Teenagers reading

I’ve finished working at the State Library of WA and I’m back to my research full time.

I’m presenting a paper at Children’s Literature at the Edge: new texts, new technologies, new readings, new readers the 7th International Conference of the Australasian Children’s Literature Association for Research (ACLAR) to be held in Melbourne, Australia, 13-14 July 2006. This is a conference on children’s literature, so I will talk generally about graphic novels as a format.

Abstract

Graphic novels are trade paperback or hardcover books consisting of work in comic-book form. They include book-length stories, collections of stories and works of non-fiction. This does not include collections of comic strips such as Garfield or Peanuts. They are a format and as such include many different genres.

Graphic novels are becoming more prevalent and popular among children and teenagers. There are numerous reasons for this. Young people today are much more attuned to visual means of communication, as they have grown up with television and computers. Teachers are using graphic novels to develop visual literacy, an important skill for success in today’s visual world. Both librarians and teachers are advocating graphic novels to encourage recreational reading. Last year the wordless graphic novel, The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, the Bard by Greg Rogers was short-listed for the Children’s Book Council of Australia, Book of the Year for younger readers. Publishers and booksellers are finding graphic novels (including manga, which are Japanese comics) increasingly lucrative and thus are promoting them aggressively. Graphic novels are reviewed in library and general review sources, and in some sources are treated as just another aspect of contemporary writing.

In my paper I will discuss the popularity and literary merit of graphic novels and why graphic novels are becoming an important aspect of children’s literature.