28th August International Read Comics in Public Day

August 28th is International Read Comics in Public Day. A comic is a publication in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by a written narrative contained in word balloons.

The date coincides with the famed comic book creator, Jack Kirby's birthday. 

The genre's popularity has dramatically increased in recent times! It is a day to celebrate the various comic styles and genres and this has become very easy to do even for children and even at the library.

Graphic novel or toon book numbers are on the rise. Even the Prep School library I work in has a considerable number and they are very popular. 

It was good to see even CBCA acknowledged their reading value in its recent Book Week awards as the winning book for older readers, Neverlanders by  Tom Taylor and Jon Sommariva is a graphic novel and one of the honour books in the Picture Book category Dirt By Sea  by Michael Wagner and Tom Jellett is also a graphic picture book.

I know many teachers say that this is not 'real' reading, but given the activities vying for students' time these days, I am of the view any reading is good reading when it comes to reading for pleasure. That said, I do try to encourage students to only borrow one graphic book and then choose another fiction or nonfiction book. Otherwise many of my students would have a diet that consisted only of Aaron Blabey, Ahn Do, and Dav Pilkey.

If like me, you have students who are under eight years old and you are looking for graphic books for your library, these series are popular and well worth a look:

• Hello Twigs  by Andrew McDonald and Ben Wood

• Flubby by J. E. Morris

• Monkey & Cake by Drew Daywalt and Olivier Tallec

• Narwhal and Jelly by Ben Clanton

• Pizza and Taco by stephen Shaskan

• Peach and Plum by Tim McCanna

• Fitz and Cleo by Jonathan Stutzman and Heather Fox

• Archie & Reddie  by Candy James

• Beak & Ally by Norm Feuti

• Norma and Belly by Mika Song

• Baloney and Friends by Greg Pizzoli

• Arlo & Pips by Elise Gravel

• Cranky Chicken by Katherine Battersby

• Bug Scouts by Mike Lowery

 • Press Start by Tom Flintham

• Flying Beaver Brothers  by Maxwell Eaton III

• Binky the Space Cat  by Ashley Squires

• Bird & Squirrel by James Burks

• Pea, Bee & Jay by Brian Smitty Smith

• Surviving the Wild by Remy Lai

• Investigators by John Patrick Green