Pbartender
First Post
So this school year had been a bit of a struggle with my son David with regards to reading. In 3rd grade, our school put a lot of emphasis on reading for content, especially with regards to fiction. By the end of the year, the kids are supposed to be able to read a story, and then be able to make deductions concerning the characters and plot based on what they've read.
The trouble is, David simply doesn't much like reading fiction. Part of it, we think, is that because of his autism he needs the extra sensory stimulus of illustrations to help him focus on the meaning of the words. Consequently, he's always been drawn to illustrated non-fiction reference books, such as the "Eyewitness" series of books published by Dorling Kindersley (DK).
For the typical fiction novel, he just quickly scans the pages, without really reading them, and comes away with virtually no comprehension of the story.
Anyway, this last winter, we had a bit of a breakthrough... We gave him a copy of Dark Horse Comic's X-Wing Rogue Squadron Omnibus. He loved it, read it through a dozen or so times, and actually paid attention to what was going on in the story. Whee!
Just the other week, his school had it's annual half-price book sale, and so we got him a copy of Amulet, Book 1: The Stonekeeper, a graphic novel about a pair of kids who move with their widowed mother to the country. The mother gets kidnapped into a sort of fairyland by a tentacle monster, and the kids head off to rescue her... It reminds me a lot of The Spiderwick Chronicles. Again, he's read the book through at least a dozen times, and he really enjoyed the story (which is a major milestone).
I honestly don't care if he's reading comic books (and graphic really are just very well done comic books -- don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with that), so long as he's reading and the story is reasonably worthwhile.
Are any of you more familiar with the genre? I'm looking for more graphic novels he can read, that would be appropriate for a 10 year old boy... Sci-fi, superheroes and fantasy are all fair game.
The trouble is, David simply doesn't much like reading fiction. Part of it, we think, is that because of his autism he needs the extra sensory stimulus of illustrations to help him focus on the meaning of the words. Consequently, he's always been drawn to illustrated non-fiction reference books, such as the "Eyewitness" series of books published by Dorling Kindersley (DK).
For the typical fiction novel, he just quickly scans the pages, without really reading them, and comes away with virtually no comprehension of the story.
Anyway, this last winter, we had a bit of a breakthrough... We gave him a copy of Dark Horse Comic's X-Wing Rogue Squadron Omnibus. He loved it, read it through a dozen or so times, and actually paid attention to what was going on in the story. Whee!
Just the other week, his school had it's annual half-price book sale, and so we got him a copy of Amulet, Book 1: The Stonekeeper, a graphic novel about a pair of kids who move with their widowed mother to the country. The mother gets kidnapped into a sort of fairyland by a tentacle monster, and the kids head off to rescue her... It reminds me a lot of The Spiderwick Chronicles. Again, he's read the book through at least a dozen times, and he really enjoyed the story (which is a major milestone).
I honestly don't care if he's reading comic books (and graphic really are just very well done comic books -- don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with that), so long as he's reading and the story is reasonably worthwhile.
Are any of you more familiar with the genre? I'm looking for more graphic novels he can read, that would be appropriate for a 10 year old boy... Sci-fi, superheroes and fantasy are all fair game.
