My 8-year-old grandson is a second grader who's been reading quite a while now. However, his reading diet comprises almost exclusively graphic novels, some of them intended for much older children, and he has little to no interest in making the transition to text-only books. We were all so pleased that he was an early reader, but now it's very hard to unstick him from the graphic novels he's so fond of. I would love to know your thinking about this and what might be done to bring him to the larger world of books.

Shanahan's response:
Often, you’ll hear teachers say, “I don’t care what they read as long as they read.”  

Unfortunately, graphic novel advocates ignore what those books don’t contribute. Despite a wider scope of content, they are still pretty narrow in presentation approach. A narrative told in dialogue supported by pictures is pretty different than what kids will find in traditional texts. Likewise, one hopes their children and grandchildren would develop an ability to sustain the kinds of attention and concentration demanded by the more extensive presentations of traditional text. Reading 15 words and looking at a picture, reading 12 words and looking at a picture, reading 1 interjection and looking at a picture… is quite a different challenge than reading hundreds and even thousands of words at a run. Such intellectual stamina isn’t likely to result from lots of graphic novel reading.

Reading graphic novels may do no harm, but it’s a kind of lost opportunity. Your grandson could be building a more complete foundation for his reading future by taking on a more complete reading diet.

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