6 of 10 Most Challenges Graphic Novels Covered in *Rationales for Teaching Graphic Novels*

According to ICV2 and The Huffington Post, the ALA has released a list of graphic novels most often challenged (defined as an effort to remove the book from a certain location and audience). I'm unsure what period of time the ALA is covering in this list.

Click the title of this post to see the list, but also know that 6 of the 10 titles have rationales in the upcoming Maupin House release Rationales for Teaching Graphic Novels.


Hopefully these rationales -- statements of the content, possible concerns, and pedagogical potentials of specific texts -- will help people keep apparently oft-challenged graphic novels Blankets, Fun Home, Maus, Bone, Pride of Baghdad, and Watchmen on shelves and in readers' hands.




Another title mentioned is Absolute Sandman, and while R4TGN doesn't cover that edition, it does feature a rationale for one of the smaller Sandman graphic novels. So, that's sort of 7 of ten, if you think about it.

Banned Books, Bone and Bayou

This week is Banned Books Week, a celebration of the freedom to read for all people of all ages.

This year it comes at a pertinent time, as Missouri State University professor W. Scoggins has recently called Laurie Halse Anderson's important YA novel Speak soft-core porn because of its depiction of rape and disapproves of the book being read and even sold.

Luckily, the YA community has responded loudly in favor of the book, though, who can say for sure if their efforts will help keep Speak on bookshelves?

Recent efforts by teachers, teacher educators, and organizations like NCTE, the National Coalition Against Censorship, the ALA, and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression weren't enough to keep Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian from being banned in Stockton, Missouri, just a little ways up the road from Springfield and MSU, after all.

I'll be discussing censorship with my YA Lit class this week, which will read Last Night I Sang to the Monster for Wednesday and will read Speak in a few weeks as well, and I've joined Speakloudly.org, but I am ashamed to say I did little to help the cause of Part-Time Indian, which contains some sections of comics art.

However, for 108 other graphic novels, I can say I and a crew of dedicated teachers and professors have done something to help teachers keep graphica from suffering a similar fate:

Enter Rationales for Teaching Graphic Novels, a CD-Rom packed with statements on the content and teaching value of over 100 graphic novels. Each rationale also includes teaching ideas for each text.

While this most recent spate of censorship has glossed over 100% comics art texts (so far), comics have had some pretty high-profile censorship cases lately as well. A district in Minnesota considered having a volume of Jeff Smith's Bone removed after a parent complained. The text had advocates on site and used letters from me and Jeff Smith himself to come to a 10-1 decision to keep the book. Even lovable Spider-Man has been censored lately, based on a Nebraska-based parent complaint that the book was too sexy for her elementary school student.

Further, comics and graphic novels that are facing bans or censorship don't always make it onto NCTE or ALA's radar like traditional print texts do. So, they're often on their own unless a busy-body professor (like me) or a conscientious creator like Smith reaches out.

I hope that Rationales for Teaching Graphic Novels remedies that to some degree. Each rationale offers not only summary information and teaching resources and ideas, but is very explicit about anything that may be considered objectionable while also explaining why those elements might be in the text. The rationales can be used to help assuage the anxieties of other teachers, administrators or parents and can even be used as contracts that parents and students can sign off on to offer evidence of being OK with a specific graphic novel's use.

Titles covered include classics like Maus, Persepolis, and American Born Chinese as well as just-released books. A variety of genres are covered, from superhero to memoir, and contributors include teacher educators who have previously published on comics and literacy connections and practicing k-12 teachers.

In celebration of the right to read and Rationales for Teaching Graphic Novel's deep connection to issues of readers' choice and anti-censorship agenda, I am pleased to share with you two sample rationales:

Click here for a rationale of Jeff Smith's Bone series and for a rationale for the first installment of one of my favorite contemporary comics sagas, Jeremy Love's Southern Gothic Bayou.

Rationales for Teaching Graphic Novels is available for pre-order from Maupin House now.

CD Cover for Rationales for Teaching Graphic Novels is Here!

Disk Art for _Super-Powered Word Study!_

Not only does Super-Powered Word Study bring you 160 pages of comics and vocabulary goodness, but it has a special DVD software package as well! Here's the disk art:

Pin-Up Style Promo for _Super-Powered Word Study_

Wouldn't you love a full-sized poster of this image for your classroom? I added the letters and the MP logo at the bottom and cropped the title art from the front cover and put it in the top left. When my co-author Erik A. Evensen, who handled the art for the book, sent me this image (which will be part of the back cover), I felt it was too good not to share!

Featured: Polly "Popular" Lopez; Trans-Phat; the Communicator; Green Tonya: She-Student with a Sword, and the Vegetarian.

Preview Chatter on the Comics in Super-Powered Word Study

Click the link to visit Maupin House's blog, where I talk a little about each of the 15 mini-comics in the upcoming Super-Powered Word Study.

The Image that got away (Just for fun!)

While not all 15 comics shorts from Super-Powered Word Study were represented in the unofficial promo video I recently posted, this image below was supposed to make it. Can you tell what we're spoofing here?

Unofficial Promo Video for _Super-Powered Word Study_

Introducing _Super-Powered Word Study_!: Spec Art

(Color mock up for possible cover art)

Coming this fall, Super-Powered Word Study combines word sorting of roots and affixes with elements of dual coding theory, language exploration and awareness theory, creative writing and the best of visual literacy and comics-as-literacy research to bring folks in grades 5 and up exciting weekly activities designed to enhance students' vocabulary and linguistic inquiry skills.

Click the title to this link to learn a little bit more about this project from Maupin House, its publisher. Also, you can do a keyword search for "upcoming projects" on this blog for some teaser images.

While I can't yet show you the cover to the book, I happily show you some spec art for the project below. Enjoy, and if you like these images, just wait till you have the opportunity to see the entire project, set for release fall 2010!

(Various cover designs)

The "A" stands for "Awesome"

Erik A. Evensen (MFA, Ohio State University) and I are teaming up on a comics-and-literacy related project due out this fall. Erik is an award-winning artist who earned the Xeric Grant to help him publish his first graphic novel Gods of Asgard, which is about to gain global distribution. In this clip, you can see him profiled by Lakeland Public Television, based in Minnesota. You'll also see him working on some preview art for our project! :)

Teaser: Coming Soon: Comics from Carter and Evensen

What happens when you pair a Ph.D. in English Education from the University of Virginia with an MFA in Design from Ohio State University? In the case of Xeric Award-winning Erik A. Evensen and me, you get something associated with this image: From left to right: The Vegeterian, Green Tonya, The Communicator, Trans-Phat, and Popular Polly.



And here's another teaser image for you to help you put two and two together:

2 Censorship Stories

Looks like the legal case against Tin Tin in the Congo may be losing some steam. Also, looks like the Malaysian government is using "social order" laws to keep some comics out of its citizenry's hands.

While these instances are not specific to the U.S., they do suggest a certain need for projects that might be pro-active, even preemptive, in their goals to promote textual choice and inclusion and stave off censors.

If only there was a project like that in the works.... maybe one slated for a fall 2010 release date.... ;)

Telgemeier's YA GN _Smile_ Honored by Boston Globe-Horn Book

Guess I better add this to the awards section for my rationale for this book. "Rationale, you say?" More to come. ;)

Forthcoming Articles/ Appearances

It's been a slow week for the type of news I try to cover here, which suits me fine as I'm grading finals and doing averages this week while also attending to some annual medical stuffs.

But, to keep the posts current, here's some news:

This fall I have an article co-authored with Katie Monnin and Brian Kelley appearing in the award-winning journal Inland. Inland serves Washington state and Idaho NCTE chapters. You may recall that I was a speaker at the Idaho Council of Teachers of English a year or so ago. The article considers "visualizing and visually representing," two of the 6 English Language Arts defined by NCTE/IRA and illustrates how the use of comics and graphic novels in the classroom attend to them and to many of the NCTE/IRA standards. Look for the article in Inland some time in September 2010.

Then, in November, see another co-authored article of mine on blogging, American Born Chinese, and special needs students. California English teacher Cheryl Gomes and I teamed up for this one, which is slated to appear in a volume of English Journal which focuses on revisioning disability.

I also have two other big projects underway that I need to tell you about, both of which have been alluded to in this blog as of late, but I'll keep you waiting on these details. :)

Speaking of one of those projects, though, you can learn a little about what it might be by searching the NCTE Annual Convention Program once it is available on line. At the November convention, I'll be joining a group of teachers and teacher educators to talk about censorship issues regarding schools, libraries, and graphica.

MN Parent Complains About Bone

I hate to admit it, but due to a certain project I've got in the works, I've been waiting on a good comics censorship story. To date, 2010 has been pretty dull regarding libraries and schools and comics being questioned. But now? Now comes word that -- of all series -- Jeff Smith's Bone is being called into question.

Yes, the same Bone that me and many other educators feel is a great entry-level series for just about anyone old enough to read.

Ramona DeLay feels the graphic novel is not appropriate reading for her son, who attends Southwest Elementary and checked out the book from the school's library. DeLay wants the book withdrawn from the library because she feels the imagery, use of tobacco products, sexual tension between characters, gambling and alcohol use make the book too mature for her son.

No word on whether DeLay then went home and let her child watch the Shrek movies.

What is known is that on April 27, a review committee will meet to decide the fate of the title in this little Minnesota town. If the book can't be removed, DeLay would like to see some sort of rating system in place in her library, which mean she probably hasn't looked over the book as well as she's implied. Certainly, she doesn't seem to have checked out any of the many online and print sources that not only recommend the book but suggest audience levels as well.

To the credit of the school system, no one seems to be panicking. There are procedures in place, and no one is rushing to remove the text simply to placate the parent. Indeed, there seems to be some knowledge about Bone's reputation as an exemplar text, which is refreshing.

Tom Spurgeon has some commentary on the topic here.

I need to decide if I'm going to write a letter to the school board. I often do in cases of comics controversies in the schools. At the very least, it looks like I need to keep an eye on this and update the introduction for a certain CD-Rom project regarding censorship and graphica that should be available in the fall of 2010......

Teaser: Middle-Aged Anthropomorphic Mechanically-Inclined Tourtoise (and Son)?

Thor Meets Little Girl from New York

NPR Blogger Talks Comics and Vocabulary

Glen Weldon has a fun little piece about what comics taught him when he was a 6-year-old in 1974, three years before my existence on the planet earth. Weldon talks about learning words like enigma, heist, nemesis, rogues, mountebanks, yeggs, invulnerable, exoskeleton, cowl, tunic, and a host of other neat-o words from reading super-hero comics.

The comments section is just as intriguing to read as the article. Check it out.

And why might the article have me happy? Well, who is to say I'm not working on a comics-and-vocabulary project as we speak??? ;)

IRA Pre-Conference Institute, We Hardly Knew Ye

This April 25, there was supposed to be an all-day preconference institute on the graphic novel at the International Reading Association's conference in Chicago, IL. Katie Monnin organized the event, which featured many leading figures in comics-and-literacy scholarship, such as Michael Bitz, Katie, yours truly, and others, as well as actual comics creators/graphic novelists and leaders from the publishing field.

Alas, after almost all arrangements were made, including flights and hotel room bookings, we received word that the event was cancelled. (Thank goodness I was able to cancel my room reservations without penalty and my university was able to eat the cost of the plane ticket. Others might not have been so lucky).The reason given was low numbers of folks registering.

Only a sign of the economy, something more, or a combination of factors? Who is to say?

I'm sure there will be folks at IRA talking about graphic novels. I hope they enjoy being the representative experts, as I'm sure they will have great things to say and will give wonderful presentations, but nothing on the program regarding the topic could have equalled the combined knowledge and interests of the group Katie assembled. It's a missed opportunity not just for the presenters, but for IRA and its audience at the conference.

Of course, IRA is a selective group (I say everything herein as a current member) , and there seem to be channels to make sure things happen within its influence (this selectivity as it pertains to comics and literacy, might be observed by looking at the works cited lists of the articles on graphic novels that have appeared in JAAL over the last eight months or so. Got some time? Look at the names that are cited over and over, and also apply your knowledge of the arguments being made regarding comics and literacy and who all are making them, and compare who is being noted and who isn't). Perhaps those of us involved just didn't know how to best utilize those channels.


BUT, I can tell you the institute is not dead yet. Not its mission , members, and desires, anyway. Simply reformed. Some members will be at the convention in other capacities. And other plans to keep the collection of talent together to make their points and share their expertise are afoot. More as more develops!



(Picture: According to this paperwork from IRA, which arrived in my mailbox the day after I received the news that the pre-conference session was cancelled, I'm all good to go for my trip to Chicago, where I would have joined perhaps the best single group of comics and literacy scholars ever assembled in one place)

Teaser: How My Girlfriend Became My Wife