AIBU that comics could get more kids reading?

[ConcernedBookworm]

Really depressing hearing about the decline in reading & literacy in the UK. It’s probably to do with mobile phones, but we need to do something otherwise we’ll go backwards as a society. We have to get more kids enjoying reading and instil the habit early.

AIBU to think comics are the answer for many kids who are at risk of not getting into the reading habit and we should do more to give kids access to them? But my kids school and our local library doesn’t seem to recognise how popular they are and don’t really prioritise them.

Kids in my eldest class are obsessed with Jamie Smart and Bunny Vs Monkey yet our library doesn’t have many comics/ graphic novels to choose from - or maybe they’re so popular they’re not available when we visit on Saturdays?

I think we should we be promoting them more somehow? I’ve spent so much money buying new ones for my kids. They like to browse the shelves at Waterstones and it’s costing me a fortune! But I’m happy to spend on them due to their enthusiasm- comics helped get my eldest into reading other stuff like MG Leonard & Harry Potter so it’s paid off.

But the school doesn’t seem that interested! They’ve never read comics as whole class texts. I also heard about the excelsior book award and asked my school if they’d sign up (it’s only £30!) but they weren’t interested, which makes no sense it would definitely get the kids excited about reading doing a comics book club (plus it’s cheap!). Btw the excelsior website is great resource for recommendations - you can look at this years shortlist and past years too.

There seems to be a lot of snobbery in education still. But my dad who grew up poor in Ireland and left school early said he credits comics for being literate. He said they’d go out on the street in the 1960s after tea to do comics swaps! We never had comics as a kid so I must admit I was snobby about them at first… but I think this new resurgence is a fantastic opportunity to reverse the decline in reading. We just need schools, libraries etc to support it more right?

ps I know not all kids like comics and I’m not saying we should force them on these kids. Just saying more access for those who they appeal to

Many of those titles aren't available in English.

I'm a comic collector and ex teacher. I used to use comics to engage kids with reading. They loved it.

There is SO much snobbery around comics it's unreal. I used to love Oor Willie and The Broons, growing up in a house where these were staples every year they were probably among the first things I read. And of course the Beano and Dandy. I've always been a big reader and started with comics. But comics are also valid in and of themselves.

Comics, graphic novels, books like Dogman and Diary of a Wimpy Kid - kids like them for a reason and should absolutely be encouraged. I think my daughter has read every DOAWK book about 10 times at this point and I just love to see her with a book and finding something new in it each time. Her friend wasn't allowed to read it at all. It's just silly. The wait for Dogman both in physical form and ebook from the library was too long so she lost interest in that but amazing that there was such a queue for a kids book.

Any reading, whatever they want to read. Who didn't read the side of cereal boxes 🙂

As kids my sisters and I had lots of comics, Monday Wednesday and Saturday were comic days, they probably didn’t start our interest in reading but they helped maintain it, we all still read avidly, problem now is there are far fewer comics around and they are so expensive

I home educaye my 7 year old daughter who has dyslexia - her father does too.

Comics are great for encouraging reading, her reading has quickly improved from stumbling over simple words to reading freely and independently since September. She will now happily pick something up and read it for fun. Her favourite at the moment is the "Phoebe and her Unicorn" series.

She says the text and story being more grown up means they are more interesting than banded books - the storylines are better. The smaller chunks of text mixed with pictures are easier to read than large neverending blocks of text (her dad confirms smaller chunks of text are more accessible to people with dyslexia, it is less visually taxing and doesn't tire the brain as quickly)

Schools and libraries are really missing a trick by not including more graphic novels, I think they are more accessible to readers and would encourage a rise in literacy levels

@ConcernedBookwormmother of a devoted phoenix fan here - my son is a very good reader though often struggles with the attention span to read long chapter books and has recently finished the first “Flembar” book which is a long form novel by Jamie Smart if you’re looking for a more detailed narrative than BvM. I’m led to believe it’s the first one in a short series

This is a good tip! JS is great.

Laura Ellen-Anderson another Phoenix comic artist also went onto make some beautifully illustrated chapter books which my daughter loved - the best series is Amelia Fang, which I think is a completed series now. Would highly recommend it.

Another talented artist who makes brilliant chapter books is Rob Biddulph. The new wolf series is good according to dd

These can bridge between comics and text only books. But as others have pointed out, comics are a literary and art form in their own right, and although they can bridge between books for less confident readers… my DD will flick between the last Harry Potter (which I’d struggle to finish tbh!) and a comic. She’s an advanced reader but still chooses comics.

Good grief! Three comic days!

My parents bought me the Beano (4p) every week but anything beyond that had to come out of my 10p pocket money. Monster Fun was 7p (maybe 8p), so it was a big purchase!!!

It’s kinda sad these days are gone

Apart from the Phoenix, which has very few subscribers compared to the comics of yesteryear, what do kids have to wait for in anticipation? Maybe a YouTube video from their favourite vlogger?!

Anything that balances being on screens is good. For me actual magazines and books get me away from doomscrolling on my phone which is definitely not good for my mental health or productivity!

They can all be found in English, though I just learned that Cafe is called: "Because I love you so much". Not the most logic translation, and the one title I assumed I wouldn't need to find the English name for. Ah well. Live and learn.

My reading age was always well beyond my years and we had comics every Saturday - favourites, which show my age were Mandy, Judy, Richie Rich and then Jackie (half comic, half magazine), Annuals at Christmas, library runs weekly and access to a great primary school library at breaktimes, alongside reading corners. Recently had a stint at a secondary school library where I tried to purchase graphic novels, but sniffed at by senior management. I totally agree that comics are a great way to encourage reading, but I'd included retro comics here to increase the vocabulary and subject matter. I forget to mention that DC and Marvel comics are great reading material too. No, you are not being unreasonable.

What can us parents do to help? I know quite a few people who feel similar. It’s the year of reading yet I’m not aware of any events in our bustling town- no comics stuff. What a missed opportunity. Kids round here are gaging for something but it’s really only Waterstones that seems bothered about comics.

You can send emails to the libraries or start a petition to get more comic books in your local library.

Find out if there are any local "comic-con" type events or comic book sale events in your area. There are always plenty around. Contact the organisers and suggest they come to your town if they don't already.
Gaming cafes are quite popular at the moment and sometimes they cross over into selling comics/manga (Geek Retreat is a franchise that has branches in several places).
HMV also sell a lot of comics/graphic novels - some people seem to think they still only sell CDs and DVDs. They don't. They sell so much more.

@ConcernedBookworm here is a schedule for one of the companies that run comic cons.

Thanks everyone! I’m going to start with the library and talk to other parents too

Yep, guess looking back we were rather spoilt, though our grandad lived with us and he bought the Saturday ones, but the thing is, we read them avidly and it encouraged that lifelong reading, so I imagine our parents would have considered it money well spent

I think the older generation really valued comics. They were a big thing back in the day in newspapers. My older relatives have described a real comics culture in their working class communities- all the kids read them and swapped them in the 50s/60s. Adults bought certain newspapers for the comic strips!

I am a huge reader, we all are in our household. I grew up around books and read a lot of "traditional" fiction. However my biggest love was comics and graphic novels. I have Scottish grandparents so we had The Broons and Oor Wullie (still get those annuals now), I loved Twinkle as a little girl and then discovered the Beanie, followed by Asterix. As an adult I'm a massive fan of Preacher, Sin City and The Boys and have collected some of my favourite fiction novels that have been translated to graphic novel. My eldest two loved old Beanos and then went onto Manga and read so much of it. My eldest also loved the Manga adaptations of Shakespeare (which are beautiful) which then got them into the world of Shakespeare. My youngest is obsessed with Dogman and is getting into my husbands collection of marvel graphic novels. All my children have advanced learning ages and that is because they love to read. Anything that can get a child to read is a good thing so comics are a great gateway into the world of fiction.

Perhaps ask the school about making this more of a thing. We have reading ambassadors at ours and they do themes etc so graphic novels and comics could be a thing for them to concentrate on.

There's a real gap in the market for kids and teens comics and magazines now.
Theres a few decent ones you can subscribe to for a small fortune, but I couldn't afford to keep up with the phoenix for example being weekly too. Most others were ridiculously over-gendered and vacuous

I absolutely loved comics as a kid and yes I think it was one of the things that encouraged me to be a book worm (Enid Blyton too.) I did go on to read better quality literature, but I think being read to by my dad as a young child plus comics and EB got me started

We had a comics box / drawer at school in primary for wet playtimes that I used to enjoy using (it was how I read the Beano). That would be an easy thing for parents to help schools with by donating annuals / comics once their children have finished with them.

It’s also worth thinking about how comics link art & English for other opportunities to promote them - there are lots of “how to draw” videos of comic characters that would make an easy school club & there will be people who can come to school to run that sort of workshop.

Another thing to think about is what texts the children read in English and if there are any graphic novels by the same author (for example some of the Alex Rider books are available as graphics). If the school don’t have copies, then that might be something the PTA could think about funding so that if children enjoy the book they have access to graphics by the same author (it’s probably worth doing for non-graphic books too). Then there are authors like Marcia Williams, who write comic books connected to history topics.

Just getting parents talking about this & sharing recommendations is really powerful & its great you want to support the school like this.

Can we stop with the phonics bashing? It’s far and away the best way to teach the majority of children to read.

I think the educational establishment does have some blame for choosing such worthy books- the kind of books adults think kids should read, not what they want to read. My kids had to read pretty much the entire Michael Morpurgo back catalogue at primary and I found them all horrific misery lit, real slogs and poor introductions to reasonably heavy themes. See also Katherine Rundell to some extent. They might be literary greats but they are not accessible to many children, or even particularly entertaining.

Also our libraries are non existent around here.

(Sorry for stream of consciousness!)

Chatgpt and AI are really good at suggesting books in a “if you liked x, try y and z”.