Graphic Novels

Classroom Use for Graphic novels: Graphic novels are are great way to get hesitant or struggling students interesting in reading. The words and phrases are simple and usually have engaging story lines. Students are able to focus on the main points of the story such as what the characters say, and don't need to worry as much about the "filler" words. Graphic novels are also great for the classroom because of their illustrations, since almost every conversation or bit of text is given its own illustration students can follow along, like they would if watching a video.
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Title: Ug: Boy Genius of the Stone Age and His Search for Soft Trousers

Author: Raymond Briggs

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf

Copyright: 2001

Summary: Poor Ug. He's stuck in the stone age -- literally, as his pants, and everything else, are made of solid stone. Stone baseball bat, stone blankets, stone bed -- you get the rather uncomfortable picture. Smarter than his family, Ug can sense that there's a better way to do things, but he can't quite put his finger on how to go about it. Not only that, no one listens to his ideas at all, except his perplexed but well-meaning father. Are they a match for his cranky mother?

Strengths: This book is perfect for children who are always thinking out of the box. It shows them that just because an idea sounds crazy in the beginning, after a while it may not be so. I liked how Ug kept persevering to find what else what outside his families comfort zone. This was also humorous.

Age level: 7 and up

Classroom use: independent reading
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Title: To Dance
Author:Siena Cherson Siegel
Illustrator: Mark Siegal
Publisher: Simon & Shuster Children's Publishing
Copyright: 2006

Summary: The true story of a child's life in the dance studio

Strengths: Great book for girls. And was also a biography. The illustrations were bright and beautiful to look at.

Age Level: 8-14
____________________________________________________________________ Title: Who's Got Game? The Ant of the Grasshopper?
Author(s): Toni and Slade Morrison
Illustrator: Pascal Lemaitre
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2003

Summary: The story of two opposites, and what happens when you only focus on one thing and not spend your time on others.

Strengths: illustrations. humor. Incorporates lots of alliteration and rhyming
Age Level: k-3
Classroom Use: Rhyming



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Title: Bone
Author: Jeff Smith
Publisher: Cartoon Books
Copyright: 1996

Summary: The Bone cousins-- Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone-- get run out of Boneville when Phoney Bone's scheme to run for mayor backfires, as Phoney Bone's schemes always do. They get split up by a swarm of locusts and end up in a mysterious valley populated by talking animals, possums, hedgehogs, rat creatures, dragons, and a garrulous bug named Ted. Fone Bone, who is the hero of our story, is being followed by a fire-breathing dragon and a pair of rat creatures. The rat creatures want to eat him, preferably baked in a quiche; what the red dragon wants may be worse. After several close calls, Fone Bone meets up with two humans, Grandma Ben and her granddaughter Thorn, and with their help he is reunited with his cousins in the town of Barrelhaven. However, all is not well-- the rat creatures are massing for war, and a mysterious hooded figure wants Phoney Bone's soul...

Strengths: I enjoyed this book because it was full of adeventure. It also deals with alot of fantasy themse such as talking animals and traveling to magical lands.

Age Level:8-12

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Title: The Comic Adventures of Boots

Author: Satoshi Kitamura
Publisher: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
Copyright: 2002

Summary: Several stories about Boots the Cat, and how he learns.

Strengths: Humorous, illustrations, for for kids

Age Level: k-2
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