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Graphic Novels can be an important part of both educational and leisure reading for students of all ages. Graphic novels are astoundingly popular with kids and young adults, and can be as simple or complex as any other literature.Reading graphic novels:Engages reluctant readers & ESL students.Increases reading comprehension and vocabulary.Can serve as a bridge between low and high levels of reading.Provides an approach to reading that embraces the multimedia nature of today's culture, as 2/3 of a story is conveyed visually.Provides scaffolding for struggling readers.Can serve as an intermediary step to more difficult disciplines and concepts.Presents complex material in readable text.Helps students understand global affairs.Helps to develop analytical and critical thinking skills.Offers another avenue through which students can experience art.Choices for next parallel- American Born ChineseBy Gene YangAmerican Born Chinese is a tale comprised of three different story lines, three different characters, but one single idea.? Jin Wang, the son of Chinese immigrants, eats lunch by himself in the corner of the schoolyard and gets picked on by bullies and jocks, but dreams of how he could fit in.? The question is how far will he go to get it?? The second storyline is the tale of the Monkey King. Not content to be merely a monkey, the Monkey King did everything in his power to become a Great Sage, Equal of Heaven, until he was informed by Tze-Yo-Tzuh, creator of all existence, that he was merely a monkey after all. It's not until the Monkey King can accept what he is that he is able to free himself from his self-induced prison.? Last there is the sitcom plight of Danny, an All-America teen shamed by his cousin Chin-Kee. Buck-toothed, with a long braid and in traditional Chinese dress, Chin-Kee is an amalgamation of all the racist stereotypes held about Chinese people. ?Jin's hopes and humiliations might be mirrored in Chin-Kee's destructive glee or the Monkey King's struggle to come to terms with himself, but each character's expressions and actions are perfectly familiar.? By the conclusion of the book all three story lines creatively and effectively come together to deliver a single lesson:? accept who you are and you'll already have reached out to others.Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds HistoryBy Art SpiegelmanArt Spiegelman tells the story of his father's hardships and survival during the Holocaust.? Each scene opens at the elder Spiegelman's home in Rego Park, N.Y. Art, who was born after the war, is visiting his father, Vladek, to record his experiences in Nazi-occupied Poland.? The Nazis, portrayed as cats, introduce increasingly repressive measures, until the Jews, drawn as mice, are systematically hunted and herded toward the Final Solution.? Vladek was a POW, but managed to sneak out of one of the camps that held him, only to later find himself and his family thrown into the Auschwitz death camps.? Vladek saves himself and his wife by a combination of luck and wits, all the time enduring the torment of a hunted outcast. Spiegelman relates the effect of those events on the survivors' later years, including his own adult life as he too, bears the burden of his parents' experiences. This is a survivor's tale, as well as a tale of how a son tries to patch up a damaged relationship with his father.Maus II: A Survivor’s Tale: and Here My Troubles BeganBy Art SpiegelmanThis sequel picks up where?Maus I?left off, with Vladek's separation from his wife Anja, after arriving at Auschwitz.? There Vladek must struggle to survive starvation and disease as well as the guards and the ovens -- all while trying to get news of his wife from Auschwitz's second camp, Birkenau. In the WWII segments, Spiegelman captures the horrors that took place during that time and explores survivor’s guilt and generational guilt.?Maus II?is not only Vladek’s continuing story, but also Spiegelman’s story as he continues to work on this book after his father's death. The interconnections and complex characterizations are engrossing, as are the vivid personal accounts of living in the camps. This is a heartbreaking look at one of history's greatest tragedies.Persepolis IBy Marjane SatrapiPersepolis?is Marjane Satrapi's memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. Satrapi paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran: of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life, of the contradictions between private life and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval and of the enormous toll repressive regimes exact on the individual spirit. Marjane’s child's-eye-view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows the reader to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family. ................
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