I usually save this for later in the year, but since our Family Book Night is devoted to the subject this year, I thought I’d hit you early.  Still fending off an association with infantile material, the format has had an uphill battle to reach the place of respect among many parents and educators that it has achieved.  However, kids have known all along how engaging and substantive they can be.  Even for younger students, the format has a great deal to offer in heightening  reading comprehension and (most importantly) getting the student to want to read more.

If you’re not familiar with the format, an excellent place to start would be with the Babymouse books (by Jennifer Holm), The Fog Mound series (by Susan Schade) and The Arrival (by Shaun Tan).  If you know your stuff already, maybe you’d like to try out Satchel Paige (by James Sturm) or The Courageous Princess (by Rod Espinosa).  They’re all available in the library, but you better hurry, otherwise your kids are going to snatch them up first.

The aforementioned Family Book Night is coming on Wednesday, November 5th at 6:30 pm and will feature a line up of graphic novel authors and artists, not to mention your very own school librarians.  You should start to see more information about it around the school shortly, but if you can’t wait to know more, please feel free to stop by and ask.