Amazing World War II Stories
Introduce your student to some of the most clever and tenacious unsung heroes of World War II with this collection of four true stories. Meet a squadron of female pilots doing nighttime bombings in dilapidated airplanes. Or encounter a lone soldier reputed to be unbreakable. With tales such as these, Amazing World War II Stories offers the type of history that sticks.
Other stories include the Navajo Code Talkers with their code that helped defeat the enemy, and the Ghost Army, a U.S. tactical deception unit that misled the Germans. Each action-packed story is presented in an engaging, graphic novel format. However, due to the candid nature of these stories, parents of younger children may wish to pre-read to determine suitability.
About Graphic Novels
Experienced parents know that the amount of reading their child does will directly and positively impact his reading fluency and vocabulary development. That is why graphic novels, once relegated to the category of lowbrow reading, have experienced a surge in popularity.
You may think that the graphic novel is primarily for mainstream American children who are peppered by snack-size visual and audio bombardment. If you desire that your children slow down and feast on the written word, you may cringe at the idea of a graphic novel version of Moby Dick. But before you issue a home-wide ban on these books, consider the following.
If you have a reluctant or beginning reader, your first concern should be fluidity and competency. You will find that the graphic novel illustrations draw your child in even as the vocabulary becomes more complex. Then, because the graphics are so attention-grabbing, children often find themselves reading for pleasure.
If your reluctant reader is an older child, your primary concern may be making sure that he is culturally savvy. With graphic novels, vocabulary is introduced via contextual clues, making great literature accessible to more children. The interesting pictures and snappy dialogue (with little-to-no narration to bog the reader down) will encourage independent reading and learning. As the child's competence and confidence grow, his joy in literacy will increase.
Even if your older child is a competent reader, he will enjoy taking a break from the verbally intense books characteristic of higher-level learning. A 2006 study found that the amount of reading children did for fun decreased from the time they were eight through their teen years. Graphic books can re-engage them in the delights of reading for leisure and learning.
Some children may never read for pleasure. But most children, from the reluctant, faltering reader to the brilliant but easily bored adolescent will find graphic novels intriguing.
