Everywhere you look, there are new graphic novels and graphic novel early readers filling the shelves of bookstores, schools, and libraries. As a result, teachers and librarians are coming up with innovative ways to champion and use these visually rich titles in their classrooms and libraries. PW spoke with three educators about how they’re utilizing comics and graphic novels to teach, engage, and create lifelong readers and learners, one panel at a time.
Tim Smyth fell in love with comics as a kid. A veteran high school social studies teacher, he currently teaches AP world history and honors modern world history at Wissahickon High School in Ambler, Pa., and shares his passion for comics/graphic novels with his students. He wrote the book Teaching with Comics and Graphic Novels: Fun and Engaging Strategies to Improve Close Reading and Critical Thinking in Every Classroom (Eye on Education, 2022) and regularly uses comics to make his lessons more relevant. For him, it all began with Marvel’s Miles Morales by Jason Reynolds. “I had this very shy student who was so excited about Miles because he could see himself in him,” Smyth said. “There’s a lot of representation in comics and graphic novels today—different from when I grew up—in terms of gender identity, sexuality, race, etc. So it’s an easy way for kids to see themselves when they walk into the classroom.”
Smyth found many other students who revealed their love of comics when he started using them in his classroom. “These kids also felt seen and could share their expertise with the rest of their class,” he said. “They don’t always have a voice to express what they’re most passionate about. With comics and graphic novels, they can show their know-how and end up teaching and helping others. This gives them a power that they don’t likely have in other classes.”
Smyth’s students receive a daily dose of lessons that integrate comics and graphic novels to teach both history and current events. “Together, we analyze comics from different decades and see what social issues were happening then: the cost of living, gender roles, essays that were published, and what people were talking about. For example, we looked at Spiderman Comic #36, which came out right after September 11, and Spiderman is at Ground Zero,” Smyth said. “It opened up a way for me to talk with them about the events of that day in a non-threatening way.”
The kids also recently created their own comics surrounding a civil rights study. Each student chose a modern-day civil rights issue, researched, annotated their sources, created comics, and presented their issues to the class. He believes these graphic-rich resources and projects allow him to accommodate diverse learning differences. “Rather than have students write long essays,” Smyth said, “we can create comics and understand one another in ways you can’t do in any other way.”
During a unit on John Lewis’s graphic novel March Book One, he instructed students to place sticky notes on pages in their individual copies where they felt moved or had questions. The responses opened his eyes and informed his instruction. “The kids had all sorts of feelings and questions to share because they were sucked in by the graphic novel,” Smyth said. “We’re going to use this interest and motivation to do more research, going beyond their textbooks to reflect on our culture and life today. Comics and graphic novels are a natural fit for any humanities classroom.”
Public librarian Heidi Colom has always been a fan of the classic Swiss children’s book starring a girl with the same name. Her current read, Heidi: The Graphic Novel, adapted and illustrated by Mariah Marsden, is on the top of her to-be-read pile, and she can’t wait to share it with her younger patrons at the Tampa Hillsborough County Library in Tampa, Fla. Colom is also a big fan of graphic novels in general and does everything she can to get readers equally excited about them. She does this by making recommendations on the latest titles to readers of all ages through reader advisory, offering outreach programs involving graphic novels, and writing reviews and articles about the value of graphic novels.
Colom sees the educational benefits of comics firsthand while using them with her ELL patrons to develop vocabulary as well as phonics and decoding skills. “Graphic novels are extremely comprehensible because you can read the panels and get so much from the graphics and the gutters,” she said. For her youngest readers, she talks up the latest Dog Man and Babysitters Club novels, among others. Her criteria for graphic novels are that they are fun and have readable text. “I have lost interest, and so have my readers, in some graphic novel titles, and books in general, if the font is too small.”
Colom goes big when integrating graphic novel biographies and historical fiction into her STEAM lessons and other programming. A recent favorite was Botticelli’s Apprentice by Ursula Murray Husted. Students read together and did experiments inspired by the book. “Using graphic novels is a wonderful way to get kids to read, and to extend their learning,” she said. “And when they discover a scientific or historical event, a certain time period, or a famous person through a graphic novel, many want to learn more about it!” That’s when she can offer other illustrated titles, series, and nonfiction for students to explore. “They often will turn first to the Who Was series and the I Survived Series, which now includes graphic novels.” She finds these picks particularly popular with reluctant readers.
As for readers whose teachers or parents want them to read more than graphic novels, Colom may pair a Babysitters Club graphic novel with one of Ann M. Martin’s original titles, for example. She said this may add some variety to her patrons’ reading lives, but she doesn’t believe it’s essential. “Sure, I think it’s a good idea to be well-balanced in one’s reading, but the fact that the kids are reading is more important than anything else!”
Helping create lifelong readers and library users are two of Colom’s greatest passions. She has discovered the universal power of graphic novels, especially for patrons of all ages who say they do not like to read. She also enjoys introducing others to Shakespeare through manga.
“As a public librarian, I hope to empower patrons by teaching them about books and helping them learn new things, to take charge and control of their lives, and to chart their own course,” Colom said. “Offering graphic novels is one way I do this—and spreading the word that they do count as real books!”
As a middle school library media specialist at Anne M. Dorner Middle School in Ossining, N.Y., and the current executive director of the Chappaqua Book Festival, Liz Blye is a self-proclaimed “book warrior,” intent on letting everyone who will listen that “reading comics is reading.” She believes it’s one of her most important duties. “The thing I mostly do with comics and graphic novels is to teach kids that all books are valid forms of reading.”
Her reasoning is multi-layered, just like her growing collection of graphic novels. “Kids should be reading them because they hit on multiple literacies. They are more complex and different than a regular novel because they require you to activate visual literacy and think about the way that the creator or creators chose to use text bubbles vs. visual images.’’
It was a graphic novel (Blye’s favorite) Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka that changed everything about graphic novels for her. “It was super emotional and taught me how to read these kinds of books to get the most out of them,” Blye said. She also attributes a past panel on graphic novels with Krosoczka, the work of educator-author Tim Smyth (featured above), and children’s author Jarret Lerner for helping her teach students how to read them, too.
She finds that graphic novels are especially helpful with her ELL and multilingual student population. Blye is always on the lookout for new Latinx titles by Latinx creators, as well as LGBTQ+ titles to represent all of her students. She’s also sensitive to students who have difficulty with and/or disinterest in reading. “For a vast majority of my kids, who are typical reluctant readers, graphic novels are going to be the way in.”
For Blye, titles focused on middle grade issues that her students are experiencing, as well as difficult topics, are essential to her collection and kids. “I think graphic novels with tough topics [e.g. grief, racism, antisemitism, etc.] can be amazing tools to help kids see themselves in words and pictures, and to try to make sense of something that is heavy.”
Blye rallies for graphic novels and the right to read them. “I will go toe-to-toe with anybody to teach them and/or to debunk whatever their beliefs they may have,” she said. “I’ll also insist that they read them, to prove that graphic novels are valid forms of reading especially for kids.”
At this year’s Chappaqua Book Festival (founded in 2013 by Dawn Greenberg), she made sure there were more graphic novels and novelists than ever before to open minds and increase access. “We wanted the creators to see the children they are writing for and the readers to see these creators’ humanity—and the growing graphic novel market,” Blye said, “Now, with more YA and adult graphic novels, kids can read them for the rest of their lives.”
