Brandy Danner is a librarian specializing in young adult services.
Reluctant Readers
A man came in a little while ago, asking if we had any heavily-illustrated books. “Not picture books,” he said. “Like… well, sort of like comics. Like Graphic Classics.”
I directed him downstairs to the YA section, and told him that there’s a shelf of graphic novels down there, and that there are two books that are graphic adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe, among other books. He ran off in that general direction.
He came back a couple of minutes later to pick up another book on reserve, and very excitedly told me, “there’s a whole shelf of comics there!” I mentioned that there are more on order that just haven’t arrived yet, and to keep checking back. He took out one of the Edgar Allan Poe, volume 5 of Bone, a Teen Titans book, and one of the How to Draw Manga books. “Anything to get these kids to read some text!” he said.
He liked my collection, and will likely use it again. And it’s a bit more anecdotal evidence for the Comics Are Good For Reluctant Readers theory. Hooray!
