What is a Graphic Novel?

A graphic novel is a basically a long comic book. Many of us are familiar with the comic book format we read as a child such as Spiderman, Batman, and Superman. These are still a favorite today. Look at the mirad of superhero movies that make the big bucks. However, our children today have the option to read this genre in a much longer book with a varied range of settings and topics.

Much of the format for today's graphic novels comes from other countries, mainly Japan, where the graphic novel is read by children, teens, and adults. The Japanese comics are called manga and are read from back to front. Manga's usually are in paperback and are usually black and white. Stories may contain love relationships, including lesbian or androgenous relationships, violence, "bad" often call mature language, and nudity. There is lots of Whiz, Bam, Pow just like American comics. English versions of Japanese graphic novels can't just be purchased and used in American classrooms. Basically they need to be checked for language, nudity, and excessive or graphic violence before using them in our schools. The cover shown here is Yotsuba@! Vol 4 by Kiyohiko Azuma. Yotsuba@! is wholesome and suitable for elementary students. It has 8 volumes. On this web site I will list the sites I found for graphic novels or comics for students in grades 1-5.