Comic Books Put The "Pow!" Into Literacy

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By Lauren Barack August 3, 2010
To Deborah Ford, getting a child to read a book is the end game. And whether that book is a novel--or a graphic novel--there's still a narrative, words on a page, and literacy involved.

Librarian Deborah Ford advocates comics in the classroom.

"There is a misconception that a reader is someone who reads a big fat novel that someone dead wrote a long time ago," says the resource librarian for more than 180 K-12 schools in the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) and author of Scary, Gross and Enlightening Books for Boys Grades 3-12 (Linworth, 2010). "But reading is reading."

Which is why Ford evangelizes the use of comic books and graphic novels by librarians and teachers in schools-running seminars across the country and Canada, writing a book on the subject, and even speaking at last week's Comic-Con in San Diego.

"There were 130,000 people there," says Ford in amazement of the Comic-Con experience. "I was anxious because a Comic-Con conference is very different than a library conference. But I wore my red cowboy boots for bravery."

Ford, along with three university professors, spoke to about 300 people about how to weave comic books into classroom lessons. To her, one of the biggest hurdles is often re-educating the educators and helping them understand what a powerful tool graphic novels can be in any subject matter and with any grade.

"I have a book here called The Storm in the Barn (Candlewick, 2009), which is about the Dust Bowl," she says. "And you can use it in history and from there go to the full text."

As many librarians know, comic books have come a long way from the 25-cent Archie series that children grabbed from wire displays in drugstores. While those still exist-but at a higher price point-the comic book style of stories told through panels and with dialogue in bubbles is now being used in adaptations of popular tales, nonfiction stories, and in 1992 even won a Pulitzer Prize with Art Spiegelman's Maus: A Survivor's Tale (Apex Novelties and Pantheon Books, 1972-1991).

Ford first envisioned weaving comic books and literacy when she came across SuperHero ABC (HarperCollins, 2006). Students responded, and she realized she could engage children. Now Ford's district encourages comic books and graphic novels in the classroom.

Ford (right) speaking at this year's Comic-Con.

On Ford's blog, Libraries Matter, she suggests that media specialists make access to comic books easier by letting students place their names on a sign-up sheet rather than go through the lengthier check-out process. And in this time of budget constraints, she recommends that students swap their favorite titles. Never underestimate the generosity of local businesses. An elementary school library assistant in a low-income area of San Diego that Ford oversees wrote to a local comic bookstore this year-and they ended up donating more than 300-400 comic books to her school.

Besides stocking school libraries with comic books, Ford says her district uses Comic Life with students, which allows them to craft their own digital comic strips and helps hone their writing skills since they have to be succinct when putting dialogue into those tiny balloons.

Ford's goal sounds simple-to get students to read, write, and love words and stories.

"A kid may not want to read Percy Jackson (Hyperion Books, 2005), but will read the graphic novel and then maybe go to the book," she says. "I've always been a fan of if it works, then use it."

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