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This virtual collection of ten books in comic or graphic novel format (found at https://padlet.com/tobiasbodine/GeneLuenYang) highlights the significant body of work of Chinese American author Gene Luen Yang. His work spans a wide range of themes, mostly relating to his experience and expertise as a Chinese American. The audience I had in mind while creating this promotional collection was high school students, most specifically 10th grade. Nevertheless, this collection as a whole could be appropriate for middle schoolers, and individual works within it could be promoted to elementary school students with adult curation.

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Though American Born Chinese is his most popular work, his two-volume Boxers & Saints book presents a depth of reflection on the interface between Western and Chinese cultures, through adolescent characters in the setting of the historical Boxer Rebellion. Most recently, on the road to transitioning from a math and computer science teacher to a full-time cartoonist and graphic novelist, he created an engaging contemporary basketball history in Dragon Hoops. These two latter works serve as anchor texts for the virtual collection, as they are the most relevant for 10th grade social studies standards in California (California Department of Education, 2017). Nevertheless, all the texts in the collection can be accessed for pleasure reading, and a wide range of text complexity is available.

As a teacher-librarian, I strike a balance between steering young readers towards published works that strongly pique their pre-existing interests and curiosity, and offering more challenging and demanding texts that will stretch their knowledge and literacy skills. It is also my belief that students be given a wide variety of means to interact with text. To this end, through the medium of the Padlet online application, students can add content through comments on each of the texts. Padlet also allows the option of having visitors to the page add their own entries with moderator approval. Though I do not promote that feature here, it would be available to create a deeper inter-textual conversation in an online community format, if the need were to arise.

Reference

California Department of Education. (2017). Chapter 15 - World history, culture, and geography: The modern world. History Social Sciences Framework for California Public Schools. https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/hs/cf/documents/hssfwchapter15.pdf

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Despite widespread shutdowns of schools, businesses, and workplaces due to the COVID-19 pandemic, sales of graphic novels have trended upward in both the short-term and the long-term. Publishers Weekly reported that, despite slumping sales in the juvenile (children’s and young adult) book category, print graphic novels soared 43% in a one-week span in May, 2020 (Milliot, 2020). Previous to the shutdowns, comics/graphic novel industry insider blog The Beat noted that graphic novel sales in bookstores rose 16% over the course of 2019, even though the overall print book market declined that year (MacDonald, 2020). Though data for digital-format graphic novels are harder to come by than for print, one could guess that sales of graphic novel e-publications has increased during physical library and bookstore shutdowns.

In addition to autobiographical works, historical fiction and nonfiction have become staples of the young-adult graphic novel space, alongside ever-popular manga. Gene Luen Yang has had experience with creating successful and engaging works across these genres within graphic novels and comic books. Though not his first creative endeavor, his 2006 American Born Chinese has become widely popular (New York Times, 2016) alongside Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis and Art Spiegelman’s Maus series, not just for pleasure reading, but also in educational settings (Gutierrez, 2009). Drawing on his background as a math and computer science teacher, his Christian faith, his experiences negotiating cultural spaces as the child of immigrants, and a natural curiosity, this self-proclaimed “nerd” (Mayer, 2020) has created books that will engage children and adults alike, but especially young adults.

References

Gutierrez, P. (2009). Integrating graphica into your curriculum: Recommended titles for grades 6–12. The ALAN Review 37(1), p.68. https://doi.org/10.21061/alan.v37i1.a.11

MacDonald, H. (14 January, 2020). Graphic novel sales rose 16.1% in bookstores in 2019. The Beat: The Blog of Comics Culture. https://www.comicsbeat.com/graphic-novel-sales-rose-16-1-in-bookstores-in-2019/

Mayer, P. (21 March, 2020). Taking that first step: Questions for Gene Luen Yang. NPR KQED. https://www.npr.org/2020/03/21/817855616/taking-that-first-step-questions-for-gene-luen-yang

Milliot, J. (8 May, 2020). Sales of print units rose 10.9% last week. Publisher’s Weekly. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/financial-reporting/article/83274-sales-of-print-units-rose-10-9-last-week.html

New York Times. (8 September, 2016). Books | Bestsellers: Paperback graphic books https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/2016/09/18/paperback-graphic-books/

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The books in the collection are listed here. Annotations are found in the student virtual collection itself. Scroll to the bottom for a link to the virtual collection.

DiMartino, M. D., Konietzko, B., & Yang, G. L. (2012). Avatar: The promise [Part 1]. (Gurihiru, Illus.). Dark Horse Comics.

DiMartino, M. D., Konietzko, B., & Yang, G. L. (2012). Avatar: The promise [Part 1]. (Gurihiru, Illus.). Dark Horse Comics.

DiMartino, M. D., Konietzko, B., & Yang, G. L. (2012). Avatar: The promise [Part 1]. (Gurihiru, Illus.). Dark Horse Comics.

DiMartino, M. D., Konietzko, B., & Yang, G. L. (2013). Avatar: The search [Part 1]. (Gurihiru, Illus.). Dark Horse Comics.

DiMartino, M. D., Konietzko, B., & Yang, G. L. (2013). Avatar: The search [Part 2]. (Gurihiru, Illus.). Dark Horse Comics.

DiMartino, M. D., Konietzko, B., & Yang, G. L. (2013). Avatar: The search [Part 3]. (Gurihiru, Illus.). Dark Horse Comics.

DiMartino, M. D., Konietzko, B., & Yang, G. L. (2014). Avatar: The rift [Part 1]. (Gurihiru, Illus.). Dark Horse Comics.

DiMartino, M. D., Konietzko, B., & Yang, G. L. (2014). Avatar: The rift [Part 2]. (Gurihiru, Illus.). Dark Horse Comics.

DiMartino, M. D., Konietzko, B., & Yang, G. L. (2014). Avatar: The rift [Part 3]. (Gurihiru, Illus.). Dark Horse Comics.

DiMartino, M. D., Konietzko, B., & Yang, G. L. (2015). Avatar: The last airbender – Smoke and shadow [Part 1]. (Gurihiru, Illus.). Dark Horse Comics.

DiMartino, M. D., Konietzko, B., & Yang, G. L. (2016). Avatar: The last airbender – Smoke and shadow [Part 2]. (Gurihiru, Illus.). Dark Horse Comics.

DiMartino, M. D., Konietzko, B., & Yang, G. L. (2016). Avatar: The last airbender – Smoke and shadow [Part 3]. (Gurihiru, Illus.). Dark Horse Comics.

DiMartino, M. D., Konietzko, B., & Yang, G. L. (2016). Avatar: The Last airbender – North and south [Part 1]. (Gurihiru, Illus.). Dark Horse Comics.

DiMartino, M. D., Konietzko, B., & Yang, G. L. (2017). Avatar: The Last airbender – North and south [Part 2]. (Gurihiru, Illus.). Dark Horse Comics.

DiMartino, M. D., Konietzko, B., & Yang, G. L. (2017). Avatar: The Last airbender – North and south [Part 3]. (Gurihiru, Illus.). Dark Horse Comics.

Yang, G. L. (2006). American born chinese. First Second Books.

Yang, G. L. (2009). The eternal smile. (D. K. Kim, Illus.). First Second Books.

Yang, G. L. (2011). Level up. (T. Pham, Illus.). First Second Books.

Yang, G. L. (2013). Boxers. (L. Pien, Colorist). First Second Books.

Yang, G. L. (2013). Saints. (L. Pien, Colorist). First Second Books.

Yang, G. L. (2014). Shadow hero. (S. Liew, Illus.). First Second Books.

Yang, G. L. (2015). Secret coders. (M. Holmes, Illus.). First Second Books.

Yang, G. L. (2016). Secret coders: Paths & portals. (M. Holmes, Illus.). First Second Books.

Yang, G. L. (2017). Secret coders: Robots & repeats. (M. Holmes, Illus.). First Second Books.

Yang, G. L. (2017). Secret coders: Secrets & sequences. (M. Holmes, Illus.). First Second Books.

Yang, G. L. (2018). Secret coders: Monsters & modules. (M. Holmes, Illus.). First Second Books.

Yang, G. L. (2018). Secret coders: Potions & parameters. (M. Holmes, Illus.). First Second Books.

Yang, G. L. (2020). Dragon hoops. First Second Books.

Yang, G. L. (2020). Superman smashes the Klan. DC Comics.

Yang, G. L., Bogdonovich, V., & Friend, R. (2017). New Super-Man vol. 1: Made in China. DC Comics.

Yang, G. L., Bogdonovich, V., & Friend, R. (2017). New Super-Man vol. 2: Coming to America. DC Comics.

Yang, G. L., Bogdonovich, V., & Friend, R. (2018). New Super-Man vol. 3: Equilibrium. DC Comics.