Showing posts with label graphic_novels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label graphic_novels. Show all posts
Monday, May 9, 2011
The Beguiling
Thanks, Langley TL Joanie, for this great recommendation. This Toronto-based comic store The Beguiling has lists of titles of graphic novels you can order that are developed by their avid comic-reading staff for your particular audience.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Serendipitous Event - Guest Author Akemi Eddy
Serendipity 2011
GRAPHIC NOVEL EXTRAVAGANZA
With Matt Holm, Raina Telgemeier, Gene Yang, Aaron Renier, Jason Shiga and Valerie Wyatt
Saturday, February 26, 2011, at UBC
Report from guest author Akemi Eddy begins, Wow! What a fabulous event!
The program began in the wee hours of the morning with a continental breakfast, book buying and author autographing. After settling into our seats, we were welcomed by the witty chairperson of the Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable, Shannon Ozirny who appeared throughout the day in captioned frames in the comic tradition.
Matt Holm (illustrator of Baby Mouse) presented first, engaging the audience with photos and stories of his childhood which included sister Jennifer Holm (author of Baby Mouse). His presentation culminated with an audience member helping Matt create a sketch of “Pirate Mouse.” Be sure to keep an eye out for Jennifer and Matt’s new series, Squish.
Raina Telgemeier was up next with some not-so-fond childhood memories of dental mishaps and corrections upon which her graphic novel Smile is loosely based. Raina demonstrated her artistic talent by showing us how she captures feelings in her illustrations.
Finishing off the morning was Gene Yang, author/illustrator of American Born Chinese. After introducing himself as Computer teacher by day, graphic novelist by night, Jason entertained us with his frank, honest, hilarious demeanor. He concluded his presentation by demonstrating how he has successfully used the comic format to teach Math concepts to his secondary students.Aaron Renier and Jason Shiga hosted a limited seating, lunchtime, hands-on workshop.
Valerie Wyatt, 2010 Information Book Award winner for How to Build Your Own Country, concluded the presentations with a Canadian perspective on authoring and publishing.
The day ended with a casual, fun-filled panel of the authors/illustrators mediated by Katherine Shoemaker.
If you missed the Graphic Novel Extravaganza, next year’s theme for Serendipity is Asian Books for Children on Saturday, February 25, 2012. Paul Yee is a confirmed speaker at this event.
Also, the annual Illustrators’ Breakfast will be on Saturday, October 15, 2011, at the Mueum of Anthropology in conjunction with the opening of the temporary exhibit Hiroshima.
Thank you to Moira for the opportunity to attend … it was serendipitous!
And this News Flash, just in from the Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable: Oscar Win!
And this News Flash, just in from the Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable: Oscar Win!
Saturday's Serendipity 2011 on the Graphic Novel was an eye-opening event, especially for those who dont follow graphic novels. It was a fine introduction to the art involved in creating these books. The graphic artists/cartoonists worked their magic before our very eyes (one participant went away with her own Matt Holm drawn-to-order illustration) and the presenters shared the various routes they took as writer/artists on their way to creating their books. We learned about mini-comics in the world of the graphic artists. The closing panel offered interesting interplay among the artists. As the saying goes, you had to be there.
And, we were also treated to Shannon Ozirny in rare form as MC for the program, wittily turned out in black and white, providing a frame or two and a speech balloon or two.
Here's a fitting, and serendipitous link for us, following the Graphic Novel Event: an item from a comic book site, noting Sean Tan's Oscar award. Yes!
(There are a few interesting links within the article, too, if you click on the accompanying URL. In addition, the Comic Book Resources site has news, reviews, videos and blogs, etc. for those of you pursuing graphic novels, etc.).
Australian creator Shaun Tan's wordless graphic novels have brought him considerable acclaim, including the 2010 Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist, and the French edition of his graphic novel The Arrival won the Angoulme International Comics Festival Prize for Best Comic Book.
Now he has another award to add to his growing collection: The Lost Thing, co-directed by Tan and based on his book of the same name, won this year's Oscar for Best Short Film (Animated).
In an interview before the awards ceremony, Tan told School Library Journal's Chelsey Philpot that Australian producer Sophie Bryne approached him after The Lost Thing won an award at the Bologna Children's Book Fair and proposed making it into a short film. After a bit of persuasion, Tan agreed, and he started what would become a nine-year process: The film was begun in 2001 and finally finished in 2010.
And he's already thinking ahead to the next film: Tan told SLJ that while he was in LA for the Oscar ceremony, he would be meeting with some people about making a feature-length film of another of his books, The Arrival.
SEAN TAN WINS THE OSCAR FOR BEST SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)This link is to a more conventional source the Australian newspaper in Sean Tan's home city, Melbourne ... a little story with a photo of Sean Tan holding his Oscar. Roundtablers who enjoyed Sean Tan at a VCLR Illustrators' Breakfast a couple of years ago will enjoy seeing his face once again.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
HURRAY FOR PICTURES (The Vancouver Sun, 15 Nov 2008, Page E6)
HURRAY FOR PICTURESBY ANAKANA SCHOFIELD
The Vancouver Sun
15 Nov 2008
High school English teacher Guy Demers doesn’t hesitate to recommend graphic novels for young readers. “ Comics are an art form, much like the novel or poetry,” he says. “ They offer us new ways to read and to put together meaning. “ The richness in...read more...
Thursday, April 3, 2008
It's National Poetry Month
On Teaching Poetry
I loved teaching poetry. My favourite poetics experiences were when the grade 8s come to the library to "do" poetry. There are surely none so eager as grade 8s. In they would fly, heading for the computers to search for "poetry" on google.
Imagine my delight as they pulled up millions of sites. It was the same every year. When asked what was next in their search strategies, I could count on one or more to tell me they were going to look at the sites. Pushed a little more, they would then suggest limiters, words like "funny" or "love" ... but these too brought up too many sites. In fact, I would have pre-searched the numbers of sites they would likely have found by searching "poetry" and by using certain single limiting descriptors and calculated how long it would take, if they spent only 30 seconds on a site, to get through them all.
I wanted them to see that google as a source of poetry was messy and largely "unreviewed" and best searched if you had a particular poet in mind -- which didn't leave you open to the wonders of new poets. I wanted to introduce them to the subscription poetry database and be able to critique it for its limitations ... these Canadian children have a remarkable literary legacy of local and national poets of worth. The database is not very Canadian. The last time I used it, there was no Cohen, no Lane, no Bowering ... just Atwood.
More to the point, I wanted to show them the many small volumes and books of poems I had collected that were available in the school library collection -- old and new, for children and adults, in one voice or four -- these surely were the very best sources for poetry! [My powerpoint that accompanies this introduction is available on the tlspecial wiki: see item 6 "Sources of Poetry" under Tools and Strategies for Technology Integration with Teaching and Learning.]
The assignment, Poetry in Powerpoint, had them selecting a single poem to present to the class using powerpoint. The intro above had contained examples of how this would look: "I think that I shall never see / A poem lovely as a tree ...." The student would learn to use powerpoint and many of its features; the poem chosen by the student would be presented with a few lines on each slide as well as an image the student had chosen to represent how he or she visualized the lines. Additional slides might include analysis of poetic devices, interpretation, or information about the poet. Not only were the students working with poetry, they were delving into visual and technology literacies as well as practicing oral language skills with their presentations.
I loved being able to see how the student saw the poem. My favourite to this day remains "Dim Sum Girl" -- it turned out to be song lyrics from a NY Chinatown group called Notorious MSG; Notorious send the song out to all the girls who push dim sum carts all over the world:
It’s been so long since I’ve seen you smile
looking so good coming down that aisle
with that sexy dress and a little dim sum
makes me crazy when I order chow fun
While I am sure you can imagine the colourful images for this little show, most of them of food, I suppose it was just a little short on the traditional poetic devices!
Integrating technology's many tools and applications is always a challenge but it can be a fun learning experience too ... while Poetry in Powerpoint was essentially the same exercise for grade 11 Communications students, it was with here that I asked a student about the wonderful template he was using for his powerpoint. That's where I learned about Brainy Betty: now there's a source of templates to liven up your technology presentations.
Here's a fun site with lots to use for Poetry Month: poets.org has for the month of April a Poem-a-day feature and see also the page Resources for Teachers, Librarians and Booksellers
Youngpoets.ca has some great ideas for teaching poetry too.
If you were pondering the realities of teaching here in BC, imagine this: Teacher Suspended Over Book: CNN, March 26, 2008 (video clip)
The newly installed invisible counter on the tlspecial blog shows last Friday was the BIGGEST day of the week for "hits": of the 138 visitors who came to the site last week, 75 of them came on Friday. Not all of the visitors are from Vancouver.
Here's some reading for you: School Libraries Work! 2008 revision of Scholastic's "meta-analysis" of the research on school libraries.
I loved teaching poetry. My favourite poetics experiences were when the grade 8s come to the library to "do" poetry. There are surely none so eager as grade 8s. In they would fly, heading for the computers to search for "poetry" on google.
Imagine my delight as they pulled up millions of sites. It was the same every year. When asked what was next in their search strategies, I could count on one or more to tell me they were going to look at the sites. Pushed a little more, they would then suggest limiters, words like "funny" or "love" ... but these too brought up too many sites. In fact, I would have pre-searched the numbers of sites they would likely have found by searching "poetry" and by using certain single limiting descriptors and calculated how long it would take, if they spent only 30 seconds on a site, to get through them all.
I wanted them to see that google as a source of poetry was messy and largely "unreviewed" and best searched if you had a particular poet in mind -- which didn't leave you open to the wonders of new poets. I wanted to introduce them to the subscription poetry database and be able to critique it for its limitations ... these Canadian children have a remarkable literary legacy of local and national poets of worth. The database is not very Canadian. The last time I used it, there was no Cohen, no Lane, no Bowering ... just Atwood.
More to the point, I wanted to show them the many small volumes and books of poems I had collected that were available in the school library collection -- old and new, for children and adults, in one voice or four -- these surely were the very best sources for poetry! [My powerpoint that accompanies this introduction is available on the tlspecial wiki: see item 6 "Sources of Poetry" under Tools and Strategies for Technology Integration with Teaching and Learning.]
The assignment, Poetry in Powerpoint, had them selecting a single poem to present to the class using powerpoint. The intro above had contained examples of how this would look: "I think that I shall never see / A poem lovely as a tree ...." The student would learn to use powerpoint and many of its features; the poem chosen by the student would be presented with a few lines on each slide as well as an image the student had chosen to represent how he or she visualized the lines. Additional slides might include analysis of poetic devices, interpretation, or information about the poet. Not only were the students working with poetry, they were delving into visual and technology literacies as well as practicing oral language skills with their presentations.
I loved being able to see how the student saw the poem. My favourite to this day remains "Dim Sum Girl" -- it turned out to be song lyrics from a NY Chinatown group called Notorious MSG; Notorious send the song out to all the girls who push dim sum carts all over the world:
It’s been so long since I’ve seen you smile
looking so good coming down that aisle
with that sexy dress and a little dim sum
makes me crazy when I order chow fun
While I am sure you can imagine the colourful images for this little show, most of them of food, I suppose it was just a little short on the traditional poetic devices!
Integrating technology's many tools and applications is always a challenge but it can be a fun learning experience too ... while Poetry in Powerpoint was essentially the same exercise for grade 11 Communications students, it was with here that I asked a student about the wonderful template he was using for his powerpoint. That's where I learned about Brainy Betty: now there's a source of templates to liven up your technology presentations.
Here's a fun site with lots to use for Poetry Month: poets.org has for the month of April a Poem-a-day feature and see also the page Resources for Teachers, Librarians and Booksellers
Youngpoets.ca has some great ideas for teaching poetry too.
---------------
More blah-blah:
If you were pondering the realities of teaching here in BC, imagine this: Teacher Suspended Over Book: CNN, March 26, 2008 (video clip)
The newly installed invisible counter on the tlspecial blog shows last Friday was the BIGGEST day of the week for "hits": of the 138 visitors who came to the site last week, 75 of them came on Friday. Not all of the visitors are from Vancouver.
Here's some reading for you: School Libraries Work! 2008 revision of Scholastic's "meta-analysis" of the research on school libraries.
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