Samantha 0:00
Welcome to Creating Joyful Readers, the podcast for secondary literacy educators who believe in the power of stories to inspire, challenge, and connect us. Today, I’m thrilled to introduce you to someone who is truly shaping the future of school libraries, Amanda Hunt, also known as the next gen librarian. Amanda is a sixth to eighth grade middle school librarian in Texas and the secondary lead librarian for her district. With 14 years of experience as a librarian across both elementary and secondary campuses and years as an educator before that, Amanda brings a wealth of knowledge and passion to her work. She served as the chair of the Mavericks graphic novel reading list committee for the Texas Library Association, and continues to advocate for innovative literacy practices as the T by ASL counselor through 2025. In addition to all of that, Amanda is part of the AASL standards committee working on the upcoming 2025 release that will guide libraries for years to come. Today, she’s here to talk with us about the importance of graphic novels in education, how they can transform classroom engagement, and her top recommendations for building an incredible graphic novel collection. If you’ve ever wondered how graphic novels can support literacy and empower students, this episode is for you.

Samantha 1:17
Welcome to Creating joyful readers, a podcast dedicated to empowering secondary educators with the tools, strategies, and inspiration to cultivate a lifelong love of reading in their students. I’m your host, Samantha. Tune in each week as we explore the transformative power of independent reading. Delve into the latest research on literacy, dissect projects that will help your students showcase what they’ve learned in a unique way, and share curated recommendations of young adult novels that will captivate and engage your learners. Join in as we embark on a journey to create joyful lifelong readers one book at a time.

Samantha 1:51
Hi, Amanda, welcome to Creating joyful readers.

Amanda 1:58
Hi, I’m so happy to be here.

Samantha 2:00
Thank you for being here today. So we are going to talk about graphic novels. We’re in a series right now where we’re talking about different formats of books to get kids excited about reading. So we have lots of different mediums that we’re talking about and so I asked you on today because you have a wealth of knowledge about graphic novels, and that is not where I thrive. So tell me a little bit about your own reading journey. How did you grow to become a reader?

Amanda 2:29
So I actually as a child, was a reluctant reader. My parents are both educators and loved to read, and so that was a bit of a disappointment for them that I was not as fast for me, it was in eighth grade, when my reading teacher we read the giver, by Louis Lowry, that I actually saw the impact that books can have on a person and just how, like the ending was kind of open ended, and it was just great to have those conversations about what you think as the reader really happened, and that there’s, like, not a whole lot of right or wrong answers sometimes, and there’s not always this in conclusion or happily ever after. So just the fact that I think I was exposed to a book like that that wasn’t like I had been reading, like Babysitters Club and like all of those. And so this is just finally, first time that I got into a novel, and it just kind of set me off to love literature more and more and more. And then in high school, I found romance – that was it, that was it. Ever since then, I’ve been like a voracious reader.

Samantha 3:38
I love that your story deals with education, because a lot of people who come on here and answer that question, it really started at home very young. So I love that your story shows that you know, kids who don’t necessarily get that love early can gain it once they get to school.

Amanda 3:55
Absolutely, I was having this conversation with my elementary lead librarian yesterday, and she also was a reluctant reader. And then look at us now, we’re both like, librarians.

Samantha 4:05
Oh, that’s amazing. I love that. Uh, when did you first discover graphic novels?

Amanda 4:10
Um, so I was a baby librarian, and went into the library and noticed that the graphic novel section there was like five at the school I was at and I and they were constantly checked out, and I had just finished graduate school and and seeing kind of the emergence of graphic novels, it was right around the time that it was becoming a bigger deal. And I was like, Okay, we have all we have books, and kids want them, and we don’t have them. So I wrote a grant with my education foundation in our district for graphic novels. It was the first time the people that are on the grant committee had ever heard of a graphic novel, and they saw the word graphic and they were thinking it was like graphic material, and it was funny to like, educate them and and so then, kind of in my district, and became somebody that was like into graphic novels, because I’d written that grant, and it got funded, and I started growing my collection, and then I actually ended up getting to be on the Maverick graphic novel reading list for the state of Texas. Then that was it. I ended up being the chair of that committee, and so now it’s just part of my reading journey, like all the time, I make sure I am reading graphic novels, especially ones that I would see on the shelves in my library, so that I know exactly like what my students are reading and can discuss it with them and purchase more books like that.

Samantha 5:36
That’s an excellent story. I love that, and I the graphic thing just sent me, oh my goodness, that’s hilarious. What makes graphic novels so effective at engaging students?

Amanda 5:46
I believe the text and images combined really helps my visual learners. It also helps them create connections easier than traditional novels. I also think the content and interest. A lot of times graphic novels are going to be something that you’ll see like adapted from a TV show or from an anime that the students love to watch. And so it bridges that connection between the two, so you already got the interest, and then now they’re taking it to like the reading format of it, and they want to read all the volumes, and they want to read everything on the shelf about that. And I love that there’s adaptations too, of different novels that maybe students read like in elementary that hold like a special place in their heart and then they’re able to also see the graphic novel and have the visuals and that as well. A lot of times students will argue like that with me, and they’re like, this isn’t what it looked like in my head. So it’s interesting to see – it’s interesting to see the ones that have read the novel first and then read a graphic novel, because they’re coming at it from their own imagination and have their own thoughts and preconceived notions of what it should look like, and then also seeing students that read the graphic novel, and then it becomes a gateway into traditional novels. So a lot of times they’ll start off with that, they’ll read them all, and then they’re like, Okay, what next? And I’m like, Oh, you loved this graphic novel? Read the actual novel, or read a book that’s similar. So let’s try this.

Samantha 7:19
That’s great,

Amanda 7:20
exactly.

Samantha 7:21
So what are some creative ways that ELA teachers could maybe integrate graphic novels into their curriculum?

Amanda 7:27
And I feel like a lot of times that I have seen it used successfully and have collaborated with my ELA teachers have been an adaptation of a classroom novel that they’re reading, finding the graphic novel either in conjunction with the novel in the classroom, or as like an introductory part to the unit, or something that they would read after, and then you could do some like compare and contrast. I’ve had a lot of success with that, with teachers reading monster by Walter Dean Myers or Speak by Larry house Anderson, because those are novels that they’re going to really dive into, but a lot of times they need that buy in from students. And so for a lot of kids, they prefer to have like that visual reference so that they can connect the characters to what they’re doing in the book. They can help better understand what is happening as they read the novel. So I’ve had a lot of success working with teachers and introducing that as well as even bringing in history. A lot of times there’s like the Nathan Hale series of graphic novels that deal with things that happen in our history that I’m able to kind of work with, cross curricular with other content areas to kind of bridge that understanding. So I really enjoy doing those. I’ve also had success with students choosing, like a scene from the novel or a short story that they’re reading and creating graphic novel panels as like an assignment. Different apps they could use for that would be like Book Creator, Storyboard That, I’ve even had kids create that emoji of the main characters.

Samantha 9:01
Yeah.

Amanda 9:01
And one fun lesson I actually did back in November with all the students is I knew what class novel they were reading in each grade level, and so I used Adobe express to use generative AI, so they’d have to one be able to describe the character and the setting from the novel. So they’re taking that prior knowledge, and then they have to actually type in what they want to show up, and then it generates it for them. And so their minds were blown already with how generative AI works. But then it was it was really cool to see them argue, no, his eyes are brown because they’re trying to recall all of that knowledge from the book. So the teachers were loving that and wanting to do it even more in the classroom.

Samantha 9:40
I think people don’t realize how difficult it is to manipulate AI to create a picture. I think a lot of people just think, poof, there’s the picture. But really it takes some literary skill. The best AI creators are writers, because they describe in detail exactly what a great assignment. That is such a great idea. I know for me, I loved doing I used to do a graphic novel adaptation of Fahrenheit 451, and there were a lot of differences between the two. So not only did I love to use it when a scene got really difficult and they couldn’t understand what’s going on. So then you could go back to the novel and check that out, but also comparing and contrasting, like you said, the two different mediums, which also hits a standard. So you’re doing that as well.

Amanda 10:23
Absolutely,

Samantha 10:24
these are all great ideas. And for those of you listening at home, and you’re listening and you’re like, oh, I want that. What was that book? I’m going to put these all in the show notes. I will go over everything. There will be a list of links. You can go find all of the books she’s spouting off or I’m spouting off, and you can find them. So don’t worry if you’re driving or doing laundry or whatever, you don’t have to stop what you’re doing. It will all be in the show notes. All right, awesome. So graphic novels consist of both text and visuals, which we said was really engaging for kids. But what strategies do you think help students analyze both of those things?

Amanda 11:00
I’m also from the elementary librarian world, and so when I was in when I was getting all these new graphic novels in our library, we had to have conversations about how to read them. I think that that’s like the first thing. Otherwise we’re just looking at pictures sometimes and not really getting the true, obviously effect of what that book is and what it’s trying to say. So I would have conversations about how to read, like the speech bubbles, and how to discern who’s talking and when, because sometimes there’s a lot going on, and it can be a bit overwhelming sometimes for our readers. I know a lot of kids that prefer the traditional novel, because sometimes it is a lot of content going on on graphic novels, whereas other kids, that’s exactly what they prefer. So having that conversation of how to read it the correct way, as well as now in middle school, manga right? Manga is going to be read backwards. You know, because in Japan, they read left to right. No, we read left right. They read right to left. So it’s like one of those things that like it. I have even visuals in the library of how to read manga, because it can be really confusing the first time they get started with it. So I feel like having those like basic knowledge down is important for our kids to understand, you know, who’s talking when, or else they’re not going to be able to really understand what’s happening in the story. So a lot of times I’ll also discuss, like character reactions, their movements, how to analyze motivation themes and foreshadowing in in the actual graphic novel. In the novel, it’ll describe all of these things. A lot of times we’ll have a lot of internal dialog happening that doesn’t get to be seen a whole lot in a graphic novel, because it’s more about the visual. Sometimes they’ll have the thought bubbles and things like that, but a lot of times you’re having to kind of interpret what’s happening based on the characters reactions, based on some of their like motivation and what from one scene to the next. You’re going to have to do some interpretation on your own. So I feel like it’s important for our kids to understand, I think both mediums, right? Because they get a lot from the traditional novel that they may not get in the graphic novel, and vice versa. Because, you know, whereas the graphic novel is focusing a lot on the imagery that the traditional novel merely describes, it also is missing that prose aspect that we get from traditional novels. So I feel like making sure students can compare and contrast. And you could even start like, do it like an intro lesson with a very younger graphic novel with a book that maybe a lot of them have read, for example, wonder. That’s one that has like the graphic novel and the book adaptation. Usually, by the time they get to me, they’ve read wonder multiple times in class. And so it’s good to kind of have like that comparison between the two when you’re discussing the difference between both.

Samantha 14:00
Those were so many great tips. I so many things I just haven’t even thought of. I know, when I did a graphic novel and I had ninth graders, some of them didn’t even know where the dialog bubbles went, like I had to explicitly teach, this is where the dialog look. Look who’s Look who’s pointing to. That’s who’s speaking. And I think those are things you just don’t think about when you are, you know, an older reader, a more mature reader, whatever you know, trying to teach a graphic novel. So those are all great things to think about when you bring a graphic novel into your classroom. Let’s talk about balancing traditional novels with graphic novels. Do you see people do both of them, both of them at the same time, maybe separately? How would you recommend teachers balance those two in the classroom?

Amanda 14:48
I wish I saw more of it. To be honest, a lot of times people will making the decisions about classroom novels are at our like admin building that haven’t been in the classroom in a while, don’t, you know, don’t have their pulse on what students are interested in. So if there is a graphic novel adaptation or retelling of a book you are teaching in your classroom, please allow students to read it. I feel like a lot of times, we feel like they’re lesser than or, you know, not as important, and that’s a battle that I’ve been fighting for 15 years with some teachers, right? Some teachers, 100% get it -they’re with me. Because again, if the second we start limiting students on what they can read and what they’re interested in, we’re going to lose them, right? And if we’re trying to foster that love of reading and continue it until adulthood, we have got to be cognizant of what they’re interested in and supportive of it. So I always have teachers, if they’re reading something that has a graphic novel, I’ll always send it down and check it out to the teacher so they can keep it like on their whiteboard for kids to look at. If we had enough copies in the district, I could round some up. I really, really focus a lot of times pairing books with graphic novels with my special education and resource students, as well as my emerging bilingual kids, because a lot of times they need that visual connection to truly grasp and understand the story. So I really like using it with my students that need that extra help. And then also encourage students, like all teachers should be encouraging students to let them use the graphic novel to better understand the story, like as you’re reading along, right? Like tonight, I’m going to assign chapters, you know, seven through nine. Find that place in the graphic novel that’s happening in the story, and read along with it to better understand. I love doing compare and contrasting at like you brought up Samantha about how a lot of times that’s going to be important to note that they change things sometimes in the graphic novel, it is not always, you know, a strict adaptation. So using like Venn diagrams, or, you know, having students write about the differences between the two books. And then it’s just great, I think, to to pair with your lessons, I’ve suggested that teachers use imagery from a graphic novel to describe something, and it didn’t even have to be the graphic novel book that they’re reading. They can use it to teach imagery in their classrooms. So it doesn’t necessarily have to be a pairing. It can just be used for examples. It can be used for introductory lessons. You know, I’ve had kids, I’ve used graphic novel panels printed out to have them kind of use their own version, because if there’s not a graphic novel adaptation, that’s when it can be a fun assignment for kids to take the traditional novel they just read in class, pick a scene from it, and create their own graphic novel adaptation of it. So lots of different ways. I think that you can pair and, you know, put these two together just because they are very similar to one another. It’s just different formats, right?

Samantha 18:02
Yeah, I think you actually answered my next question, but I’m going to love it at you anyway, just in case there’s anything else that you wanted to add to it but you really did hit on a good bit of it. I was going to ask you, how can graphic novels create more inclusive reading opportunities for diverse learners? But you did talk about that a little bit, but you have anything sort of to add?

Amanda 18:20
Yes, yes. I it’s not just right, like our diverse learners, like our special education kids, our emerging bilingual our you know, lower reader students, our dyslexic students a lot of times that helps, in addition to audio books, right? So that, it’s important that we are focusing on all of our students at school and having giving them opportunities to learn at their level. But in addition to that, when I think of diversity, it’s also important for them to see diverse books on the shelf in relation to them. A lot of our bipoc students, I have a huge number of Latinx kids. I think the percentages in our district are that’s the highest ethnicity, and it’s hard for them to connect to the classics. It’s hard for them to connect to some of these older stories, you know, like, you know, traditional books from our childhood, A Wrinkle in Time, things like that. So when the movie came out and there was true diversity in them, and they were able to see different people of different races and backgrounds as the main characters. That’s when I feel like kids are able to connect more with the books, because a lot of times the experiences in classic books are just so unrelatable to our students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, from different types of religions, different types of families. So I love how a lot of retellings now include bipoc characters such as Anne of West Philly, Teen Titans, Meg, Joe, Amy, and Beth. And so those are great for, you know, all those types of readers that want to read different books. And then also ones that include queer representation, such as The Magic Fish, which deals with lots of different fairy tales, North Ranger, Donna Quixote, Swan Lake, quest for the kingdom. So a lot of those books are from our LGBTQI+ community to see a classic retelling done in their perspective and being a game changer for our kids.

Samantha 18:20
Yes, absolutely. So powerful and so important to have so many different diverse voices and books on your shelves so that we’re speaking to all kinds of different readers. For sure, that was an awesome answer. So I want to pick your brain about what are some of your most you know your must have graphic novels and your middle school Correct?

Amanda 20:44
Yes.

Samantha 20:45
Okay, do you want to do middle and high school, or do you want to just stick to middle school?

Amanda 20:48
Yeah, I have middle and high school. I I read a lot of young adults, and I know my students do as well. So yeah, I’m always a lot of times they’ll be like, Oh, I don’t have that book in my middle school library, and I’m like, well, it says 14 and up, and I have a third of my population that turned 14 this year, and believe me, they want to read this stuff. So yeah, I have recommendations for both age groups. And while they may not always be like the most well written or best graphic novels I’ve ever read, I did run reports to see what are the most popular ones that our students are interested in. It may not necessarily be like something I gave a five star to right? They are into it, which is the important thing. So Raina tagmeier is like number one. Every year I run reports for graphic novels. She’s it. She actually has a new one coming out in a couple of months. It’s like a comic club book, and it’s part non fiction of how students can create their own graphic novels and own books. And it’s part fiction that has, like the story of how the club gets made, and I – our students are going to die for it.

Samantha 21:56
That’s a really cool concept,

Amanda 21:58
yes, and it’s been a long time since rain has published one. So I’m excited. The kids are excited too. The Wings of Fire graphic novels are very, very popular, in addition to the Babysitters Club, the Barry Brook Middle School series by set Lana Shima Cova, the Olympian series, which I really like, because it’s not necessarily one that the kids see a whole lot, but it follows Greek gods and goddesses. So like, one of the books will be about Hera, one of the books will be about Zeus. And so I love that our kids are so into Greek mythology. You can pair that with Percy Jackson. You know, lots of opportunities there. Lumber Jane series, Nathan Hale, Big Nate, Dog Man. And then my most popular ya graphic novel series is Heart Stopper, and I think a lot of that has to do with the TV show. And, yeah, and so I have books one through four in my library. I do not have book five, that is a high school book. So I do have kids asking, like, when are you going to get it? I’m like, um, never. You can get it in high school,

Samantha 23:00
right?

Amanda 23:01
But from a high school I would suggest mouse, definitely a big one to pair with you know, history and World War Two, Long way down is the adaptation from Jason Reynolds, my book husband, a long way down, graphic novel and the novel, they’re great to pair and do a lesson with. It’s amazing. Flamer, Lunar New Year Love Story, speak, pumpkin heads, lots of different YA graphic novels that I have read and loved and are big hits at our high school library.

Samantha 23:35
Awesome. And again, I will put links and show notes. So if you’re kind of going through this and you’re like, I need that list, don’t worry. I will put it in the show notes for you. I know you’ve again touched on this a little bit, but I wanted to lob it at you just to see if there’s any extra ones. I’m looking for graphic novel adaptations, either for classic literature or maybe curriculum staples. I know you said, I can’t remember which ones you already said, but there were a few. But I just wanted to see if there were any others that you’re like, Wow, this is, you know, the best you should definitely check this out.

Amanda 24:05
Yeah, absolutely. So for me, one of my favorite things – I am the secondary lead librarian in my district so I do work with our high school libraries, and one of my favorite things to recommend to them is the manga classics. I remember reading Jane Eyre in high school and really struggling to get through it. It wasn’t. It didn’t connect with me. It wasn’t. It just wasn’t it. So if I had had the manga classics to be able to read, they have pretty much a lot of the main classics that are taught in high schools, they have Shakespeare, Jane Austin, the Bronte sisters, lots of those ones that have, you know, from year to year, have been taught. It really would have helped me better understand the book. So we had cliff notes when I was in high school, and those were my friend when I was reading that book, but definitely I would have had a better appreciation should I read it now as an adult, so, but a lot of times those high school kids, their minds just aren’t on that analytical side of classic literature, and the way it’s written is not how we speak now, and there’s not any newer, current references. So that’s why I love the manga classics for retelling things and being able to make those classic books accessible. Um, I also love the adaptation of Animal Farm, the Odyssey, I think you mentioned, Fahrenheit 451 is great, the Diary of Anne Frank, To Kill a Mockingbird, kindred, The Great Gatsby has several adaptations. And then my favorite one would have to be Slaughterhouse Five. That’s a book that I really did, even as an adult like in college, struggle to really understand. And then it was nominated for the Maverick graphic novel reading list while I was on the committee, and I read it, and I’m like, oh my god, I totally missed the whole point of that.

Samantha 26:03
Oh, this is what this is about,

Amanda 26:05
exactly. And so if you too were confused by that one, I highly recommend reading the graphic novel. That one was just like very eye opening and helped me understand what that book really would like was truly about. For a middle school in upper elementary you could look at A Wrinkle in Time, the giver, the secret garden, the witches, and then for two particularly like recent reads that I have done, are YA queer retellings, and it’s Dan of Green Gables by Ray tercera. He’s also known as Rex Ogle. So you may know that Rex Ogle writes a lot of memoirs for middle and young adult readers, but he also writes under a pen name, and all of his graphic novels are diverse, tend to have queer themes, and so I very much love Dan of Green Gables, and it comes out June 25 and then one that’s out right now that I loved was mismatched by Anne camelin, and it is an Emma retelling. And it also had clueless vibes. So I didn’t know the movie Clueless is based on Emma, and so I just it would just had all of those references that made me, you know, nostalgic for clueless that came out when I was in middle school, but also reading Emma earlier in my high school and college years. So loved those two.

Samantha 27:29
Love when a book does that and does that well, because it gives you the new, fresh perspective, but also that lovely nostalgia that just makes you feel good inside. Right?

Amanda 27:38
Absolutely, so good.

Samantha 27:40
So what are some ways that you can showcase student engagement with graphic novels? Maybe some projects or events in the library that could engage students?

Amanda 27:50
Absolutely so if you’re like low lift, lessons are going to be like highlighting graphic novels on September 25 which is national Comic Book Day. If you have any comic stores around you or near you, you get free comics that day. And then also, like, teach graphics week by Scholastic is usually in the spring, and they have so many resources that are just for free, for educators, they have a whole website. If you Google teach graphics reading, it’ll come up and and it just we had my elementary lead do a whole lesson surrounding dog man, because it is a very popular book in elementary and middle school libraries. And all the lessons were there for teachers. So I love that they’re able to give that. There is a graphic novel reading week in the spring as well. I think in conjunction with Teach graphics week. You can integrate graphic novels into your displays. I will tell you more and more recently, when I do my banned book display in September, October time, there’s a lot of graphic novels, unfortunately. So it’s important to kind of keep those like to be aware that those are being challenged and banned across the United States. I also just like keeping graphic novels in my displays in general, when I do a romance display for Valentine’s Day or an anti Valentine’s Day display, I always make sure to not leave that section out. And so a lot of times we just pull from our, you know, novel section, and sometimes we forget that graphic novels are also part of that. So not leaving them out. I’ve done graphic novel book tastings before, where students can come in and try different ones. My library is 100% genrefied, including my graphic novels. I have four sections of graphic novels. I have manga, I have non fiction, superhero, and then general graphic novels, and they are separated on the shelf that way. So a lot of times when I do the book tastings, it is going to be using those four different categories. And then I’ve done Breakout EDU, they have digital escape rooms, and there’s one it’s a comic crusader, one that you have to break out of the comic book. And so lessons like that, that I find are so great and they’re always a hit. You can count on that being successful in your library or your classroom. For me, if we’re talking heavy lifting, I last year, had the whim of an idea to host a Comic Con at my campus as a my middle school campus, yeah, not really knowing how much work it was going to be, because then once I started getting some authors and setting up like food trucks and having vendors come and doing stations and having a prize area and cosplay contest and all of these things. I was like, Well, I don’t want it to be just for my kids, so I ended up inviting all the elementary theater schools and our high school, and it was Yeah. So the first one was a huge success, but we very quickly realized we cannot do it in my library, there was 700 people, and like, we broke fire marshal codes for sure. Um, so this year, I proposed it to the district librarians that we have an event, and we’re calling it mythicon, because our mascots are mythical on my side of town, we’re the unicorns on the other side of town of the dragons, and then we’re going to have the Phoenix coming in soon. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to rent out a ballroom at an event center in town, and we’re going to have it for our little kids from pre K all the way up to high school in May. And so I am in the process of trying to find donors and vendors and people to help. But we’ve had a lot, if your students are familiar with the amulet series, taco Bucha is going to be there, and my students are so excited. And it just creates a lot of awareness surrounding graphic novels and how popular they are with our kids, because they will turn out for anything, graphic novel, comic, or manga. And then also it lets people and parents specifically know that it is a legitimate form of literature that these kids are excited about reading when it comes to graphic novels, and it’s just a literacy event that is, you know, surrounding the love and the joy of reading, particularly in the graphic novel, comic, manga format. So if you ever are looking to to undertake something like that, I highly recommend it and have all my how tos and links and everything on my on my blog. So definitely check that out if it’s something that you want to try.

Samantha 32:41
That sounds like an amazing event. I can’t remember as a kid or a high schooler having events like that. So imagine, you know, just kind of being, maybe an in between reader. Maybe you’re kind of indifferent to books, and you go to this, you know, amazing event, and you see what it can be that would be life changing. That’s amazing, amazing work. So cool.

Amanda 33:01
In addition to that, with graphic novels, something we haven’t mentioned yet is the artwork behind it. I love pairing with our partnering with my art teachers. We did a t shirt design contest with the middle schools, and we picked our winner, and it’s somebody that is a sixth grader that loves to draw, and like her design is going to be on the shirts for the event. And that’s, like, so empowering for our kids, especially those that love to draw. I see kids drawing all the time, and a lot of times they tend to be graphic novel format, or they tend to be anime, manga, Japanese art. And so just something to consider if you’re wanting to partner with your art teachers that that’s also I told, sorry,

Samantha 33:45
no, you’re good. That was awesome. So again, you touched on this a little bit, but I want to ask, what are some of the most common misconceptions about graphic novels, and how can we address them, both as educators, and how do you address parent concerns about graphic novels not being, you know, an actual form of reading?

Amanda 34:05
Yeah, it’s really, I think it’s gotten better since I started. I used to have teachers at elementary bring kids in and tell them, Well, you can get a graphic novel, but then you have to get a real book too. And so, yeah, it was a really hard battle for the at the beginning of my career with all of the graphic novel stuff, because a lot of times I even had teachers say that section is off limits to y’all, you cannot go to that section and check out books, even though my policy in the library was they can get a free choice book in addition to whatever their teacher is asking themtTo check out. So it’s a battle I’ve been fighting for a long time. A lot of times I use research behind my methods, because sometimes that’s what educators, or, you know, old school teachers, need to hear. A lot of times when you’re talking about graphic novels, the Lexile level is higher than a traditional novel. All the vocabulary is higher. And so because I think they have the images to fall back onto to help describe what those words mean. And so having that conversation with them, as well as scholastic used to have these one day events where you would go and listen to authors and go to different sessions and things like that. This was pre COVID, and I took my teacher that was anti graphic novels with me, because Jared kryska was the keynote speaker. And he is the author of lunch lady. And then now he has two YA memoirs that were so amazing. And so I took her and to hear his story about how important graphic novels were to his life and how much it changed the trajectory of his entire future. She turned to me and said, I get it now. And so sometimes having a first person account that’s not me a librarian, you know, they may not be like, Oh, she doesn’t know what she’s talking about or whatever. Or they don’t want to read the the research or hear me talk about it for the millionth time. Sometimes they need someone else, someone from that world, to be able to truly understand how important it is for our readers to utilize graphic novels for inference, for synthesis, and to engage more of their brain. I think it’s great for our visual learners. I talk about that all the time. I am a visual learner, so I think that’s a big reason why I connect with graphic novels. And then a lot of times they have concerns about manga, and I will be very honest, I have a link in my bio for all my social media that has a list of manga that is appropriate for elementary, that is appropriate for middle school, and that is appropriate for high school and beyond, because that is an area a lot of librarians have gaps in because they don’t read it themselves. So when kids are asking for manga and they want very advanced manga, I’ll be like, Oh, honey. I know. I know what that book is. I know what you’re trying to do, and no, we’re not getting that in our library. So you know, being able to do the research on it too, and make sure that you are aware of what you’re putting in your library. Because a lot of times, as a librarian, Manga won’t have a literary review by School Library Journal or Horn Book or somebody that we can actually look and be like, Oh, this was a scholarly review that was given that okay to be at this age. So we have to kind of really do our due diligence before putting them in the library. And sometimes there’s some busty gals in these drawings. And in America, we tend to be a little, you know, scandalized by things like that, whereas in Japan, that’s just how they draw females, you know, so both the size of it, of over sexualizing women, but also teaching our kids that we don’t need to, like sometimes people have large chests, and that shouldn’t be something that we focus on or address. We need to, you know, keep our thoughts about other people’s bodies, you know, just constantly keeping that as, like, something that they need to learn, in general, not commenting on on people’s bodies. So I have those conversations with parents as well. But the big thing that I tell everyone is read them yourself, like read them with your kid. If you’re concerned because you saw one image on one page. That is not how we judge books. We take them as a whole, as a body of work, and so from page one to page end, it is important for our parents and our communities and our teachers to read the books before we give that judgment, before we make that decision on whether or not you want your own child to read it. I think it’s important to have all the facts. And so before we freak out because you saw one page of a graphic novel, and that is the difference. And why a lot of graphic novels are getting banned is because they have the image, whereas in the novel, you’d have to read to page 374, this paragraph to get that image in your brain. It’s it’s easier, right? But then again, you have to take the time to read the novel. Just when you’re wanting to ban or challenge something, you need to take the time to read the graphic novel and write it as a whole as well,

Samantha 39:12
right? Because you’re taking that image or that piece of text out of context, and you’re having no idea what they’re actually getting at and just judging it based on this small blip of the entire whole So, yeah, that’s, that’s great advice. Can you tell our listeners where they can find you?

Amanda 39:29
Yes, I am the next gen librarian across social media everywhere, and I also have a website, and it is WWW dot the nextgen librarian.com,

Samantha 39:43
and I will have all of those in the show notes again for you as well. And we have our lightning round, which is my favorite thing to do with guests. So question one is, what is the book that made you a joyful reader?

Amanda 39:54
I’m going to have to say my first romance that I read in high school. It’s Heartbreaker by Julie Garwood. It was romantic suspence and that was it.

Samantha 40:01
Nice. What was the last five star book you read?

Amanda 40:05
I just read and posted on Instagram. Not another love song by Julie Soto. It’s an adult romance, and I chef’s kiss. I love

Samantha 40:14
nice. I read the first one. There’s a first one there, and I didn’t love it, but I keep hearing really good reviews about not another love song. So I think I’m gonna give it a try, even though I just didn’t love that first one. So are you a physical book, e reader, or audio?

Amanda 40:29
I have an audio book, 100% 100% and it’s only been recently. It was since, like COVID, when I couldn’t get physical books as easy as I was, and then I was like, oh my god, I can read so much more with audiobooks. So definitely a big audio book champion here.

Samantha 40:45
I love that answer. I am also kind of converting. I used to be a physical book purist, and now I’m just, I’m all over the place. I have audio in all the time. You can just listen so much more when you’re, you know, doing whatever,

Amanda 40:58
multitasking,

Samantha 40:59
absolutely, doing tasks you don’t want to do. You’re like, oh, this is so much better.

Amanda 41:05
Yes.

Samantha 41:06
Well, thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us. This was a great conversation. I really hope everybody was able to get you know a whole lot out of this. And again, those show notes will be open for you so that you could grab those links and grab those recs. But I appreciate your time so much.

Amanda 41:22
Oh, thank you so much. It was a pleasure.

Samantha 41:25
That wraps up our conversation with the incredible Amanda hunt, aka the next gen librarian. I hope you’re feeling as inspired as I am to rethink the role of graphic novels in our classrooms and libraries. Amanda’s expertise and passion remind us that these visually rich stories do so much more than engage readers. They open doors to deeper comprehension, critical thinking, and connection. Until next time, happy reading.

Samantha 41:51
Thanks for tuning in to creating joyful readers. I hope you found inspiration and practical strategies to ignite a passion for reading in your students. Remember every book we introduce and every reading experience we foster can transform lives and help students become lifelong readers. Follow me on social media at Samantha in secondary for more tips book recommendations and to connect with a community of educators dedicated to making reading a joyful journey.Until next time, happy reading.