I just finished Refresh, Refresh which was written by Danica Novgordoff based off the award-winning short story by Benjamin Percy (also adapted into a screenplay by James Ponsoldt). [the graphic novel has also been honored: one of the top 10 graphic novels by USA Today, ALA great graphic novel for teens,The Young Adult Round Table (YART) of the Texas Library Association (TLA) named it A Texas Maverick Graphic Novel.]
The story centers on three teenage boys--Josh, Cody, and Gordon--living in Oregon whose Marine reservist fathers are fighting in the Iraq War. The boys, trying to stay strong and prove they are men (to themselves and their absent fathers) engage in increasingly self-destructive behaviors as the novel progresses.
I won't give away the ending, but this novel is one that left me feeling hollow . . . in a good way. There is so much teachers could do with this novel, although I would love a multi-point of view war study unit, which would include the next title, one of my favorites of all time: Pride of Baghdad.
Pride of Baghdad (Vertigo) is the powerful grahic novel written by Brian K. Vaughan with art and cover by Niko Henrichon, and edited by Will Dennis. In this allegorical tale Vaughan recounts how a pride of lions escaped from the Baghdad zoo after a 2003 US bombing raid. Confused, hungry, and scared the animals roamed the streets before being killed by US soldiers.
The artwork is breathtaking.
The story is horrific.
We (a ninth grade teacher and I) are actually going to use this novel to open up the school year. The students have had a hard time with "taking action" after reading many of the books we have taught, Ties that Bind comes to mind, because either the book is set too far in the past or too far away, geographically. However, we are using this novel as a springboard to social justice/action oriented research [sadly, we have some recent and present issues relating to animals that we can work from--Katrina and the Gulf oil spill].
I HIGHLY recommend this graphic novel--if you haven't read it, you need to.
Finally, I am left with Howard Zinn's (with Paul Buhle and Mike Konopacki) A People's History of the American Empire, which I bought last summer and never got around to reading. With his passing this year and my re-reading of Pride of Baghdad, I pulled it from the shelf--and it fits nicely with my war-themed graphic novel talk.
A colleague in social studies education and I are going to have our methods students collaborate and co-plan their unit plan this fall in methods and Zinn's book is one that we are going to list as an option (all units must include a YA title).
The book opens with the September 11th attack as a prolouge and then begins from "our" beginning, note the irony ("The Internal Empire") and goes all the way up to Bush II and Guantanamo Bay. The graphics are amazing, combinations of black and white photos with comic illustrations, maps, primary documents, etc. There's even a http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn3lF5XSUg narrated by Viggo Mortensen as a supplemtnal text.
For supporting work, there's also the American Empire Project: http://www.americanempireproject.com/americanempireproject.htm.
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