Graphic Novel blog Due 3/29

“After the war I’d like to publish a book called The Secret Annex.  It remains to be seen whether I’ll succeed, but my dairy can serve as the basis.”  - Anne Frank, May 11, 1944 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0836861965/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d1_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0A1T0NR2MRMS1RDTJ48H&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846



Hudson-Goff, E. (2005). The Diary of Anne Frank (Graphic Biographies/World Almanac). New York: Gareth Stevens Publishing.

According to Nilsen & Donelson, "graphic novels are comic books that have gone off to college and come back with a new sophistication and respect" (p. 176).  The subject matter and attitudes of creators towards their stories allow writers and illustrators to create a mood and write/draw in a tone that provides the reader with both a literary and visual appreciation for the piece.

In Anne Frank, from the Graphic Bibliographies collection from the World Almanac Library, the authors and illustrators are able to convey key elements of the life and experieces of Anne, her relationship with her parents, the social and political setting in Europe during World War II and the autrocities of Hitler and the German alies against the approximately 12 million people murdered during WWII.

Unlike in political cartoons, there was no judgment or commentary offered by the authors/illustrators of this book.  As a graphic biography, this is an interpretation of the facts offered in Anne's original diary and other details collected about her life.  This is NOT a graphic novel of the complete work The Diary of Anne Frank.

This novel provides a really nice timeline, the sequence of events in Anne's life - setting the stage for her story.  It starts with her early childhood, free of persecution, a childhood much like any other's.  The graphic novel depicts her home, the seaside, her outside playing games, time with her family. 

The "tone" of the book then changes to depict the Third Reich, burnings, persecution, etc.  I like how the book makes references to dates and countries, outlining where the war was taking place, and the countries that Anne and her family fled to to avoid capture.  In this way the book can be used to support a history lesson as well.

The book shows pictures of what we might have seen in the attic in which they lived for nearly two years.  It also explains labor camps, shows how people were hunted, abducted, and arrested by the Nazi police, and describes the fate of those unfortunate enough to be discovered.

After Anne's family is discovered and arrested, the story helps track how they are divided, the different labor camps they are sent to - women to some, men to others, some were work/labor camps, some were death camps.  The story does explain the gas chambers, the showers, the ovens, and even though the illustrator could have been MUCH more graphic, I think the illustrator and the writer kept their target audience in mind and were very effective with their combination of words and illustrations.

I think this book would be very effective with 4-8th graders studying World War II or The Diary of Anne Frank.  I think that it provides a nice back drop and a timeline that students could relate to.  I think that the fact that it comes in graphic novel form would help them relate to the fact that Anne is a child and this might have been a genre of book, comics that children her age would have read.  Reluctant readers might find this book more inviting because it looks like a lot less reading when it is constantly being broken up and separated by pictures - it's less intimidating then paragraph after paragraph of prose and, if you were using this as a guided or shared reading, then the breaks and the pictures could provide time for questings, making connections, drawing inferences, checking for understanding, etc.

For older students, the graphic novel "Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel," might offer more political commentary and satire to go along with the years, events, facts assosciated with the war.

http://www.amazon.com/Dr-Seuss-Goes-War-Editorial/dp/1565847040/ref=cm_cmu_pg_t

I think that graphic novels might be a helpful way to deliver material to reluctant or remedial readers because it definitely still delivers the grade-level appropriate material.

Geoffrey Canada, whose work with the Harlem Children's Guild has been all over the education reform wire offers his own gritty urban biography in graphic novel form:

http://www.amazon.com/Fist-Stick-Knife-Gun-Personal/dp/0807044490/ref=tag_stp_s2f_edpp_graphi13el
This piece would definitely better meet the needs of older readers since it discusses violence and offers alternatives.

The same WAL Graphic Biolgraphies collection also offers pieces on Nelson Mandela (http://www.biblio.com/details.php?dcx=309673891&aid=frg&utm_source=google&utm_medium=product&utm_campaign=feed-details), Harriet Tubman, Jackie Robinson, etc.

Bound To Stay Bound Books offers 6 pages of titles separated into literally dozens of sub-genres:

http://www.btsb.com/brochures/Graphic_Novels.pdf