The internet is full of great comics created specifically for children, but young readers don’t have any way to find them. After all, there is no children’s room on the internet. But Brian Leung is hoping to solve that problem with Kidjutsu, a site that collects kid-friendly webcomics and displays them using an easy-to-use online comics viewer.
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Graphic novel publishers were an encouraging presence at Book Expo America (BEA), with Marvel Comics hosting a party in honor of their 70th anniversary; publishers such as Image, IDW and Dark Horse announcing exciting new projects; and key librarians releasing a list of hot graphic novels to check out this fall. (full story)
Learn to create your own comics with Drawing Words and Writing Pictures, a richly illustrated collection of 15 in-depth lessons that cover everything from crafting your story to lettering and laying out panels.
Read more .... lesson plans and activities .... buy from Amazon
Many teachers and librarians still don’t recognize the power of graphic novels in learning—and three librarians from the Buffalo-Erie County Public Library in New York are hoping to change that.
Meg Cheman, Britt White, and Peggy Shotnicki are the incredible minds behind Get Graphic: The World in Words and Pictures, a Web site designed to introduce teens, parents, librarians, and teachers to the wonderful world of graphic literature. more » » »
Despite the fact that Neil Gaiman has tons of fans and dozens of awards under his belt, winning the Newbery on January 26 threw him for a loop.
School Library Journal spoke to the 48-year-old graphic novelist and sci-fi/fantasy writer about nailing the highest honor in children’s literature, Coraline hitting the big screen, and his latest Batman graphic novel.
Did you ever imagine winning the Newbery while writing The Graveyard Book (HarperCollins)?
No, I never thought that I was the kind of author that wins Newberys. Generally, I always thought that they were a lot more respectable than me and had been doing it a lot longer. I’m just thrilled and baffled. It’s just wonderful. more » » »
Stinky - graphic novel - by Eleanor Davis
One of the honorees for the 2009 Theodor Seuss Geisel Award, recognizing the most distinguished books for beginning readers.
Deep in the swamp dwells Stinky, a purple, spotted monster with horns and a hedgehog do. Stinky lives up to his name, and the swamp is the perfect place for him: I love the mushy, mucky mud. / I love the slimy slugs. / And I love the stinky smell! / (SNIFF) AHHHH... But on the other side of the swamp is the town, which is full of children, who like to take baths! When a little boy builds a treehouse in Stinky's swamp, he tries everything he can think of to drive the disgustingly clean creature out until he discovers that this particular child is definitely a kindred spirit.
The winning story carries itself on spunk and a controlled vocabulary that combines judiciously chosen sight words (onion, gross) with easily sounded-out words (slimy slugs!) that will have emerging readers in stitches Davis’ colorful art makes Stinky and his swamp delightfully attractive to young readers.
It’s impressive that Davis can draw characters like Wartbelly the toad in a way that makes her clearly smelly and slimy, but at the same time actually cute.
more, including lesson plans and more in the Toon Books series
The American Library Association's (ALA's) Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) has announced the selected fiction and non-fiction works for its 2009 Great Graphic Novels for Teens list.
Designed to aid Young Adult librarians with graphic novel collections, the list presents graphic novels published in the past 16 months, selected for proven or potential appeal to the personal reading tastes of teens.
The 53 selections for the 2009 Great Graphic Novels for Teens features several of the comic industry’s best and brightest, including Dark Horse Comics’ Umbrella Academy Apocalypse Suite TP (ISBN: 9781593079789), DC Comics/Vertigo’s Cairo HC (ISBN: 9781401211400), Image Comics’ Astounding Wolf-Man TP Vol 1 (ISBN: 9781582408620), Marvel Comics’ Dark Tower: the Gunslinger Born (ISBN: 9780785121442) and Dark Tower: The Long Road Home (ISBN: 9780785127093) and Go Comi’s Japan Ai: a Tall Girl’s Adventures in Japan (ISBN: 9781933617831). To view the complete list, click here.
Youme Landowne, a white woman artist, met Anthony Horton, a black homeless artist, on a subway platform and the result is Pitch Black, a children’s graphic novel.
Think it’s hard to get a 6th-grade class excited about reading Shakespeare? Or maybe push the high school freshmen through Beowulf? If you’re old enough to remember the Classics Illustrated comic books, you’ll be glad to know that they’re back, along with a whole army of other graphic novel lines that promise to encourage readers to get into, and through, the classics. more » » »
: A Look at Top Shelf Productions’ Comics for Kids
Top Shelf Productions, an independent publisher known for putting out high quality graphic novels with an individual flair, has been steadily rolling out a growing number of titles for children. Differing widely in style and content, these unique books demonstrate the vast potential for children’s comics to tell compelling narrative stories, capture imaginations and tickle funny bones, all at the same time!