Graphic novels on a rise as students hungry for comics
On Wednesday morning, Year 9 student Dash Carr-Smith went to his school library and borrowed two books – a novel and a graphic novel. The latter are becoming increasingly popular with students, and a recent survey by the National Library found that there was growing demand for them in school libraries across the country.
Despite this, graphic novels remain a small part of library collections – 6% or less of all holdings for the primary, intermediate, and secondary school libraries who took part in the survey.
The National Library gave several potential reasons for this low number.
They included the perception that graphic formats were “of lesser literary value” than other texts; lack of confidence in choosing graphic novels for catalogues; a lower number of age-appropriate titles; and increased printing costs.
Luckily, students like Carr-Smith will likely see an increase in graphic novels at their schools, because although numbers are still low, it’s been the fastest-growing medium since 2018, the survey shows.
Carr-Smith, who attends St Patrick’s College in Wellington, said he liked reading a wide range of graphic novels and comic books. That morning, he had read an Aquaman graphic novel from the library.
He got into the medium when he was younger, reading Asterix and Tintin, and also enjoys fantasty novels.
“It’s something that I can sit down, like before school or lunch, and read and get the same satisfaction as reading a book, without taking a day,” he said.
St Patrick’s College librarian Ellie Nicholson said the school’s graphic novel collection included adaptations of popular Young Adult series, like Alex Rider and Percy Jackson.
Adaptations of classic works such as Animal Farm were also held at the library, and were great ways of getting students into heavier texts.
Unfortunately, while graphic novels were in high demand, they were also expensive, taking a “huge” chunk out of the library’s purchasing budget, she said.
“You've got to consider that you could have four or five other books for that same price, so it is a juggle.”
While graphic novels were useful in helping reluctant readers to read, they were more than that, Nicholson said.
When helping young people into reading, the best way was to show them there was “joy to be found” between a book’s covers.
“When getting a kid involved in a graphic novel and loving the graphic novel, what they learn is that there is joy to be found between the covers of the book.
And from there, I can then say, there's joy to be found in these other kinds of books as well.”
Wellington High School librarian Helen Muxlow said the school’s library serviced 1600 students, and was well-resourced and adequately funded – which unfortunately was not always the case for other schools.
Muxlow said Wellington High had a large collection of graphic books – manga, graphic non-fiction, biography, fiction – which were very popular with students, to the point that new students attending Year 9 orientation were specifically shown
the collection. Muxlow said manga was very popular at the moment, but really anything in a graphic format was “popping off the shelves”.
“The kids are desperate to read it. All the evidence is if you want kids reading for pleasure, buy what they want to read.”
As to the suggestion that graphic novels were mainly for reluctant readers, Muxlow disagreed.
She said there was a lot to interpret in graphic novels, with many experienced readers finding them difficult to understand. “There’s a lot to interpret, balancing images with text... I find them really challenging.”
For classic texts like To kill a Mockingbird and The Giver, reading them in a graphic format was a fun way to make them accessible, for students who may be intimidated by large amounts of text, she said.
“If you’re reading for pleasure, you’re
going to be performing better academically anyway.”
At the moment she and the other librarians were “buying anything they could get their hands on”. Popular works at the moment include the Heartstopper series and Lore Olympus.
There were also some lovely New Zealand graphic novels coming out at the moment, Muxlow said.
She knew of a teacher using a Kiwi-written graphic novel, Meariki: The Quest for Truth, as an introduction to the fantasy genre in their class.
Clare Forrest, a librarian at Raroa Normal Intermediate, said she had worked at the school for 18 years, and joked she could remember when the graphic novel collection at the library was a “tiny little shelf”.
However, it has been clear the school’s graphic novel collection was increasing. Last year, a quarter of the books it purchased were graphic novels.
“The students still issue more fiction
books than graphic novels, but it’s getting a lot closer.”
A limited budget means Forrest and other librarians have to be selective when it comes to purchasing.
With graphic novels, the challenge was choosing books appropriate for the age group and that also had shorter runs, as there was no point in buying several issues.
Instead, Raroa Normal has chosen to spend part of its budget on an online platform called Comics Plus, which means the students can read age-appropriate comics and manga online.
“We checked the numbers of students using it, and it’s increasing.”
Like Muxlow and Nicholson, Forrest said graphic adaptations of classic texts were a fantastic way of introducing the students to works that may be too old for them at the time.
She said she did not like the term “reluctant reader,” as it seemed to refer to people who did not like reading a lot of text, which she acknowledged could be daunting.
While some graphic novel readers did struggle with heavy texts, there were others who just loved the medium for its story-telling abilities.
Instead of forcing students to read text instead of graphic novels, it was important to teach them to love to read, Forrest said.
“We’re about getting them to read and enjoying it. That's what our job is. So let's not switch them off. The most important thing is that they consider themselves readers.”
“When getting a kid involved in a graphic novel and loving the graphic novel, what they learn is that there is joy to be found between the covers of the book. And from there, I can then say, there’s joy to be found in these other kinds of books as well.” Ellie Nicholson St Patrick’s College librarian