Week 13 Prompt

For this weeks writing prompt I am pasting the exact directive here:

Though this week's group of "genres" all seem very different, they all have in common the fact that many people don't feel that they are legitimate literary choices and libraries shouldn't be spending money on them or promoting them to adults. Obviously, graphic novels are becoming more acceptable, but I still had to fight to get my progressive library in a liberal college town to purchase a book club kit containing graphic novels. The common belief is that adults still don't or shouldn't read that stuff. How can we as librarians, work to ensure that we are able to serve adults who enjoy YA literature or graphic novels? Or should we? 

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Sometimes you are thrilled with watching the history of anything.  Sometimes you want to watch a sitcom.  Sometimes, you just want to veg in front of the television—flipping between commercials.  Books can be used in very much the same way.  Has anyone threatened to cut sitcoms?

Imagine a young man or woman-- or even a young boy or girl--who has decided they “hate reading.”  They get bored sitting and looking at lines of words that seem to blend into one another.  Sometimes those lines cause dizziness with their nonsensical movement or chatter. 

There are many reasons that cause someone to be labeled by outside observers as "a reluctant reader."

My very own, then, 10-year-old daughter would never pick up a book unless there was something to grab her attention within the first page—sometimes even the first paragraph—or it had to be a very short book.  She is very active and hates with a vengeance to sit down for any length of time for seemingly no reason.  She prefers to be out exploring nature or interacting with people and peers.

However, at the age of 10 she would pick up the Warrior graphic novels, or Garfield comic books, or anything with illustrations by the dozens.  When she got through it she would read the Warriors books over and over.  We (her teachers and I) tried to move her onto something else.  



While at the beginning I was concerned that she was not reading anything seemingly substantial, I was happy that she had something that appealed to her that required reading behavior.



Then, at age 12, she picked up Maze Runner because it was that or an ‘F’ for her grade at school. 

I had to pick it up over the weekend so she could catch up to her class.  I ended up buying all FOUR books within a 2-week time frame because she had to know what happened next.  I am satisfied, that if it hadn’t been for Graphic novels it would have been even harder for us to get her into reading—of course a threat of failure doesn’t hurt either. 

Now, for an experience not so personal.  I have watched a particular young man at the library where I work.  He used to come in and wonder around getting into trouble easily because he was loitering about causing disturbances among his peers. (I work right next to a middle school).

Then one day, I look up and he is sitting still!  I did a double take and then noticed he was looking down.  The guy was reading (intently) a graphic novel!  My librarian heart jumped for joy! 

I have another patron (adult) who reads novels upwards of 700-800 pages long at really fast intervals.  But, he also enjoys his graphic novels.

We spend the beginning years of teaching a child to read to look for context clues in the illustrations of books he reads.  Then we take those context clues away before they are ready. 

I used to quip that graphic novels were not really reading material.  Now, I am jealous that I didn’t have it when I was between reading stages.

As was written in the writing prompt for this week: graphic novels are more accepted now than before.  I think, we should take this as a lesson.  Let the reader decide!