Iheartguts.com As noted yesterday, my 12-year-old home-schooled son and I braved the crowds at the New York Comic Con last Sunday, looking for any materials that might qualify as educational. Also, a Minecraft pickaxe, which we found. The hunt yielded far more than I was expecting. Modest as our takeaway may be when compared with the number of clammy-handed men and boys of the geeky persuasion yearning after buxom Manga goddesses in the flesh, I think we did all right for ourselves.
If you’re not persuaded that anything available at Comic Con could offer a learning experience, perhaps you need a refresher course courtesy of Reading With Pictures, a Chicago-based nonprofit advocating the use of comics in the classroom. Their Reading With Pictures Anthology has a relatively diffuse focus, especially compared with some of the titles I described in Part 1 of this post, but it has a host of well-known (in the comics world) contributors, and no one gets sent to the principal for pushing a Smarties Are Cool / Librarians Rock message. My son and I are hoping for a sequel starring the awesome electric eel from Chris Eliopoulos’s “An Animal That Cooks Its Own Dinner,” but I’ve heard next up is a graphic textbook in keeping with core curriculum standards for grades three through six.
Part 1 of our Comic Con exploration included graphic options for History, Science and Literature. For further studies:
SOCIAL STUDIES
“The Power Within” by Charles (Zan) Christensen and Mark Brill
Can comic book superheroes deploy anti-bullying as a way to combat and reform gay-bashing young ruffians? Probably not, but “The Power Within” is bound to sustain those waiting for things to get better. The creators’ refusal to sugarcoat the way that well-meaning advice and innocent actions can make things worse earns my trust. There’s something here for kids in the middle, as well. (Psst, youth services organizations and teachers’ groups qualify for free copies.)
“Mayah’s Lot” by Charlie La Greca and Rebecca Bratspies
Whoa, another spontaneously generated superhero? Actually, Earth Girl appears in but one panel of this environmental justice-themed comic. The real heroes are clearly the teenager Mayah and the neighborhood residents battling corporate baddies Green Solutions for control of a vacant lot. I appreciated that organizational skills, time and effort didn’t get the short shrift en route to the (spoiler!) successful outcome.
LANGUAGE
“Dim Sum Warriors” by Colin Goh, Yen Yen Woo and Soo Lee
If turtles can mutate into ninjas, why shouldn’t we accept dim sum as Imperial Chinese warriors? The boy’s mania for soup dumplings made this a no-brainer purchase for us, but I imagine the translation app from which this series arose would be a boon to parents who’ve got their kids studying Mandarin. And vice versa. Colin Goh, series co-creator, tells me Shaomai, Roastpork Bao and friends have already infiltrated Chinese-speaking classrooms to help students learn and practice English.
MUSIC
“Baby’s in Black” by Arne Bellstorf
Mama, what’s the Beatles? Oh, for Pete Best’s sake! Don’t tell me that’s the state of education in this country! School them in the basics, then reward the exceptionally gifted ones with the bittersweet love story of the German photographer Astrid Kirchherr and lost Beatle Stu Sutcliffe. Or, go the experimental route and let them start out thinking of Paul, John and George as supporting characters.
HEALTH
I Heart Guts’ Good Ol’ Menstrual Cycle poster
The happy little uterus who is this empowering and informative poster’s de facto mascot is so adorable, you may get rooked into buying the plushie. A far more festive classroom decoration option than cut-outs of pumpkins and Pilgrims, you could frame it in the bathroom (or living room) so the whole family’s clear on the monthly mechanics. Note from KJ: I just ordered this, along with the Meet Your Body poster, because this is my idea of “decorating” the upstairs.
HIGHER EDUCATION
“The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law” by Nathaniel Burney
To steal a bit from Chekhov, the author is a lawyer, not an artist, but that just means there’s little to distract from the funny, highly informative text. Is it possible to pass the Bar on the basis of one self-published funny book? I’m guessing not, though what an efficient, amusing alternative to law school, if so.
“Feynman” by Jim Ottaviani and Leland Myrick
If I underestimated the audience for this biography of the Nobel Prize winner, safecracker, adventurer and all around engaging guy Richard Feynman, it’s because the raves upon its publication were geared toward adult readers and, also, because my grandfather or stepfather did the lion’s share of the work on every hands-on high school physics project designed to interest me in the subject. I was gobsmacked when a 12-year-old home-schooler friend to whom I was describing the fruits of our Comic Con haul asked, “Ooh, what physicist?” Turns out her mom has CDs of Mr. Feynman’s lectures, which our young friend enjoys listening to from time to time. (Meanwhile, my boy’s lucky his mother has a graphic biography rendered in a classic clean line reminiscent of Tintin.)
Ayun Halliday is the author of “The ‘Zinester’s Guide to NYC”, “The Big Rumpus”, and other books; and the creator of the East Village Inky.
No comments:
Post a Comment