Text Messages: Recommendations for Adolescent Readers

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Episode 15 —An Introduction to Graphic Novels

Graphic novels are an increasingly popular format for stories told in a range of genres. While learning to read graphic novels takes practice, their artistic and literary merit makes the effort more than worthwhile. Tune in to hear some background about graphic novels as well as specific recommendations of fantasy epics, memoirs, biographies, and adventure thriller stories, all presented in the form of a graphic novel.

After listening to this episode, be sure to print out this list of recommended titles to take to the library or book seller.

Recommendations in this episode include

• The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook by Eleanor Davis (Bloomsbury, 2009)
• Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon and Dean Hale and Nathan Hale (Bloomsbury, 2008) 
• Amulet: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi (Scholastic, 2008)
• Japan Ai: A Tall Girl’s Adventures in Japan by Aimee Major Steinberger (Go!Comi, 2007)
• Freddie and Me: A Coming-of-Age (Bohemian) Rhapsody by Mike Dawson
  (Bloomsbury, 2008)
• Isadora Duncan: A Graphic Biography by Sabrina Jones (Hill and Wang, 2008)
  
• Cairo by G. Willow Wilson and M. K. Perker (DC Comics, 2007)
  
• Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood Books, 2008)
  
• Pitch Black by Youme Landowne and Anthony Horton (Cinco Puntos Press, 2008)

Published May 26, 2009

About the Host

Jennifer Buehler taught English for ten years before earning a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan’s Joint Program in English and Education. As a high school teacher, she developed an 800-book classroom library designed to engage and inspire her ninth grade students as readers. Watching students select reading materials led Jennifer to expand her own reading accordingly, allowing her to match books successfully with teens’ wide-ranging tastes and interests.

As a teacher consultant with the Eastern Michigan Writing Project, Jennifer regularly led workshops on young adult literature for parents, area teachers, and students in university methods classes. Now Assistant Professor of English Education at Saint Louis University, Jennifer teaches classes on English methods and young adult literature. She is an active member of NCTE's Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN), and she served on ALAN’s first Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Committee.