Picture is worth a Thousand Words

This week we were required to read American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. I can honestly say that I have never read a graphic novel before this one. I have never had any interest in them and always thought it was a “boy” thing with superheroes and Batman and Superman and Spiderman, the list goes on and on. I was not particularly excited to read this graphic novel this week but when I opened it I tried to open my mind to it as well. This is what I discovered upon reading it. Graphic novels – if this one is any indication – can hold some really complex issues and present them in a quick , “easy” format that allows the reader to grasp the concept even if it is largely complex and would take hundreds of pages in a traditional novel. I have to give authors of graphic novels credit where credit is due in this sense because they are so limited to the amount of text on a page and specifically in each frame on that page. The combination of text and visuals is used to portray a lot of emotion which allows them to put into our minds what would take a thousand words to do – in this sense, a picture really is worth a thousand words.

Kaylin

The "literariness" of graphic novels

In 2007, Gene Yang's American Born Chinese became the first graphic novel to win the Printz Award for excellence in young adult literature.  A few months earlier, in 2006, it was a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature.  ABC even won the 2007 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album!

 So what makes this book literary?  What text features or aspects of the writing do you think led more than one award committee to single this book out for its literary merit?  Also, what is it like for you as a reader to look for literary elements in a book whose graphic format may be entirely new to you?

Jennifer Buehler

Yang Nods To A Classical Chinese Epic Novel

In Gene Luen Yang's Young Adult Graphic Novel American Born Chinese the plot line that involves the Monkey King is alluding to a classical Chinese epic novel called Journey to the West.  A wikipedia summary of the book shows how closely Yang's book follows the plot line of the ancient Chinese text.

"He took a great leap and then flew to the end of the world in seconds. Nothing was visible except for five pillars, and Wukong surmised that he had reached the ends of Heaven. To prove his trail, he marked the pillars with a phrase declaring himself "the great sage equal to heaven" (and in other versions, urinated on the pillar he signed on)"

I think that it's interesting that Yang used the plot from Journey to the West to create a comic book that conveys a coming of age story.  There are many other interesting parts of Yang's work that are hidden right under the surface

- Jason McCoy

The above picture is a depiction of The Monkey King from Journey to the West.

I guess you could call this relevant:-)

Does anyone remember this episode of Boy Meets World? I thought of this immediately when reading this week's book.

Cold War Instructional Films

Dear Class,

These are some cold war instructional films that I found.



I also found the below videos interesting

1950's Civil Defense Film - Survival Under Atomic Attack

1950's Cold War Propaganda - Fallout shelter

He May Be a Communist

Enjoy,

Jason McCoy

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

Historical Fiction

Historical fiction is by far my favorite genre to read. I know it might seem slow and boring to most, but I love to read a story about characters and their experiences based on real life events. Unfortunately, as an English major, I spend most of my time reading assigned work and novels, so I don't get very much time to read for enjoyment. Reading Countdown gave me a chance to read a genre that I really enjoy, and as a result, it made me think about some of my favorite novels that I had read in the past. This got me thinking, when I graduate in just a few months, I won't be forced to read 12 novels and 50 scholarly every semester. I'll be able to read whatever I want in my spare time. There must be so many more historical fiction books out there for both adults and teens that I've never even heard of!

This got me really excited, so I went online to search for sites that offered booklists for the best historical fiction for teens and I found one that I thought was very interesting. There is an article from the ALAN Review (granted it's from 99, so it's a bit dated) that contains a list of the best historical fiction for YA 'through the decades.' Each list contains books written during and/or about each decade of the 20th century, which reminded me of Countdown. I've pasted the link below so that you guys can check it out if you get the chance or if you are looking for some suggestions for a good piece of YA historical fiction. Enjoy!


http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/spring99/brewbaker.html



-Katie