Pre-Course Reflection

As the youngest sibling of four, I was always interested in what my older brothers and sister were into. I do remember my brother, Trevon, always reading the comic X-Men. I specifically remember that my two brothers would talk about how awesome Wolverine was! And, of course, I had to agree with them, even though I do not recall even reading any of the comics myself. That was really the extent of my knowledge and dealing with comics and graphic novels growing up. It amounts to the fact that Wolverine is the best of all the X-Men.

Over my time as a young adult, post college and beginning a career in education, I became somewhat more familiar with graphic novels and comics. I work with special education students and I have the philosophy that I do not care what format my students read in, so long as they are reading! Some of my first students would come to me as ask if they could read a comic or graphic novel. I was skeptical at first, not seeing the full value in reading them. I eventually saw how much my students enjoyed graphic novels and comics that I began buying them for my own classroom library. I will say that I did not take the time to search out graphic novels beyond that of super heroes, I honestly do not think I was fully aware of the wide variety of graphic novels out there. The longer I have been in education, the more knowledge I have gained in regards to graphic novels. I will admit that in 6 years of education, after purchasing and encouraging my students to read graphic novels, that I only read my first one about 2 months ago.

My first reading of a graphic novel did not go as well as I was hoping. I chose to read New Kid by Jerry Craft. This reading was in response to a juvenile literature class I took last semester. I chose New Kid solely based on the fact that it won 2 large awards, the Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award. I did read reviews for the book on School Library Journal and on Kirkus Reviews. All were positive, glowing reviews. What I do not think I took into considerations was my personal enjoyment of the subjects of that particular novel. Ultimately, I was not impressed by my first foray into the realm of graphic novels.

Since I did not enjoy New Kid, I felt that I did not like graphic novels in general. So why did I take this class all about comics and graphic novels? I took this class for two reasons. One, this class was suggested to me as an excellent and favorite course by two separate librarians who went through the UNT program. Secondly, I see that as a school librarian that my experience with graphic novels, as it currently stands, is not enough to be a successful librarian for youth due to the popularity of the format. As a result of taking this class, I have already been able to find excitement about reading some of the graphic novels both required and not.

What I ultimately want to learn about comics and graphic novels is how best to enjoy them and how to best advise my students what to read. I am also interested in exposing myself to wide variety of style of graphic novels both in my comfort zone and out.