Graphic Novels

It’s ironic that you placed this topic under living books, since these ‘graphic novels’ are anything but. I’m not sure why they’ve gone in this direction, but it’s definitely a sorry solutoin to reading problems or developmental issues, IMO. Having a dd who struggled in that area, resorting to this type of ‘reading’ would not have encouraged her brain development. It’s akin to comic books and goes against everything I believe in as far as literature appreciation and what good lit does for the brain, through language, character, attention span, etc…what CM taught!

I hope this isn’t a sign of a sliver of the HS’ling community moving in that direction; bringing the dumbed down mentality that exists in the gov’t. school system and society as a whole, into the home. If it moves in that direction in the future, that’ll be depressing. Many schools allow comic books as “literature” in high school, as well as other choices made by the students themselves. It part of that “as long as they’re reading, it doesn’t matter what it is” mentality.

OK, I’ll get off my soapbox.

Rachel

I’m not familiar with Timberdoodle, so I had to go look for them online.

I don’t think the graphic novels look *all* bad.

I think they would work well as a “common interest” item between children like mine (children of an admitted book snob!) and children who are into comics.

But, if he ever expresses a want for comics, I’d much rather buy my son “Black Beauty”, or any of those “Tin Tin Adventures”, than what’s available in most comic stores.

When they are re-writes of classics (like Black Beauty), I think they’d be fine if reserved for *after* the original has been read.  That’s how we treat audio books around here too. Not that I have any beef with audio books, but they just get gobbled up so fast, I think a “one chapter a night” reading from me or their Dad serves them best the first time through.

Anyhow I just wanted to offer another perspective.  🙂

-Laura