Combine a new librarian with a love for comics with a more experienced school librarian with a passion for programming. Add a few kids and some free comic books, and an instant and exceptionally popular book club was born. Jack Baur has been a teen services librarian for the Berkeley Public Library for the past three years. On his first venture out from the safety of the library to bring library programming to middle schools, he met Jessica Lee, the teacher-librarian at Willard Middle School for the past seven years.
Jack and Jessica have been coordinating the Comix Club for the last three years. The club meets weekly during lunch at the Willard Middle School library and has attracted a large, diverse, and dedicated group of attendees. Every week, members of the club get to take home a new graphic novel, which is then discussed at the following meeting. Discussion questions are handed out with the books, giving the kids something to think about as they are reading and help provide some structure to the often freewheeling conversations
Jack and Jessica share the discussion questions they developed for their graphic-novel book club in the interest of giving teachers, librarians, and book club leaders resources for starting their own comic-centric club, or integrating graphic novels into their standard book club. Though these questions were developed for a middle-school audience, they can be used as-is or adapted to use with readers of any age.
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DISCUSSION GUIDES
All Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
Amulet, Book 1: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi
Ghostopolis by Doug TenNapel
I Kill Giants by Joe Kelly and J. M. Ken Niimura
One Hundred Demons by Lynda Barry
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Ultimate Spider-Man, Vol. 1: Power and Responsibility by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley
Runaways, Vol. 1: Pride and Joy by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona
Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley
Smile by Raina Telgemeier
