Graphic Novels, yay or nay?
We are a house divided! My daughter LOVES graphic novels and would exclusively read them if I let her. My husband, not so much! He feels that they are pretty much comic books and are “cheating” due to all the illustrations. I am in the middle. I can see benefits and negatives with reading graphic novels but I am also of the mindset “books are books, reading is reading”!
What I consider benefits:
She is reading!
Graphic novels are a great way to get children into reading!
She enjoys finding a new author to read and can find it all on her own.
There are some graphic novels we can use in our school, think biographies and science books!
She feels like she has control over something, which she needs to learn how to manage.
What I consider negatives:
Some of the graphic novels have settings set in middle school or high school. Being nine, I feel that she is a bit to young for this age group. Luckily my library has recently moved these to a “young teen” section.
Graphic novels are harder for me to find used and they are more expensive ! I never really thought about it D wanted to get some of her favorite graphic novels to keep at home. Instead of spending $1 or $2 we had to pay $5-$6 for them used. It is worth it since she loves he books but that really does add up.
Sometimes D will read a graphic novel very fast… think a 200 page book in about an hour! She is not reading every bit of text or is not comprehending it throughly enough.
What is Ds opinion:
“Give me all the graphic novels!!”
I will be posting a look into her favorites and brief reviews of graphic novels she borrows from the library. She has become quite the expert! Here are three of her favorite graphic novels right now:
How we compromise:
I allow D to borrow graphic novels from the library and to have a few in our home library. I also try to find graphic novels that I can include in our science lessons or if we are learning about a specific person. Even with these compromises, most of our books are tradition books. We use a wide variety of literate in our English, Science and especially history studies. I even include pictures books into our lesson because I feel there are many wonderful books that everybody can learn from, not only children!
There are quite a few different graphic novel series that are also educational, I will be going through some of them and give you my options but in the meantime, here are some of my favorite that we have included in our homeschool!
Graphic novels truly are the touchiest subject when it comes to education in our house. What is your opinion of graphic novels? Do you or your kids have a favorite author or book?