After writing my compare/contrast essay on The Complete Persepolis and Naruto, I found myself wondering why I'd never heard of a graphic novel. Personally, I prefer a "normal" novel over a graphic one, but I still enjoyed reading these. As much as I thought that I would hate Naruto, I ended up wanting to find out what happened in the end, instead of just trying to finish it.
As for Persepolis, I thought that the book read as a normal novel would, and might have even been able to be read without the pictures, which I found interesting. The artwork was very simple in Persepolis, whereas in Naruto, the artwork was very detailed and showed a lot of action.
Persepolis proved to have a lot of educational value for the classroom. Its subject of the Islamic Revolution reminded me a lot of the Holocaust, and might be a good addition to a lesson of that sort. It may even be able to be used in a History class as well. As for Naruto, I think that although it might spark more interest from boys, it is not really classroom appropriate. There is not a lot of educational value in it, and there are lots of sexual overtones, especially in some of the images. Also, it devalues women, which is something I wouldn't want to introduce to my students.
In general, I think that using graphic novels in the classroom is a good idea. It is a great change of pace from the ordinary, which might spark some additional interest from students. Also, since the text is accompanied with pictures, students with reading issues might be positively affected. Their understanding can be furthered since there are context clues available in the pictures as well as the text.
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