The Visual World of Graphic Novels

Literacy used to be the ability to read and understand words. However, the world has become increasingly visual as we are bombarded by emojis, memes, billboards, video games, infographics, and many other forms of graphic media every day. The meaning of being literate has expanded to include the ability to decipher images, so now is the time to pick up a graphic novel and get visual!

Lina Leung

English Teacher

How do graphic novels and visual literacy help us learn a language?

Reading books that are a combination of sentences, paragraphs and engaging images trains our minds to comprehend multiple layers of content at the same time. Graphic novels merge literary and visual elements, which gives us a better understanding of both the drawings and the words, especially unfamiliar ones. This means that we can spend less time looking up words in the dictionary and more time enjoying the narratives. These associations also boost our memory so that we can recall new vocabulary much faster. You could compare graphic novels to watching a movie with special subtitles that we can pause, rewind and enjoy anytime.

Why read graphic novels to learn about the world?

Before graphic novels, we had to rely on translations to enjoy literature in other languages, and no matter how wonderful such interpretations are, some magic may still be lost. Thanks to the universal language of graphics, half of the novel needs no translation - graphics are created exactly as they were imagined by the illustrators.

Graphic novels ‘teach’ us through stories. They introduce us to new worlds, especially those that we don’t often get to see in traditional classroom materials. Common themes in graphic novels include cross-cultural and immigrant experiences, which have grown more relevant as we travel and immigrate. These novels give us a wider understanding of alternative lifestyles and worldviews, while also empowering us to embrace our own unique cultural identities.

Here are a few suggestions to get you started on your graphic novel journey.

Book title: American Born Chinese

Author / Publisher:

Gene Luen Yang / First Second Books Suitable for: P5 and above Book title: Anya’s Ghost

Author / Publisher:

Vera Brosgol / First Second Books Suitable for: P4 and above

Discover how American-born Chinese Jin Wang, the Monkey King and all-American Danny explore life and who they really are.

Book title:

Ms. Marvel Volume 1: No Normal

Author / Publisher:

G. Willow Wilson (Author), Adrian Alphona (Artist) / Marvel Suitable for: P5 and above Follow Russian-American Anya as she finds out what happened to a mysterious ghost and learns what it actually means to be a good friend.

Book title:

The Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978-1984: A Graphic Memoir

Author / Publisher:

Riad Sattouf / Metropolitan Books Suitable for: S3 and above

Meet Kamala, who is struggling to juggle her superhero, social, academic and family responsibilities as a muslim teenager. Explore the real-life childhood of FrenchSyrian Riad in his comical memoir about cross-cultural experiences and life under a dictatorship regime.