In recent student presented Book Chats, comics have been done just as well or if not better than prose books, and I believe we should be able to do comics on every Book Chat. First I will discuss how comics help readers build a deeper connection with the characters as their emotions are more visually displayed than in prose books. The second thing I will discuss is that you have to process more than just words. The art does add a lot to the plot and the understanding of the plot, and being able to analyze the plot is the main goal in Book Chats. My main argument is that kids who struggle with reading, or have a disability, or just don't like the process have an easier time reading comics.
Comics typically help readers connect with the characters on a deeper level. 8th Grade Max says, “I do feel like you build a deeper connection with the characters because you can see them instead of having a description.” This is also true for most kids as proven by research given to us by Tracey Edmunds, a history teacher who also teaches using comics. Tracy Edmunds is a teacher with an M.Ed, and over 14 years of experience as an elementary school teacher and has written 25 educational research books. She argues that one of the benefits of graphic novels is their ability to build social skills and emotional awareness in students: “Dialogue, facial expressions, and body language all help readers connect to a character’s feelings and perspectives.” This shows that even experienced educators can perceive the level of connection students have to comic book characters.
“I feel like I can connect more with comic books than normal books because you can see them and imagine them in their own world. As well as having bigger fanbases, so if you google them you can learn interesting details,” says 8th Grade Jordan. In Book Chats, being able to see the characters can give more detail why a reader relates to them more, and can improve the overall quality of the presentation.
The reason as to why readers build deeper connections with the characters is because you can see the characters. Eye contact is an important part of being a relationship and the drawings can imitate that feeling with the reader. Typically when we do Book Chats, we are asked to go into detail about quotes, quotes tend to hold more weight in comics than in prose books because you build a relationship with the characters who say the quotes, this again goes back to my point of having a deeper connection with the characters. Longevity can also help build connections with characters. A lot of comic book characters have many different stories while most characters in prose books do not have the rich history comic book characters do.
Diversity is another key thing that builds connections between the characters and the reader. When looking at Scholastic’s best-selling books for middle-grade readers, all the books have either white main characters, male main characters, or main characters who are animals. There are a total of two main characters who are female, and none of the main characters in that list are any race other than white. This is lackluster compared to the best-selling graphic novels, where there are a total of seven main characters who are not white, and five which feature a female character in the main cast, or as the main character. This shows that comic books and graphic novels typically have more diverse characters, which can appeal to larger audiences and build deeper connections through having the ability to relate more to readers.
Art isn't typically talked about within Book Chats, but art can convey much more than words. When reading graphic novels you have to analyze what’s being said and what is being conveyed through the art. It adds an extra layer of meaning to the story because you aren’t just imagining what’s going on, and you get different kinds of details from it. Visual literacy is a really important skill to have in general, because of its diversity in terms of interpretation. Words can be interpreted in many different ways, but images can be interpreted in many more ways than words can be. They don’t decrease a reader's ability to analyze and talk about the plot and characters, because art is subjective. What I mean by this is once you read whatever dialogue is said, and then look at the image that goes with it, you can interpret whatever is going on with more context because more is given to you. Something that is often missing in regular books is the description of backgrounds. If backgrounds are used correctly you can convey what the characters are seeing around them while being able to focus on the plot. Processing the background and the people or things within the background can give the reader a lot to think about since it makes the reader ask questions; “Why would the author add this feature in the background,” or “Why was this detail pointed out more than another detail.” Another skill visual art with text builds is very important in this era of technology and social media. When people look at a post on Twitter, or even a meme their friend sent it is typically with an image and text. The main focus is the image but the text provides context, and it is up to the viewer to process this information through the image and text. In the modern era as technology begins to improve further, this could become a crucial skill to have, and can be seen in everyday life already.
According to research done by the University of Oklahoma, comic books may “help boost memory, [and] they may also be a far more effective [for] teaching.” This fact alone means that people who struggle with reading and retaining information don’t have to fall behind while also improving their vocabulary in the process. According to the Mesa County Library and the Markham Public Library, comics have also been shown to improve vocabulary and that they have rarer words than most adult books. This engages reluctant readers, and improves many important literacy skills, all while having fun. So, students who may struggle with reading normal books can improve the same skills and more. This also encourages readers to be more diverse and perceptive when analyzing their books and can then improve slides like the theme, and the thoughts and feelings slides.
In conclusion, allowing students to do more Book Chats on comics or graphic novels will make them become more diverse readers and be able to connect to characters on a deeper level while being able to analyze themes better. In this essay, I hope you have learned that graphic novels can be used to make better readers who can comprehend complex and multi-layered text while also being able to retain the information given to them. Thank you for reading.