Blog 6: A little bit of heart, magic, and color
The graphic novel that I read for this make cycle was Pashmina. Pashmina is about an Indian teenaged girl named Priyanka. Priyanka is eager to learn about her father; who she has never met and her mother never speaks of. She is also interested in her mother’s country, India, and why her mother suddenly left it and rarely reveals details about. Priyanka stumbles across a mysterious and magical Pashmina, scarf, that takes her to a world of imagination. Through her journey of self-discovery, Priyanka learns about her culture, family, and history.
I would like to add how this book takes beauty to another level. I had no idea graphic novels could be so eye-catching and intricate. Each page was a master piece and although this book could be read in a quick sitting, I found myself taking my time, even procrastinating finishing it because I wanted to taste each page one at at time.
The link that I chose from the resource guide was diamond bookshelf; which I loved. I discovered that this website is very useful for teachers and educators. This website has a goal of helping teachers specifically by providing useful resources and tools on using graphic novels in the classroom. I found it very interesting how the site included the history of comics, graphic novel recommendations, and lesson plans, to name a few. I highly recommend that my peers bookmark this link due to the abundance of helpful information it contains and the useful way this site is organized.
Prompt:
- An image from the novel that gives a detail about Priyanka’s character through the way she is drawn is from page five. In this image the character is designed in a way where she is uncomfortable when surrounded by girls from her school. The girls are drawn in the background with cruel expressions, giving us information that Priyanka is perhaps being bullied by this group of girls or being made felt like the outcast.On page 15, the body language of Priyanka expresses her possible frustrations and feelings of discomfort at that time with her mother when discussing her mother’s memories of India.
Page 16 gives several background details which give the reader an inside look of Priyanka’s interests. It tells us that she is interested in music and more importantly, interest in her Indian culture. We see her in a more intimate sense while she draws to relax.
On page 25 Priyanka holds an object that gives us significant insight on her family struggles. This object is a photo of her and her uncle laughing. Through this object we can identify how she longs for a father-type symbol perhaps and how fondly she admire her uncle.
Lastly, on page 91 we see the object of the hut. On this page this hut is very symbolic, as we the readers have not been introduced to its significance. However, the hut is drawn with a kind of majestic glow around it. This object later is identified as a place where Rohini weaved the Pashmina.