Posted on by Ms. Kelly Proulx

On Graphic Novels

Now that it is summer time, I fill the void of a highly scheduled teacher life, with a highly scheduled personal life. It is how a Type A person like me survives.

There is time for reading, for walking, for lifting, for watching Ru Paul’s Drag Race, for socializing safely, for writing, and for taking professional development classes. Currently, I am enrolled in two classes. One is on using graphic novels in the classroom and the other is on using reading to support socio-emotional growth. As a teacher and a reader, I approach courses with the same mindset: ‘Okay, how do I use these concepts in my classroom and don’t those books sound fun to read and review?” Are those thoughts at odds? I think not.

As a reader, one who revels in reader response theory, I want to enjoy what I am reading and feel all of the feelings that come with it. As a teacher, I am often asked to put that aside and think about literary devices and standardized testing. However, I find that my students are the most engaged when I do both. I give them something to enjoy, that we can also talk about, analyze, and write about.

One of my courses has gone into great detail about how graphic novels are misconstrued as not challenging texts. Is this another situation where something fun (like romance novels) is not considered academically worthy? Perhaps. I love recommending graphic novels to reluctant readers and I love reading graphic novels. I love being immersed in the complex world that each author and illustrator creates. The colors and style can help to set the tone, sometimes even faster and more effectively than straight text.

The following is a discussion post that I submitted for the course to answer a question about how to use graphic novels in the classroom. I share it because my thoughts about how to use them as a teacher reflect how I see them as a reader:

As a sixth grade teacher, I am fortunate to have some creative freedom and to teach a population of students that are still excited about school and learning ( a devastating but true sentiment.). They want to have fun and from what I can see, graphic novels would be academically valuable and fun resources. I read that graphic novels can provide a rich and challenging reading experience, even though they have less text than a traditional novel.  Students in my class could use a graphic novel to discover character traits and types of conflict, without being bogged down in the comprehension of a difficult text (especially my students with language disabilities or my english language learners.).  I am also excited by an idea in “In Defense of Graphic Novels” to use graphic novels for complex analytical tasks.  The article says, “Eric S. Rabkin discusses how he uses graphic novels to focus his class’s attention on how narrative time unfolds. He explains that he will have “students in turn focus on a single frame of a graphic narrative, speak aloud whatever they see and whatever they infer, including their reflective and proleptic understandings of how the frame fits into the flow of the larger narrative” (Hansen 2012.)  One of our standards in sixth grade is to discuss how a scene in a book affects the plot or overall theme.  We do this with episodes in The Phantom Tollbooth, a novel with some pictures, and the exercise is fairly simple.  Doing the Rabkin exercise with a frame of a graphic novel, would allow for more complex thinking from our students, as they infer actions. traits, themes, etc from text and complex illustrations. And of course, graphic novels are inherently more fun.  They seem, to students, to be not school work, because they have pictures and are related to comic books.  When students see pictures, they often connect them to their own sources of entertainment (like cartoons, movies, comics, and video games.). Completing school assignments using a medium that they consider fun will encourage and excite students.  Sixth graders want to have fun in school and using graphic novels can bring that fun, with valuable learning experiences. 

As I wrote this, I realized that I could substitute “Students” for “I or me.” I am always more engaged in something when it seems fun, vibrant, or interesting. Graphic novels never cease to pull me into a story and are often the first things that I recommend to my struggling or reluctant readers.

How do you feel about graphic novels? Do you have any favorites?

Posted on by Ms. Kelly Proulx

On Re-Reads

I think I talked about it in my post on trilogies, but I am a big re-reader.

I love delving into a book or series every few years to revisit favorite characters and favorite relationships, to see how my reading experience changes as I do, or to remind myself of previous books in a series before I tackle the newest one.

When the stay-at-home order for COVID-19 was put in place in Mass, I immediately began re-reading some of my favorite series. To be fair, I prefer reading paper books and the library was closed, so I had to re-read what I already owned.

The whole experience got me thinking about why I re-read and which books I tend to re-read. I find that I often turn to books that helped shaped my teenage years and books that contain my favorite “book boyfriends.” As a 32 year-old reader, I hold no more naivety about the idealism of fictional relationships, but that doesn’t mean I cannot read them anymore.

Books that I have re-read over the years:
1. The Ringmaster’s Secret by Carolyn Keene (my favorite of the Nancy Drew books)
2. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley (I read this book for the first time in 2000 and I have read it every few years since. One year, when I was in my early twenties, I hated it. It has been with me for a long time)
3. Meg Cabot’s Heather Wells series (Ex-pop star works at a college dorm and solves murders with a hunky PI. Yes please. The first one is called Size 12 is Not Fat and I was one then,)
4. Meg Cabot’s The Princess Diaries Series (such fun teen angst)
5. Phillip Pullman’s Sally Lockhart series
6. Deanna Rayburn’s Veronica Speedwell Series
7. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
8. Emma by Jane Austen
9. The Collected Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
10. Cassandra Clare’s Infernal Devices series
11. Harry Potter (up until this year)
12. Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery (until after Anne and Gilbert get married and Anne’s character changes completely)
13. The Murder of Roget Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
14. All of Dan Brown’s books (they are fun and I don’t care what you think)

I’m sure there are many that I am forgetting, but no matter what, re-reading is an important part of my literary life. Sometimes I crave the comfort of a story that I know the ending of. Sometimes I need to swoon over a hero. Sometimes I have to see how a text has aged and how I have aged with it.

Why do you re-read? What do you find yourself re-reading? I would love to know!

Posted on by Ms. Kelly Proulx

“Guilty Pleasure” Book Project

Last week, I engaged in a Twitter discourse with followers of Epic Reads about the term “guilty pleasure” and how it applies to reading. Many fellow Tweeters expressed a similar sentiment to mine.

As I have mentioned before, almost ad nauseam, I find the term to be outdated and sexist. It mostly applies to female readers and books where the plot focuses on romance. Sometimes the book is humorous. Sometimes the book has a murder. Sometimes the book is vaguely historical. No matter the actual plot or setting, a “guilty pleasure” read usually has a steamy romance and a happy ending. Sign me up!

Readers have to hide their delight in these often predictable books. The couple meets, has some tension, has some smutty moments around page 150, has some sort of conflict, and then gets together in the end. So what if the text that brought them together would not be taught in an upperclassmen literature seminar? The idea that only highbrow novels are worthy of reading and worthy of discussing is elitist and foolish.

“Guilty pleasure” reads often provide socio-emotional and empathy training for readers without them even realizing it. These books give us an escape. These novels make us want to actually pick up and finish a book, instead of scrolling mindlessly on our phone. These books have value, even if they cost six dollars at the grocery store instead of twenty dollars at a book store.

So here it is. The newest addition to my blog: The “Guilty Pleasures” Book Project. As I review and think about books, I am going to update a new page on my blog that brings all of these reads together. Please recommend and comment so that we can start to reclaim the term and read things we enjoy without shame.

Because a love of reading is a love of reading, no matter what you choose to read.

Posted on by Ms. Kelly Proulx · 2 Comments

On Trilogies

Three is the best number of books to read in a series (or movies to watch.)

Controversial thought. Yay or nay?

Many of my favorite book series (and movie series) are trilogies. There is just something about the set-up in the first book. The real drama of the second book. The cliff hanger that brings you into book three. The neatly wrapped-up plot of the three books in the third. On a reread of the series, there is only three books to read.

I know that sometimes a series is good if there are more than three books (but name one…I’ll wait.) Often a series becomes more complex and unbelievable, moving away from the story told in the first few books. Of course, a well plotted series can support more than three books. As a reader, I just find trilogies to be the sweet spot. For me.

Now that I am on summer break, I am re-reading Claudia Gray’s Firebird trilogy. It is a fabulous YA series that follows the daughter of two brilliant scientists through parallel dimensions to avenge her father’s killer. Of course, there is futuristic London, a version of imperial St. Petersburg, and swoon-worthy heroes. I am not always a sci-fi fan, but this trilogy does not really feel like sci-fi.

Some other favorite trilogies include:
1. The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare (do or don’t judge me. Your choice.)
2. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
3. The Summer I Turned Pretty series by Jenny Han
4. The Caraval Series by Stephanie Garber
5. The Little Lady Agency series by Hester Browne
6. The Dark Days Club series by Alison Goodman
Of course there are others. I also have favorite series that have four books or 22 books. Some, I even thought were trilogies and was confused when plot points were not wrapping up at the end of book three (looking at you The Raven Boys.)

You know that there is no shame on this blog. You know that I believe people should read what they like and love. So, get out there and read some of your favorite trilogies. Or don’t. Read a stand alone. Read a book of short stories. Read a series that won’t end. It’s your reading life. So live it.

Leave a comment below with your favorite trilogies or your ideal number of books in a series.

Posted on by Ms. Kelly Proulx

On Recommendations: Continued and Why I Use Databases for Mine

When people find out I “read,” they also want to know my favorite book or what I recommend they read.

This is always a bit of a delicate situation to find myself in. As readers of previous posts know, I am not great at expressing extreme opinions (Libra problems,) I am always loathe to divulge “guilty pleasure” reads that I enjoyed, and I do not want to recommend something that the asker will not like.

So, I tend flip the question back around, “What do you enjoy reading? What is the last book you finished and liked?” Why just recommend a book, when I could recommend something that I know they will enjoy, that suits their tastes, and that might make them think?

The act of recommending books should be a deeply personalized experience. That is why I try to approach book reviews with caution. I want to explain what I liked or did not like, not what everyone will like and dislike. There are many types of readers, just as there are many types of books. What works for one reader, will not necessarily work for every reader. I have been caught up in this pervasive general consensus mentality in 2020 too many times. Everyone has to like the same shows, movies, and books, disliking all the same in those categories. It seems like the only time people are allowed a real opinion is when it comes to food. Our taste buds are allowed to be critical, but our brains are not.

That changes now.

With all of this in mind, I have been attempting to create a database of adult books that I recommend, similar to my book database for students. That way, when I am approached for a recommendation, I can send a link, show them some favorites, and some genres. Thus empowered, they can choose for themselves. They can read what they WANT to, not what they think that they HAVE to.

For now, my database is a Google Doc. Over my summer break, I intend to turn it into a Google Sheet. Check it out here: Kelly Recommends. It is a WIP, with a lot of mystery novels set in England. Oh well, I like what I like.

Also, check out my book database for middle school and high school students. There are some great books for 11-18 year olds and beyond.

What are some books that you always recommend?

Posted on by Ms. Kelly Proulx

On “Guilty Pleasure” Reads and My First Review: Verity By Colleen Hoover

When I was in college, studying great works of literature…mostly by white, dead, British men, a friend endlessly mocked me whenever I picked up a “chick lit” book. They would tell me: “You are better than that. You are smarter than that.” It bothered me. It bothered me a lot. At some level, I agreed with her and started hiding my “guilty pleasure” books from everyone. You know, things I enjoyed, that were not challenging or part of the literary elite.

Why are some books considered more worthy than others? Who decides this? Who decides that an English major at a large private university is reading beneath them if they pick up something that is not in the “canon” or, god forbid, fun? Why do we have to hide our reading of books that we enjoy and call them “guilty pleasures,” as though we should be ashamed to read them? Why is it often women who feel this shame and use this labeling?

**We KNOW who decided this and we KNOW why** But that is a longer and more complex conversation.

In my teen years, I learned more complex vocabulary words and more about history from vaguely historical bodice rippers, than I did from AP European History. To be fair, I did go and research the time periods and the people that the books were about, once the romance was done. I learned about feelings and continue to further my emotional and social growth by reading middle grade books, YA books, and romance novels. Sometimes I even pick up these genres because the plot or setting of a book appeals to me the way some movies and TV shows appeal to other people . Even if the plot, structure, or word choice are not always complex for this 32 year old, the feelings and emotional reactions still can be.

I always tell my students that I do not care what they read, as long as they read something. At the end of the day, a person that reads at least twenty minutes a day will learn a million more words than their same age peers. Whatever they read, article, how-to for a video game, graphic novel, middle grade fiction book, can be enough. If they like it and they will read it, that is the start of a lifelong love of reading…anything.

All books can be valuable, if the reader gets something out of it. No shame allowed.

Don’t get me wrong. I do appreciate, enjoy, and read the “canon” (such a problematic term,) various classics, and modern literary fiction. I read books to learn, to see what the buzz is about, to get me out of my comfort zone. And that is all important! But, often, I need something different.

Book Review: Verity By Colleen Hoover

That brings me to my first review. I plan to give my rating and break it down by star. You’ll see!

The literary elites might write off this author and her books as “guilty pleasures,” but I do not. Colleen Hoover is known for her Contemporary Romance and Thrillers. I read them and I am not afraid to admit that I like them.

Cover above. Goodreads Link.

BEYOND THREE STARS RATING: 4 Stars

Verity tells the story of down on her luck, one-hit wonder novelist Lowen Ashleigh, who is on the verge of losing everything. Seemingly randomly, she is offered the opportunity to finish the last book of a celebrated thriller novelist Verity Crawford. To do this, she must head to Verity’s remote Vermont home and sort through her papers. What Lowen finds among Verity’s papers and Verity’s home, leaves Lowen and the reader both disturbed and on the edge of their seat.

Why I liked it:
First Star– My emotional reactions to the characters and plot were complex. I loved and hated everyone. I trusted everyone and no one. I was intrigued and disturbed, all at the same time.
Second Star– The plot moved and the text wasn’t super challenging. I sat down for a few hours and devoured it. Never a dull moment.
Third Star- The romance, although I could have done with the circumstances, was hot.
Fourth Star– I cannot stop thinking about what the truth is. What really happened. I am still not certain.

What kept me from giving it 5 stars:
Lowen finds a journal of Verity’s that details some horrifying things that she admits to doing. Some of it was very hard to read, even if it was compelling. Also, I found the main character to be a fairly weak one with almost no agency. I wish that she had been empowered to do more and take more control.

Did any of that stop me from enjoying the book overall? Nah. A reader can critique a book and still be able o enjoy. Myself included.

Conclusions:

In sum, read what you want. Read what intrigues you. Read what interests you. Read what you think is fun. Read what moves you. No shame allowed.

But hey, occasionally, sneak out of your comfort zone and read something different, if you want. The way I see it, if people are reading anything that is a good thing.

What do you love to read, even if some might label them “guilty pleasures?”

Posted on by Ms. Kelly Proulx · 2 Comments

On Reviewing and Preferences

Listen, I am a terrible book reviewer. (What a way to start my third blog post on a book review blog.)

That is not strictly true. As a life long reader, with degrees that prove I can read and teach students to read, I am able to form an opinion about a book. I just struggle with writing negative opinions that are meant to be read. I struggle with the ability to show negative emotions anyways and I hate saying that I did not like something that someone worked hard on. I do not want friends/family/students to feel bad that they liked something that I did not and I sometimes I feel badly that I liked something they did not. I have such a tremendous sense of guilt, that I stopped giving stars to books on GoodReads. It felt wrong to condemn an author’s work, just because I didn’t like it.

I am capable of verbally expressing my opinion of a book and explaining why (with evidence. #englishteacherproblems.) However, that opinion is often expressed in a polite and non-controversial way. Now I realize, there are ways to give feedback without being mean. I am a middle school English teacher. I realize there are legitimate reasons that a book might not be good, or that I just do not like it. And that is okay.

So here I am, with a book review blog, ready to review books…even if I did not like them.

Some common reasons why I will not like a book:
1. I guessed the ending of the mystery novel. I still enjoyed it, but the ending did not wow me…therefore, I missed out on the shock that everyone else had at the end. Note: this happens frequently. I have read almost every mystery novel and nothing shocks me anymore. Ex. Gone Girl.
2. It is a best seller/award winner/popular book/becoming a movie/book every one else read and liked and I do not want to be the one negative person saying “I didn’t really like it.” Ex. The Hunger Games series.
3. It is a book everyone loves. This could just be stubbornness and a hold- over from my teenages emo phase. Ex. To Kill a Mockingbird. Don’t get me wrong, the story is powerful and important; the style didn’t speak to me as a fourteen year old. I should read it again…you are right.
4. I read it on an eReader. As a kinesthetic learner, I have to be able to flip a page and oddly enough, it affects my enjoyment of a book. Ex. Most of the Invisible Library Series (and I liked the first one, which I read using a physical book)
5. The world-building was beyond my imagination. I struggle with fantasy books that are set in worlds with imaginative creatures and natural laws. Ex. Children of Blood and Bone. I loved the characters and their relationships, but couldn’t do the magic part…the important part. That one is on me.
6. The book should have been a stand-alone/series should have been shorter. Ex. The Diviners. The first one was imaginative and thrilling. Libba Bray captured the 1920s and created a vibrant and very human cast of characters. I liked the next ones in the series less and less.
7. Chapters are too long. I just prefer short chapters.
8. Too many points of view or characters to keep track of. Ex. Game of Thrones.
9. I had no emotional responses to it.

To be fair, I actually like a lot of books, even ones that no one else liked. That might be my difficulty finding negativity in places and trying to stay positive (to a fault.)

That brings me to my purpose and the title of this blog. I most frequently rate books as three stars. Either, I didn’t like it and I don’t want to admit it or I liked it and I don’t want to admit it. That ends here. That ends today. I will be reviewing books with ratings beyond three stars….unless I feel like it actually deserve three stars.

Final thought: What do you struggle with as a reader or reviewer? I would love to know.

#bookblog #reviews #literature #zerotohero