I just finished my “Rational for Fiction” paper. As challenging as it was to find the time during the end of the school year to write it, I enjoyed it and learned a lot. As with all assignments, there was a word limit which meant things got left out. Here are a few things I found that I didn’t include and don’t want to forget:
- There are some great online graphic novels by Australian authors. The fact that they are online for free makes it very easy for a teacher to “give out” to all the students as a class set is not required. There is a mix of fiction and non-fiction:
- So Below, a comic about land.
- The Grot, ultimately I think it’s about family and trust but told through a post-catastrophe, futuristic, gold rush setting.
- Villawood: Notes for an Immigration Detention Centre, comic journalism about a Sydney detention centre.
- Making Sense of Complexity, about the scientific complexity of systems in our world.
- A Part of Me is Still Unknown, about adoption.
- Reported Missing: A True Story of Family and Murder, comic journalism about a murder in Tasmania and the effects on the families.
- Indigenous Graphic Novels
- This article from the National Library of Australia is a great place to start. It outlines a history of comics using the native language, featuring or written by Ingenious Australians. I would never have guessed that missionaries would have been the first to write comics using an Aboriginal language or that a superhero ‘Condoman’ would be used to teach sex education!
This is a great all-around post (that I found after I was basically done writing my paper so I never ended up using it!) that includes reasons to use graphic novels as well as a list of great resources. It would be an excellent place to send teachers as a starting point with graphic novels.