so this is a graphic novel....

This being my first experience reading a graphic novel I didn't really know what to expect, and honestly I still do not know how I feel. I have always loved art and literature so I do not know why I haven't read graphic novels before. When I picked up American Born Chinese I finished it easily in one sitting but at first I didn't really get much out of it........so I read it again. With the second reading I began to realize how smoothly the three different stories fit together an the intricate ways that the main character(s) came to terms with being a Chinese American. Using the ancient Chinese story as a parallel was brilliant. It used a part of Jin Wang's heritage to describe his own struggle to fit in, it showed Jin that by being himself he had a specific role to fill, that he could be both American and Chinese and that that was who he is suppose to be. American Born Chinese has opened my eyes to the world of Graphic Novels and the new hidden layers and facets it makes available to literature.
-Chloe

A Greater Appreciation the Second Time Around

Having read two books this week (one for my book talk and one for our assigned reading), I realized how much I love historical fiction. I had read Cameron Dokey’s Hindenburg 1937 when I was in junior high and loved it then but I think I have a greater appreciation now of the story being told than what I grasped and remembered then. I was able to appreciate having had a larger background in my history education than I would have when I first read it. The life experiences which shaped me into the reader I am also gave me a foundation to relate and/or empathize with the characters of this story while taking into account the historical events for which they are present. 

 Kaylin

Second Read

I read Robert Cormier's "The Chocolate War" in eighth grade while on vacation. I had run out of books to read and found myself lost without a book in my hand while waiting to board an airplane on the way to my final destination. So upon browsing the shelves of the airport convenience store loaded with magazines and books with various titles and subject matters, I settled on "The Chocolate War"...and I hated it. I didn't see the point in the book. I didn't understand how it got the reviews on the back cover that it had. I just didn't like it.

Now, upon giving it a second read for class I was open to having a different experience with the book since I was a few years older and have had some experiences I hadn't had when I first read it as well as having a different perspective on life due to those experiences. I will say that giving the book a second read after a long period of time, I'm liking it a lot better and can see the things I couldn't understand then because I hadn't experienced them (like Catholic high school) and that now having had that time to experience them and look back on those experiences I can relate a lot better to the characters then I could as an eighth grader of a Catholic grade school.

Kaylin

Death by Diorama

It really is not The Chocolate Wars fault but I absolutely hate this book. My fifth grade teacher handed it to me unceremoniously. She, in all likelihood, had no idea how to deal with an avid reader like myself. It was book report season and everyone needed a book, the fact that I had read the majority of the books she brought was clearly my fault. That was the death knoll for this book the book report. I had no desire to read this book, let alone make a pitiful diorama that would show the world just how terrible I was at arts and crafts. This project was meant to encourage students to read I am sure. For me though it was these kinds of projects that turned me off from the books on which they centered. The Chocolate War was the last “young adult” book I read until high school. Even now as I reread it I cannot enjoy this book that might otherwise be perfectly enjoyable.

I am concerned with the fact that children do not read, but I think that people tend to oversimplify the solution, and suggest only that students should be given more YA novels, or should be able to choose their novels. While these are great solutions it does not absolve teachers from the need to create engaging projects and assignments that encourage reading.

I have been reflecting a lot on how this novel, ruined by a terrible assignment, affected me as a reader. I am lucky I already loved to read so it did not shut me down from reading as a whole. It ended up shutting me off from a section of reading that I might have otherwise enjoyed. I began associating YA literature with cheesy art projects and plots reducible to dioramas. These projects become the image associated with the genre as a whole; simplistic characters that can be represented by a drawing, and themes that can be reduced to titles. These projects are not fair to the genre, and probably are not fair to The Chocolate War, but even now that is the only image of the book I can see, a pathetic cardboard diorama.

-- Meaghan Myers