It's not uncommon for readers to get specialized in a type, style or genre of book that they like to read, and that can be doubly true for kids. For some reason though, when it comes to graphic novels there seems to be a connotation that this type of reading is less valuable than your typical book. So here's the question are graphic novels worthwhile reading?
Ultimately the answer is yes. Reading of any type should be considered worthwhile and just because a book is illustrated should not devalue its worth. In many ways graphic novels actually help kids become better readers. How? Kids are picking them up - books kids are likely interested in are more likely to be read and that is the biggest challenge in kid's reading overcome, getting a child (especially one who struggles or claims to dislike reading), getting them to pick up a book and show interest. Graphic novels do this because they're visually appealing. They generally have fun fonts, colorful illustrations, action and are designed to be more fast paced. These are things that make it more exciting to pick up a graphic novel. Kids are drawn to the visual.
This is not a bad thing, as today's world with social media, digital marketplace and even book cover design are all based in visual literacy. Conveying something through pictures. Having kids learn the skills to decode these visual cues is an important skill to learn in today's world. Graphic novels can be the beginning of understanding more complex visual information. And as they say in the book world, getting someone to pick up a book is half the challenge, thus making book cover art a very important part of the publishing process.
So why in the short time between picture books and chapter books have pictures become the bad guy in determining the worth of a book? That I can't answer. I do know that pictures in themselves can be helpful, especially with those readers struggling with context and comprehension. Pictures can help define those unfamiliar words, and bring cohesion to text making comprehension easier, allowing for a simultaneous development of visual and verbal skills. It's true, graphic novels have been found to have more complex and advance vocabulary in their text than traditional books. So for those kids where reading alone is not enough to grasp the context of a story, pictures can help. As a result confidence is gained. The more confidence you have the more longer books become approachable and thus graphic novels can often times be the link to longer, regular books.
Graphic novels are know for rich plots, complex storylines and of course their visual appeal, so how can we undervalue them. Ultimately I think its becasue we forget that storytelling can happen in many formats and we start to rate them, rather than see them as just another form of sharing a story. Graphic novels just like other books have text for decoding and comprehending, they have storylines to follow, concepts to grasp, characters to understand and relate to. These are the elements that should be considered as important to reading.
Graphic novels are worthwhile, they are no different that reading a magazine, a fiction book, a biography or any other format that we may gravitate too. So if your child picks up another graphic novel, just be thrilled that they've found something they like.
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