It's no secret that graphic novels are extremely popular among middle school students. When I first came to Maple Street, one of the fun activities we hosted was an arts-based summer camp. I spent one summer working with a Michigan graphic novelist who taught our kids about comic art. Later, he worked with me and a social studies teacher to create an elective class based on graphic novels and she fully integrated comics into her regular classroom curriculum. The kids were reading graphic novels, drawing their own comic strips, and we developed a massive book collection. When the elective ended, that collection was moved into the library's ever-growing graphic novel section where there is extensive traffic and I am always looking for the best new books to add to the collection.
With this background, I was thrilled when our local independent bookstore,
BookBug, offered us a visit from
Terri Libenson. The sixth graders in the
RAWK program began preparing for the visit by learning about and writing their own graphic novels. Even so, it's hard to tell how these events will go: will the kids be engaged and polite? Will the author be comfortable with the nature of middle schoolers and their probing questions? It turns out that, yes, Terri was extremely comfortable with the nature of sixth graders and the students loved her presentation.
My favorite moments included a story that she told at the beginning about the inspiration for her story. Terri took the most humiliating day of her life and turned it into something positive: the book
Invisible Emmie. It's so rare to meet people who have a sense of humor about themselves and their past experiences--especially when they are particularly embarrassing. Middle school kids often feel like they are alone in their experiences, so hearing a story they could relate to was fantastic. Terri also had a drawing contest with the students where they each drew a character and then exchanged the pictures at the end. It was fun to have the students participate and interact with such enthusiasm. In fact, later in the day when he back for his regular library time, a student was reading Terri's book and trying his hand at drawing the characters--the impact was definitely visible.
I would recommend booking Terri for an author visit. We have never had a graphic novelist as our author guest before, but the change of pace was eye-opening and well worth the time it took to organize and prepare the students. A huge thanks to BookBug, Terri Libenson, and
Harper Collins for making our week!
 |
| Terri Libenson introducing herself to our students. |
 |
| Terri and Invisible Emmie |
 |
| Terri sharing part of her book aloud. |
 |
| This scene cracks me up! |
 |
| Terri drawing with one of our students--I loved that she interacted with our students. |
 |
| Later, during library time, one of our students read part of Invisible Emmie and then worked on drawing one of the characters. |
