Pitch Black

PITCH BLACK: DON”T BE SKERD by Youme Landowne and Anthony Horton is one of the most powerful graphic novels I have come across of late. Not only could it be used as a stand-alone text in secondary classrooms, but it is a natural for a supplemental text in a range of units. The novel tells the story of how Youme and Anthony met and provides a brief, but powerful and shocking glimpse into the world of the homeless (and the homeless that live under New York City’s subways.



The drawings--all in black and white with some comic-book style--are beautiful yet sad and will haunt you. Youme and Anthony seemed to capture the breadth and depth of life for our country's forgotten citizens.



I don’t want to give too much of the plot away, but if you want to know more, you can see an interview with Youme and read a New York Times Story. The graphic novel was selected as one of YALSA’s Top Ten Best Graphic Novels for Teens in 2008.

What I love about this graphic novel is the range of teaching possibilities, from the “traditional” (i.e., New Critical analysis), to new literacies, to critical literacy, to visual literacy, and on and on.

This past summer, in my advanced YA literature course, I used Latrobe and Drury’s Critical Approaches to Young Adult Literature (2009, Neal-Schuman) which provides a range of approaches teachers can take when studying YA literature. When thinking about Pitch Black, some clear directions emerge. For example, teachers could start with reader response techniques and then move to a close reading of the text (I particularly think that studying the role of conflict, setting, tone, and theme apply here).

Likewise, teachers could study the novel in terms of the moral development of those that impacted Anthony. Using Gilligan’s “Caring and Connectedness Perspective” teachers could ask students about the extent to which others (and Anthony) recognized the interdependence of humankind, condemned exploitation and violence while making decisions (p. 35). Teachers could also try the sociological lens and look at social content, the reader, the author, and the text (p. 156).


I would also suggest using Root’s (1996) notion “border crossings” with it . . . and, of course, Marxist, race, and critical race theories apply as well.

Remembering Katrina

It's been a while since I posted (thanks to new semester starting and other job duties that keep me from reading YA lit, boo hiss), but on this 5th anniversary of Katrina I thought it appropriate to FINALLY read Josh Neufeld's A.D. New Orleans: After the Deluge. It's been reviewed here, and it's available in its original SMITH Magazine format here. I love the graphics, from the first pages of slanted rain and the before/after bird's-eye views of the city, to the use of muted greys to denote flashbacks.

The story follows 7 very different New Orleanians in the days leading up to the flood, and then a year later. There's Leo and Michelle, young hipsters who decide to leave town at the last minute. Leo frets about leaving his beloved comic books behind. Abbas owns a convenience store, and although his family leaves town for Houston, he decides to stay to protect the store against looters. Darnell is Abbas' friend, who decides to wait out the storm with him. Kwame is a high school senior, son of a pastor, who flees with his family to his older brother's college dorm in Tallahassee, FL. Brobson is a rich doctor who doesn't believe a storm's really coming. In fact, he throws a "hurricane party" the night before the storm hits. Denise is living with her mother, a surgical tech at a hospital. They plan to wait out the storm and take shelter at the hospital. Only, when they get to the hospital, it's overcrowded and Denise decides to head back home.

Then the storm hits, and the levees hold at first...

...but then they breach, and the flooding starts.

Denise and her family end up at the Superdome, and when no one arrives with water or medical attention, or help of any kind, all she can think is, "They are trying to kill us all." Abbas decides to leave his store behind when Darnell, who has asthma, has an attack. They are able to hop on a boat that happens by the store's rooftop and both men are eventually reunited with family. Nothing happens to the rich white doctor--he's safe in the French Quarter, and bemoans the loss of his favorite snazzy lunch spot, Galatoire's. Kwame and his brother are sent to live with relatives in California, while his mother and father struggle to rebuild their church in New Orleans. Leo loses all his beloved comic books, and he and Michelle spend time with various family members until deciding to return to New Orleands to re-build.

This is a touching, poignant read, especially as you watch Denise, Leo/Michelle, and Abbas agonize over what they lose in the flood--material items, their homes, their sense of place/identity, and time. Denise struggles further in her decision to return to New Orleans, and Abbas struggles with the decision he made to leave his store during the flooding. To stay, or flee, or return home? Agonizing questions, made all the more tragic against the backdrop of larger unanswered questions about humanity and our responsibilities to each other.

War-Themed Graphic Texts

Today being July 4th, I thought it would be fitting to take a first look (and revisit) some graphic novels that would not only be appealing to teens but fit nicely in the ELA curriculum and promote cross-curricular collaborations.


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.