRA MAT

8. Issues • The use of images: “renders graphic novels more visceral in their portrayal of matters such as violence and sexual behaviour (Lacock, 2005) • Censoring material depends upon potential audience, location, cultural and religious considerations.

9. Selection Tools • The biggest issue is finding appropriate material – concerns about violence and sexual content being cited often by librarians. • You can arm yourself with knowledge before selecting material by reading articles, reviewing sites, and most importantly, looking at the material.

10. Graphic Novels in the Classroom • “Clearly, comics and graphic novels do not constitute what most of us consider to be good literature. However, before we can make kids read what we want them to, we must first make them want to read. If hooking kids on books requires us to do it their way, via comics and graphic novels, so be it.” • (McTaggart, 2005)

11. Multiple Literacies • Type and delivery method of information is changing • In order to understand this information we must have good analytical skills • The process of selection, analysis and reflection requires us to ‘read’ multiple texts. (Schwartz, 2006)

12. Economic Value? • Students are changing the way they learn. • Education system need to adapt to these changes • Students need to know how to ‘manage, manipulate and modify content in order to create a new understanding. • New economy requires information creators. (Spender, 2007)

13. How do graphic novels play a role? • Used as tools to demonstrate, and apply skills for decoding information. • These skills can then be applied to the processes of lifelong learning and information construction. • E.g. Picture books explicitly defined in the NSW Syllabus as being used to understand the way meaning is conveyed in different formats.

14. For Poor or Reluctant Readers… • “With me being deaf, my English isn’t the best. But when I read these books, they make it a lot easier to understand because they have pictures as well. “ (Leung, 2005) • Opportunity to read to learn, not learn to read. (Lyga, 2005)

15. Tackling controversial subjects… • Allow for difficult or controversial subjects to be discussed through personal stories. • Creates an immediacy with the subject matter. • Can explore the subject in a different way, from a different perspective. • E.g. One Bad Rat

16. Studying literary devices and types • Concepts such as; narrative strucutres, metaphor and symbolism, points of view, puns & alliteration, intertexuality and inference (Crawford & Weiner) • Readers are given the chance to experience a different style of literature, and challenge the notion of what literature is. (Versaci, 2001)

17. Graphic novels in the classroom Your turn… • Step 1:Read • Example: An image can be used to represent a concept that is in the text or it can be used to enhance a particular point made by the author. • Evidence: A visual can be used to add further information to a scene. • Expression: An image can be used to express feelings. They can be used to make overt statements or ironic commentary on a situation or statement .

18. Graphic novels in the classroom Your turn… • Step 2: Activity Look at the excerpts from the book and picture one image/page Answer the following questions: • Which of the three E’s is evident on this page – if there is more than one, which is the one that seems to be the most important or influential? • What is the author trying to do with the images they use in the scene? • What other images could have been used in instead of those used in the scene? • What do they add or subtract from the scene? Do these images add to your understanding of the text ?

19. Conclusion • Graphic novels have gained a great deal of ground, both in terms of their popularity and their range of readership in recent years. • Greater willingness by librarians and educators to examine the format and see how it might be used to promote literacy and be used to enhance critical thinking skills. • Graphic novels are a format that combines visual imagery with text to create a story, and by so doing they are mimicking the most common form of information we access today.

20. For more information • Contact me at: alee@emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au • See my website at: http://graphicnovels.pbwiki.com/