s/o Using graphic novels to teach history

Monica_in_Switzerland · July 16, 2017

So, the discussion about graphic novels on the general board got me thinking and amazon-ing a bit, and I see there are lots of books that present various historical events and periods in the form of a graphic novel.

I already own a couple of graphic novel style history books in French (Histoire du Monde en BD is our fave) which have really resonated with my ds. It now occurs to me that this may be an effective way to strew some history about the place.

Have you done this? Any titles or authors to recommend?

SarahW · July 16, 2017

Besides Asterix? :lol:

There's also the Alex series by J.Martin & R. Morales. Also French - but I have one in Dutch. English or German I'm not sure about.

There's a GN about whatshisname - Michael de Ruyter, but in Dutch. Also not sure if it exists in other languages.

Graphic Library (I think?) has a biography series that seemed pretty good. Crazypants got them from the library in 2nd-grade-ish. Definitely elementary.

quark · July 16, 2017

Graphic novels and Great Courses on audio were the backbone of our unschooled history studies through high school. We supplemented the graphic novels and Great Courses with whole books rather than the other way around.

I cannot remember some of the titles now but Larry Gonick's Cartoon Histories series were pivotal to kiddo's studies of a survey of history...there are 5 books altogether (Universe has 3 volumes and Modern World 2).

Logicomix and Maus were huge hits here but for sensitive kids, I would wait till they are >12.

Lovelace and Babbage was another hit (I don't recall anything too sensitive in it).

I have not seen the other thread and this might be repetitive.

Monica_in_Switzerland · July 16, 2017

Graphic novels and Great Courses on audio were the backbone of our unschooled history studies through high school. We supplemented the graphic novels and Great Courses with whole books rather than the other way around.

I cannot remember some of the titles now but Larry Gonick's Cartoon Histories series were pivotal to kiddo's studies of a survey of history...there are 5 books altogether (Universe has 3 volumes and Modern World 2).

Logicomix and Maus were huge hits here but for sensitive kids, I would wait till they are >12.

Lovelace and Babbage was another hit (I don't recall anything too sensitive in it).

I have not seen the other thread and this might be repetitive.

Not at all repetitive! This is really great and inspiring to me. Thank you.

Monica_in_Switzerland · July 16, 2017

For anyone who is interested, this is one of the ones I stumbled across that looked quite good:

WWII Against the Rising Sun

HomeAgain · July 16, 2017

We have some. IIRC, Timberdoodle has sets, either history or science, I forget.

I'm not the biggest fan, but when I went to start lessons on Ancient Rome with my 6yo, it was amazing how much he already knew from the ones I had picked up from a used book sale. He also knows the basic story of the Trojan War by heart because of a comic book. We were able to dive right into The Children's Homer by Coolidge since he had a clear picture in his mind. Otherwise the text would have been straight over his head.

So..yeah, I'm warming up to them. Still not my preferred type of book, but since they make history much easier to teach I'm okay with them.

strawberries · July 16, 2017

Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales

Monica_in_Switzerland · July 16, 2017

We have some. IIRC, Timberdoodle has sets, either history or science, I forget.

I'm not the biggest fan, but when I went to start lessons on Ancient Rome with my 6yo, it was amazing how much he already knew from the ones I had picked up from a used book sale. He also knows the basic story of the Trojan War by heart because of a comic book. We were able to dive right into The Children's Homer by Coolidge since he had a clear picture in his mind. Otherwise the text would have been straight over his head.

So..yeah, I'm warming up to them. Still not my preferred type of book, but since they make history much easier to teach I'm okay with them.

I don't personally care for the format either- they feel way too busy for me- but my kids really like the standard French comics like TinTin, Smurfs, Petits Hommes and a bunch of others, so I thought I should try working with them and not against them. :-)

luuknam · July 17, 2017

There's a GN about whatshisname - Michael de Ruyter, but in Dutch. Also not sure if it exists in other languages.

It does. I only have it in Dutch, but they also published it in English. They've got a number of books, but the language in which they were published vary (well, other than that they're all in Dutch). Papiamento, German, English, Czech, French. Actually, they don't list the languages that the De Ruyter one comes in, but I'm pretty sure I saw the English version at the museum gift shop I got mine from (at the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam), since I recall spending some time trying to decide whether I wanted it in Dutch or English, or both. Amazon seems to only have the Van Gogh book atm:

http://www.eureducation.nl/wordpress/?page_id=245

Chinese history (4 volumes, and the last one has yet to be (re)published):

https://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Chinese-Civilization-Emperor-Understanding/dp/1611720273/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

Joe Sacco has some books about Bosnia and Palestine. I wouldn't give those to elementary age kids, I think. I recently started a biography of Nelson Mandela, but I haven't gotten very far yet. On the other thread I mentioned The US Constitution, The Gettysburg Address, and Democracy (about the ancient Greeks). Logicomix, some book about Niels Bohr, and some book about the Manhattan project took place in the past, so you may or may not be into those.

I guess pretty much all of the above are more suitable for middle school and above, except maybe the Eureducation ones.

Edited July 17, 2017 by luuknam

luuknam · July 17, 2017

For historical fiction, The Young James Bond takes place in the 1930s, iirc. I've got a book from Campfire Books that takes place in the Indus River Valley civilization, and naturally is likely to not be very historically accurate, since we know so little about them (the foreword does mention what is and is not sure). Amar Chitra Katha has some classics like the Mahabharata in graphic form.

Graphic Universe has myths and legends:

https://www.amazon.com/Perseus-Medusas-Graphic-Legends-Paperback/dp/1580138888/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1500328776&sr=1-1&keywords=perseus+graphic

All of the above are okay for upper elementary, I think, some for younger elementary as well.

Edited July 17, 2017 by luuknam

luuknam · July 17, 2017

Graphic History has a bunch of, well graphic history (I think there's also books from the same publisher labeled Graphic Biographies, but it's been a while since Celery's read this series - probably about time to start checking them out for Broccoli):

https://www.amazon.com/Boston-Tea-Party-Graphic-History/dp/0736852433/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

Comix with Content (I have 2, but we haven't really used them yet):

https://www.amazon.com/Civil-Rights-Freedom-Train-Content/dp/1933122285/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

We liked Lucy & Andy Neanderthal. Hereville takes place in the middle ages.