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Katie’s Korner: Graphic Novel Reviews for Schools and Libraries
 Review: Resistance: Book 1
by Carla Jablonski and Leland Purvis
ISBN: 9781596432918
While World War II rages through Europe, Resistance: Book 1 asks readers to focus on one particular family, the Tessiers, who live in a small French village. With his father held as a prisoner of war, the young Paul Tessier is called upon to do more than just grow up in order to help his own family. Paul must also decide whether or not he will help his best friend's family. Paul's best friend, Henri, is Jewish, and his parents have disappeared.
Teamed up with his sister Marie, Paul hides Henri from the Germans. But when a secret message gets decoded only to reveal that Henri's parents are alive and well, and are now part of the Resistance, Paul and Marie must make an even bigger decision. Will they too join the Resistance?
Librarians, Social Studies teachers, and English Language Arts teachers in grades 5 through 8 will appreciate this well-told and historically respectful story about adolescent courage and bravery in World War II German-occupied France.
English Language Arts Elements of Story
Plot: When his best friend Henri Levy's parents go missing in German-occupied France during World War II, Paul Tessier and his younger sister Marie find themselves becoming some of the youngest members of the Resistance.
Setting: France, World War II
Characters: Paul Tessier, Marie Tessier, Mrs. Tessier, Henri Levy, Mr. & Mrs. Levy (code names: Banana Breath and Monkey Face), Sylvie, Jacques
Themes: History, Family, Decision-making, Problem-solving, Friendship, Courage
Traditional Literature Pairing Suggestions: Maus I and Maus II by Spiegelman, Elie Wiesel's Night, Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz, Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South, Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, Chaim Potok's The Chosen, Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front
Some Teaching Recommendations For Middle School & High School English Language Arts
Suggested Alignment to the IRA /NCTE Standard(s):*
- standard #s correspond to the numbers used by IRA/NCTE
1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
2. Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.
3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate and appreciate texts.
5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
Suggested Reading & Writing Strategies:
• Because Resistance: Book 1 can be read as an informational nonfiction text and a creative nonfiction text, it presents an excellent opportunity for teachers and librarians to emphasize the recursive relationship that exists between reading and writing.
• First, teachers and librarians can ask students to read certain pages of the graphic novel, and, at each stopping point, write a summary (teachers and librarians will want to preview the graphic novel beforehand in order to choose appropriate stopping points). In the end, students will have summarized the entire graphic novel.
• Armed with these summaries, teachers and librarians can next place even more emphasis on the reading-writing connection by asking students to take their summaries and turn them into creative writing narratives.
• To make sure students are ready to be creative, however, teachers and librarians should first ask students to share their summaries (it is recommended that students create and discuss their summaries by filling out a timeline of the most significant events on the board).
• After students share their summaries (and maybe even create a class timeline on the board), they can be given the following creative writing prompt:
"With your summaries in mind, take a minute to think more specifically about the characters in Resistance: Book 1. Briefly discuss your thoughts with a peer (3 - 5 minutes).
With these thoughts in mind, now think about yourself as a possible character in the graphic novel. If you were a character in Resistance: Book 1, who would you be? And why?"
• Finally, when students are done writing, they can share and discuss their ideas as a class.
*NCTE/IRA. (1996). Standards for the English Language Arts. Urbana, IL: NCTE.
 Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale
by Belle Yang
ISBN: 9780393068344
Once in awhile, one of those books (or, in this case, graphic novels) comes along that just changes you -- for the good. Forget Sorrow is one of those rare gems. In fact, on my favorite bookshelf at home, the shelf I think of as my "superhero team of graphic novel memoirs," my copy of Forget Sorrow has found its new home -- right alongside Maus, Persepolis, and Fun Home, just to name a few of its nearby neighbors.
In this graphic novel memoir, poetically titled Forget Sorrow (which happens to be the translation of Belle Yang's Mandarin Chinese name "Xuan"), a twenty-something Belle Yang finds herself moving back home to live with her parents. Fleeing an abusive, turned stalker, boyfriend, this memoir focuses on the lessons Belle must learn to forget her own sorrows.
Poetically crafted and intuitively clever, however, Belle doesn't learn how to forget sorrow in ways the reader may predict. This memoir will focus on her abusive relationship, right? Not necessarily. A frame story, Belle learns about herself through her father's familial storytelling. Learning about her own family's triumphs and tribulations during World War II, Belle learns how she too can triumph over her own tribulations.
Perhaps cliché and simple, readers of this graphic novel memoir will learn about life -- its ups and downs, its struggles and its joys. In fact, Forget Sorrow reminds me of a famous Dickens quotation: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us."
English Language Arts Elements of Story
Plot: Fleeing an abusive, stalker boyfriend, a young Belle Yang moves back home with her parents. Seeking to comfort his daughter, this frame story focuses not so much on Belle, but on Belle's father, and his familial storytelling. In the end, Belle and the reader learn that the past most definitely informs the present.
Setting: California, China
Characters: Belle, Belle's father, Belle's mother, teacher Deng Lin, Belle's grandparents, Belle's Aunts and Uncles (all of whom are identified by their birth/appearance-number in the family)
Themes: History, Tradition, Legend/Myth, Loyalty, Maturation, Self and Familial Identity, Past-Present-Future
Traditional Literature Pairing Suggestions: The Awakening by Kate Chopin, The Iliad or The Odyssey by Homer, Maus I and Maus II by Art Spiegelman, Amy Tan's Joy Luck Club, Maxine Hong Kingston's Woman Warrior, Charles Dicken's A Tale of Two Cities or Great Expectations, Shakespeare's Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet, Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Some Teaching Recommendations For Middle School & High School English Language Arts
Suggested Alignment to the IRA /NCTE Standard(s):*
- standard #s correspond to the numbers used by IRA/NCTE
1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
2. Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.
3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate and appreciate texts.
Suggested Reading Strategies:
• Because Forget Sorrow relies on both world history and Belle's familial history, teachers and librarians will want to make sure that students are following both timelines.
• To begin, teachers and librarians will want to discuss the similarities and differences between creative nonfiction and informational nonfiction. Be definition, while creative nonfiction may rely on historically accurate events, people, and/or places, the primary emphasis is on creative license / storytelling. Informational nonfiction, on the other hand, is strictly expository and historically accurate. Since Forget Sorrow is a combination of both creative nonfiction and informational nonfiction, a Venn Diagram reading strategy is recommended.
If teachers and / or librarians would like a more lengthy and classroom-friendly discussion of the similarities and differences between creative and informational nonfiction, they can consult Teaching Graphic Novels, chapter 4 (Monnin, 2010).
• Next, teachers can ask students to complete two Nonfiction Collaboration timelines, each designed specifically for teaching graphic novel nonfiction (Monnin, 2010). In regards to the creative nonfiction aspect of Forget Sorrow, teachers can ask students to fill-out a Nonfiction Collaboration Journey. In regards to the informational nonfiction aspect of Forget Sorrow, teachers can ask students to fill out a Nonfiction Collaboration Stair-Step (Monnin, 2010). The following link provides access to classroom-friendly handouts for both timelines: http://maupinhouse.com/index.php/authors/katie-monnin.html.
*NCTE/IRA. (1996). Standards for the English Language Arts. Urbana, IL: NCTE.
**Monnin, K. (2010). Teaching Graphic Novels. Gainesville, FL: Maupin House.
Katie Monnin, PhD, is an assistant professor of literacy at the University of North Florida and author of Teaching Graphic Novels: Practical Strategies for the Secondary ELA Classroom (2010) from Maupin House. To learn more about Teaching Graphic Novels or Katie Monnin, please go to this link: http://www.maupinhouse.com/monnin.php.
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