Honestly I don’t disagree with anything Ripp says about graphic novels. I did think it was weird to read this after reading Passionate Readers where she suggests counting graphic novels as 1/2 or 1/4 of a book towards a student’s end of year reading goal, but I also know that people can change their minds. It’s no secret that graphic novels help struggling readers a lot– both in terms of offering decoding practice that isn’t quite so daunting as a full print novel and by allowing them to read books written with their age group in mind alongside their peers without worrying about those books being “too hard” for them. I think something that is less talked about though is how graphic novels can be challenging for advanced readers. I remember in 4th grade the Bone series by Jeff Smith became insanely popular in my elementary school. They ran out of copies at the book fair and everyone, even kids who had been fake reading for years during silent reading time, was trying to get their hands on a copy. And I remember that I HATED them. When it was finally my turn to receive the banged up copy of book one from the school library and I was so disappointed. I knew there were kids that read those books for WEEKS at a time, who would read it cover to cover and then go back and reread their favorite parts; but I read the whole thing in less than a day and I couldn’t even think of what parts I would like to revisit because those speech bubbles just didn’t have enough words in them to convey something for me to remember.
In hindsight, my frustration with graphic novels (which continued through high school) stemmed from the fact that I wasn’t reading them right. I was always told that I was a reader. I was tracked into the gifted program early on because I could read quickly and fluently. And while pacing and fluency are still skills you need in order to digest graphic novels, they are not the only skills you need. I was reading graphic novels like they were regular books, scanning from left to right, concentrating on the words, and flipping the page as soon as I had read all of the text. Reading this way meant that I was missing half the story that these books were telling. The illustrations in graphic novels are not just appealing or enticing, they are kind of the point of the story. They fill in the gaps between the more sparse dialogue and narration blocks. Graphic novels force speed readers to slow down and really sit with each page. You have to pay attention to the composition of the page as a whole– Where are the dialogue snippets in relation to the characters? What order are you supposed to read this conversation in?– as well as interpret the stories being told by each image, the emotions being portrayed on faces, actions, colors, and everything else. There are additional skills at work in addition to the ones you use to read a traditional book.
To this day I still struggle a little bit with graphic novels. It is hard for me to slow down and really take in the story. Now the main barrier for me reading more graphic novels, and putting them in my classroom library, is the cost. Graphic novels are so expensive. Even good used copies are twice as expensive as a used copy of a regular book, and there aren’t nearly as many used copies available because public libraries keep graphic novels in circulation for way longer (because they are so popular). By the time they are ready to retire a book its practically falling apart. I know Ripp advocates for quality over quantity, but it is super hard for me to justify spending so much on just one book when I am trying to be efficient. So while my classroom library currently does not show a love of graphic novels, I really do love graphic novels for myself and for my students. However, I don’t think they should be labeled as “easy reads.” They are just challenging in different ways.
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