Each month we feature free and fun book contests and giveaways. We hope you will enjoy the following opportunities as well as the author and book resources available via TeachingBooks.net.
Drawing a graphic novel is a bit like making a film—on your own. The artist becomes the writer, director, production crew, costume designer, art director, location scout, cinematographer, the special effects team, the actors, and the editor. Unlike film, however, the images are static and time, motion, and sound must be implied through picture sequences, or by descriptive text, such as “We waited for hours,” or “WHAM!”
Slowly Spin the Wheels: Graphic Novels in the Classroom
by Val Edwards
I have been browsing through Nimble: Thinking Creatively in the Digital Age (HOW Books 2015) by Robin Landa. I wish “being nimble” was an attribute more easily attainable…
When I was in the fifth grade, I convinced my mother to take me to our local comics shop. While I browsed the shelves, she stood by the door with her arms crossed, silently judging an entire industry. I went home with Secret Wars #4, the latest issue of Marvel’s cosmic, no-holds-barred superhero slugfest. It’s like Homer’s Iliad, only in outer space and without all the boring pathos. It was everything my 10-year-old heart desired. That evening, I made the mistake of letting my mom flip through it.
The whole thing started in 2008, when I was working as Congressman John Lewis’s press secretary during his primary campaign.
TeachingBooks.net is bringing summer reading 2011 to life. Whether you're promoting the program theme of One World, Many Stories, You are Here,Splash! Celebrate Summer, or another topic, the authors and illustrators presented in this month's column are bound to be on your list. From audio to video recordings, TeachingBooks.net has something for you.
It was a challenge coming up with a title and a cover image for the fifth and final book in the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” (Abrams) series. I always planned to call this book Rowley’s Revenge, so I sketched what I thought might make a good cover.
Graphic fiction and nonfiction books are increasingly being used in schools to hook reluctant readers or to present topics in a different format. The multimedia materials recommended in this month's column provide you with instructional support to integrate these graphic books into your lesson plans.
The incredible thing about comics, to me, is the medium’s diversity. Some people hear the word “comics” and are reminded of newsprint pages filled with superheroes. Others see shelves of manga stacked tight, while some readers are more familiar with hardbound graphic novels and nonfiction volumes. All of these formats and types of books rightly describe comics.
Comics editor Françoise Mouly has worked for her entire career to combine visual literacy with enjoyable narratives. From her work as the Art Director of The New Yorker to collaborating with Art Spiegelman and other professional cartoonists, Mouly has gained…
