Blog 6: Resources and Graphic Novel Response

I researched the resources the website Bookshelf from Diamond Comics and found so much help with how to read graphic novels, and especially ideas for lesson plans. I love finding ideas for lesson plans, because you can choose to tweak it for your teaching style, or the student’s learning style. Super helpful resource!

C.: Graphic novels use both words and images. Pick a page or a sequence from a graphic novel and think through what you learn from just the words. Then think about what you learn from just the images. Are they telling you the same information, or are they giving you different information? How do they work together?

In “The Best We Could Do”, by Thi Bui, depicted in the first and largest panel, Thi and her mother sit at a dining table while Thi begs her mother to divulge information of their family’s past, “…the war… and the country that once was HOME.” (Bui 37). Although drawn behind them is a small boat sailing an enormous ocean, indicating how Thi’s parents’ escape route from Vietnam years before. In the next two panels, the two women are back in the living room, while the narrator/ author, Thi, tells us how her mother usually disregards her pleads and instead asks, “What should we do for dinner?”. Depicted, you can see the body language of both Thi and Ma: Thi pleading for answers and Ma with her arms crossed and distracted. Through the similar correlation in the illustrations and words that are told, you can paint a picture of emotion and empathy for the character. I love how simple Thi Dui’s illustrations are, while simultaneously being so complex we can feel each character’s emotions. In some examples I’ve come across through the book, you can see where Thi chooses to say something in the word balloon, but the picture shown shows the sarcasm- and the true story. Graphic Novels are so beautifully interesting in this sense, because the emotions of the characters are impossible to ignore.