In today's post, guest blogger and reference librarian Bonnie Brzozowski explains why graphic novels make such great book club selections for members of all ages! Yes - maybe even yours. Bonnie works at the Austin Public Library and in addition to leading the Graphic Novels Book Club, she also purchases graphic novels for the library system so she is speaking from (great) experience!
Graphic novels have been gaining in popularity for some time now and most people are fully aware that comics “aren’t just for kids anymore.” I don’t actually think comics were ever just for kids, but it has definitely taken the proliferation of comics published in their current, often novelistic, format and the steady acceptance of them by the mass media to help them gain wider popularity. What most people may not realize is that a good graphic novel lends itself well to discussion - just as well as novels and nonfiction books typically discussed in reading groups – and makes an excellent selection for any reading group interested in trying something new.
At the Austin Public Library (APL), I began a reading group nearly two years ago that discusses graphic novels exclusively. I was introduced to graphic novels in graduate school thanks to an excellent collection of them available in the college’s library. The first one I ever read was Black Hole by Charles Burns and it was this book that opened my eyes to what could be done working in this format – the story was evocative, multi-layered, dark, not about superheroes, and full of the types of themes and metaphors found in some of the best novels I’ve ever read. In short, it blew me away and, largely, because the only thing I knew to expect was based on a mass generalization I had made about comics. A generalization I would guess others make as well considering journalists seem to believe it necessary to add bylines such as “not just for kids anymore” to the articles they write about the format.
My stumble into graphic novels coincided with an increased enthusiasm for reading groups, but it wasn’t until I became a librarian at APL that I decided to try and combine the two by beginning the Graphic Novels Book Club. I started by selecting books for our discussions that had been put on lists of standard graphic novels (such as, GraphicNovelReporter.com’s Core List) such as Maus by Art Spiegelman and Blankets by Craig Thompson. But in my personal reading pursuits, it quickly became clear to me that, in fact, the majority of graphic novels out there are discussable and I need not stick to any list of so-called standards.
Our group has explored many different genres within this format including memoir, science fiction, literary fiction, and even journalistic nonfiction. So, not only do we get to pursue a lot of different genres, we also get to come together to discuss these often multi-layered, intelligent, emotion-inducing, well-written, beautifully drawn works of art. In fact, a regular at the Book Club told me recently that ours is the “most literary book club” of which she’s ever been a member. A recent meeting turned out a young man of 18, a woman in her early 40s, two people in their 30s, and myself in my late 20s truly demonstrating the broad appeal this format has.
The only real challenge with using graphic novels in your upcoming reading group discussions is the lack of reading group guides out there. Many publishers have yet to market the graphic novels they publish as reading group selections and so haven’t given us any pre-written guides to use, but this needn’t stop you. ReadingGroupGuides.com has some great suggestions for writing your own guides that work as well for graphic novels as for any other book. Focusing on themes, metaphors, character development, and setting as well as the artwork itself should give you plenty of material to cover in your discussion.
-- Bonnie Brzozowski, Reference Librarian - Austin Public Library
