“Wak!” “Crunch!” and “Glom!” taught Vicky Smith how to read. “For end-of-the-day snuggling with my mother,” she relates, “Uncle Scrooge comics were our stories of choice. When I was about four, she started me out reading the sound effects to give me practice in phonetics as well as an opportunity to participate. One magical night, I apparently turned to her and said, ‘Now, I will read Huey, Louie, and Dewey, and you read Uncle Scrooge and Donald.’ And from that moment on, I was a reader, and she proselytized the Gospel of Uncle Scrooge to all of her friends!” As for Vicky, it was a fine literary beginning for the future Children’s Editor of Kirkus Reviews.
Never confuse the size of your paycheck with the size of your talent.
Attribution
Marlon Brando
In order to help teachers better serve their students through the use of comics in the classroom, we begin this new series of in-depth interviews with teachers who vast experience in this arena. First up, we talk to John C. Weaver, an English teacher at Williamsport Area High School in Pennsylvania. Weaver has
written for GNR about his experiences teaching comics in the past, and so we knew he'd be a great teacher to help us kick off this series.
The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.
Attribution
Aung San Suu Kyi
Last month, artist Shaun Tan won an Academy Award. This weekend, he won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in Sweden, the largest children's literature award. (It comes with a significant monetary prize as well, so good for you, Shaun!)
Here's the full story.
Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.
Attribution
Kahlil Gibran
