A Novel Idea To Get Kids To Read

A-PLUS ADVICE FOR PARENTS
By Leanna Landsmann

Q: Our school makes a big deal about Children's Book Week. Students choose a book they want to "celebrate," so my son, a third-grader, took one of his favorite graphic novels about robots. The teacher asked him to reconsider the selection, saying it wasn't exactly the kind of book she was looking for. My son is a champion gamer, but he doesn't love books so we're just happy he's reading. Are graphic novels bad for young readers?

A: No, graphic novels aren't bad. These longer cousins of comic books offer compelling pleasure reading for kids who won't make their way through 700 pages of Harry Potter (at least not yet).

Children's Book Week, an annual event to remind us of the importance of reading with our children, is May 10 to 16. You can bet that many kids, like your son, will celebrate with graphic novels.

They vary in literary quality but their appeal is simple: They pull the reader in with the power of a good narrative and the descriptive energy of action-packed illustrations. Some of my favorite publishers of graphic novels are Papercutz Press (papercutz.com) and :01 First Second Books (firstsecondbooks.com). I love First Second's new imprint, Olympians Rule (olympiansrule.com). It publishes retellings of Greek myths, tales that are as captivating as today's "Star Wars."

"Maybe the teacher was looking for War and Peace? Whatever, she is incredibly old school," says Jonathan Rosenbloom, an editor for Time Learning Ventures/TIME For Kids. "She doesn't reflect the thinking of most teachers who recognize that we live in a multi-media, multi-literacy environment. Parents and teachers should expect to use a range of media to develop literacy skills. We can't think of 'reading' as something that only happens when kids crack a book. I'm hoping there's a school in the land that will celebrate 'book week' by reading books on Kindles and iPads, downloading wonderful sites such as GoogleEarth, discussing magazine articles, looking at maps, graphs, charts, baseball cards and cartoons, creating an annotated classroom list of favorite books on Flickr.com, all with cool music playing in the background. Written language is a thread woven throughout these forms."

Understanding this is particularly important with boys, says William G. Brozo, professor of literacy at George Mason University. In his book "To Be a Boy, To Be a Reader: Engaging Teen and Preteen Boys in Active Literacy" (International Reading Association), he says that what it means to be literate is undergoing perpetual revision in this age of digitized media, rapidly evolving vernacular and global communication. He points out that "adolescent boys are inveterate purveyors of these new literacies." They read on computers, play video games, love comic books and graphic novels, use websites devoted to hobbies such as sports, listen to or play music and read and write song lyrics. Smart teachers and parents understand that the boundaries of literacy have changed.

"I'm with the mom," says Nancy Bourne, a third-grade teacher at Beacon Cove Elementary in Jupiter, Fla. "I'm not concerned about the format or platform. As long as the content is age-appropriate, I'm just happy a child is reading. Let's honor students by accepting their reading choices and encouraging them to build on them."