Comics as stepping stones to literacy: What one researcher found in Archie

ach edition of The Read-Aloud Handbook has contained references to the important role that comic books can play in creating avid, fluent readers. From Bishop Desmond Tutu and novelist John Updike to Ray Bradbury, Cynthia Rylant and Stephen Krashen, comics and comic art have played pivotal roles in their literacy development. Yet little extensive research has been done on the subject, a fact that flies in the face of growing international interest in the graphic novel genre.

Here, then, is a study that can be added to the few to date. Bonny Norton teaches in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. She also is a parent who noticed the strange hold Archie comics had on her children and their peers. Considering that Archie and is his friends have been in print for more than a half century (and still in Riverdale High School), one must wonder why it has taken this long to examine the hold these interminable adolescents have on budding adolescents.

Norton interviewed 34 student teachers about the series, and followed-up with a smaller group of children. Their opinions could not have been more disparate. While the student teachers were less than a decade older than the young students, their verdict was clearly that the series was "shallow" and "superficial." The students? "During the interviews, the children talked at length about the way they shared stories with friends, swapped comics on a regular basis, and debated the merits of different characters. I was intrigued by the children's enthusiasm and insight, asking myself why I seldom saw such animation in the many classrooms I had visited," wrote Norton.

The author then defined her research focus, interviewing 19 girls and 15 boys, ranging from fifth to seventh grades, including 13 English language learners, on the following subjects:

1. Why do children read Archie comics and children's conceptions of reading.
2. How do readers of Archie comics relate to one another?
3. How is the reading of Archie comics contrasted with school-authorized
        literacy practices?

For those who ponder the contrast between the attention children bring to out-of-school activities versus in-school activities, Norton's study offers much to think about and possibly adopt. (See "The motivating power of comic books: Insights from Archie comic readers," The Reading Teacher, 57, October 2003, pp. 140-147.)

The Comic Curriculum: By 2008, comics' newest older brother — the graphic novel — had made such a commercial impression on publishing and the young reader field, it couldn't be ignored. If it's going to be with us for a while, why not make it work for us at the same time, wondered teacher and researcher Michael Bitz of Teacher's College, Columbia University. Thus began the "Comic Book Project" that reaches out to struggling readers and writers by encouraging them to create their own comic books. More can be found at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41684-2004Jun14.html http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/episodes/2008/01/14

MORE ON COMICS: excerpted from The Read-Aloud Handbook (6th ed.)

My Son Loves Comic Books—Is That Good or Bad?

By Jim Trelease © 2006

Comic books are a frequent childhood choice of people who grow up to become fluent readers.¹ The reasons for their popularity and success are the same as for series. And anyone questioning their success in creating readers should consider this: In the IEA assessment of more than two hundred thousand children in thirty-two countries, Finnish children achieved the highest reading scores. And what is the most common choice for recreational reading among Finnish nine-year-olds? Fifty-nine percent read a comic almost every day.²

I am not recommending comic books as a steady diet for reading aloud, but as an introduction to the comic format. Young children must be shown how a comic “works”: the sequence of the panels; how to tell when a character is thinking and when he is speaking; the meaning of stars, question marks, and exclamation points.

In recent years, with the arrival of the manga mode from Japan, along with the graphic novel, comic books have experienced a revival and revolution, one that sometimes includes heavy strains of sex and violence. (Need I say this is not peculiar to comics? Books and film have similar situations.) So the days of giving a child the money for a comic and sending him or her off to the corner convenience store are a thing of the past. As with television, videos, and books, responsible adults must stay aware and awake.

On the basis of my personal experiences and the research available, I would go so far as to say if you have a child who is struggling with reading, connect him or her with comics.

As a child, I had the largest comic collection in my neighborhood, as did Stephen Krashen, Cynthia Rylant, John Updike, and Ray Bradbury. And there is this reflection from a Nobel Peace Prize winner, South Africa’s Bishop Desmond Tutu: “My father was the headmaster of a Methodist primary school. Like most fathers in those days, he was very patriarchal, very concerned that we did well in school. But one of the things I am very grateful to him for is that, contrary to conventional educational principles, he allowed me to read comics. I think that is how I developed my love for English and for reading.”³

If you’re looking to challenge a child’s mind and vocabulary with comics, then I suggest The Adventures of Tintin. If you looked closely at Dustin Hoffman while he was reading to his son in Kramer vs. Kramer, you would have noticed he was reading Tintin. Or if you read the list of favorite read-alouds offered by historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., in The New York Times Book Review, you would have found Hergé’s Tintin between Huckleberry Finn and the Greek myths.⁴

Begun as a comic strip in Belgium in 1929, Tintin now reaches, in comic-book form, thirty countries in twenty-two languages and is sold only in quality bookstores. The subject is a seventeen-year-old reporter (Tintin) who, along with his dog and a cast of colorful and zany characters, travels around the globe in pursuit of mad scientists, spies, and saboteurs.

Two years were spent researching and drawing the seven hundred detailed illustrations in each issue. But Tintin (Little, Brown publisher) must be read in order to be understood—and that is the key for parents and teachers. Each issue contains 8,000 words. The beautiful part of it is that children are unaware they are reading 8,000 words.

FOOTNOTES:

1. G. Robert Carlson and Anne Sherrill, Voices of Readers: How We Come to Love Books (Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 1998); Stephen Krashen, The Power of Reading, pp. 91-110.
2. Viking Brunell and Pirjo Linnakylä, “Swedish Speakers’ Literacy in the Finnish Society,” Journal of Reading, February 1994, pp. 368–75.
3. Leslie Campbell and Kathleen Hayes, “Desmond Tutu,” interview from The Other Side’s Faces of Faith, pp. 23–26. For a free copy of this booklet, write to 300 Apsley St., Philadelphia, PA 19144.
4. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., “Advice from a Reader-Aloud-to-Children,” The New York Times Book Review, November 25, 1979.