American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang is the first graphic novel I've ever read! I enjoyed the experience, looking at the pictures and making inferences about the story's setting and mood almost made it like reading subtitles while watching a movie. The pictures are there, but in order to understand the entire story you must read the words. I love visualizing what the words are describing in my own imagination and the graphic novel kind of robs that imaginative side for me. With that being said, I am excited to extend my graphic reading experience by reading books like Maus.
I am excited for my observation time tomorrow because I recommended the book to one of the students in my 7th grade class on Wednesday. He said he liked comic books and that was it. Then I saw American Born Chinese on the shelf. At first he was convinced it was all Chinese and since he didn't understand Chinese he wasn't interested. We flipped through the book together and I showed him that the words were in English and then I told him I was going to read the same book over the weekend. By Friday, he was half way through the book and I still hadn't started it!
Now that I have read the book, I am interested in hearing what the kiddo has to say about it. There might have been some language and words that were a little above his reading level and I am interested in seeing if he looked them up, asked someone, or made inferences from the pictures. I think it will start a cool conversation and I might be able to find out a little more about him and where he's at as a student.
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