By: David Elzey,
on 4/25/2012
by Gregory Rogers Allen & Unwin, Austrailia 2009 Roaring Brook, US 2012 The Boy, who previously met the Bard and the Bear and battled a Midsummer Knight, takes "readers" on another adventure, this time through the world of Vermeer. The Boy, out titular hero, is kicking around when a soccer ball appears. One swift kick and the ball lands in a fountain, and the bully boys who were previously
By: Aline Pereira,
on 7/27/2010
Marjorie and I at PaperTigers write the Books at Bedtime posts and these posts usually are about books appropriate for reading to children at bed time. However, I’m facing a bit of a dilemma having a 13 year old son and a 9 year old daughter. I no longer read to my son at bed time; he reads for himself and lately, his focus has been on comics and graphic novels. As a result, I’ve been getting hooked on graphic novels myself (although admittedly the fascination for this genre started for me when I was teen and had access to Japanese manga even though I couldn’t always read them very well) so I have decided to start reviewing graphic novels in future posts while still also doing the occasional Books at Bedtime post to cover those titles I read with my daughter.
However, as with many things in life, there are cross-overs and overlaps. While perusing the graphic novel shelf at the library, my daughter found one for herself and brought it over to me. The Boy, the Bear, The Baron, the Bard by Australian Gregory Rogers (Roaring Book Press, 2004) is a story set in Elizabethan England told entirely in images drawn by Rogers. You would think a book like this wouldn’t be appropriate for bedtime reading, but quite the contrary! My daughter, having perused the book, brought it to bed with her and asked if we could narrate the story together, playing the different parts of the characters depicted (which include, needless to say — the Bard Shakespeare, a baron, a bear and a boy.) This was a totally appropriate way to read this book, considering that it featured the famous playwright himself and the world of theatre. And we had fun, moreover, doing it!
Do you ever read graphic novels to your children at bedtime? Tell me if you do; I’d love to hear of your experiences. As children become more increasingly focused on the visual medium through the use of computers (we’re fast approaching the age of reading off our Kindles and Ipads to our children at night), reading graphic novels to our kids may well be the middle road of compromise!
