From: Hollis Rudiger <hmrudiger>
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 11:15:39 -0500

I think this is a really good question, and it's one I struggle with a lot for many issues, not just 9-11. I think about when is it appropriate to teach about the depths of atrocities committed against captured Africans in the US? Against so many, especially Jews during the Holocaust? Native Americans, etc etc. Do we want slavery to be the first thing children learn about African American History?

And Graphic Novels/Comics do make us ask these question even more intensely, because most of us react so much more viscerally to visual images. I have no answers, of course, but when I was working in an elementary school library, I was very concerned about pictures of horrific events in non-fiction. On one hand, visuals make books more appealing, and explain in a very real way, but on the other hand I don't want children's first pictures of Jews in history to be people wearing yellow stars and starving.

9/11 has definitely influenced the topics addressed in mainstream comics, which, while not usually published for children, do have a place in the libraries and schools our children frequent. Marvel's new story, Civil War, is clearly inspired by the post 9/11 climate in American politics, and is very popular. It suggests a civil war in the Marvel universe where the super hero community is divided about how to respond to a new government order that superheros register as such with the government. This has been done before in comics, but to my mind, this one feels very much like a metaphor for the Real US government's hyper surveillance of Arab Americans or those appearing to be.

There is also a Graphic Novel "adaptation" of the 9/11 Commission's report, which is very very good. (published by Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar Straus and Giroux) It shows some things about the report in a visual way that in my mind, are very valuable. For example, it begins with a 2 page spread depicting 4 horizontal panels or time lines which show what was happening concurrently on each flight. A book in straight text cannot do that. And I admit, I had no interest in reading the entire Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, but I gobbled up the GN, which by the way, begins with an introduction written by the chairs of the committee.

It will be interesting to see how treatment of this time period changes over time.

Hollis Rudiger CCBC

Jennifer Bromann wrote:
> What do you think about the depiction of September 11
> in nonfiction about that day? Although it is a book
> for adults, Art Spiegelman of Maus wrote and
> illustrated the book In the Shadow of No Tower, which
> shows people jumping from the World Trade Center. I
> am not sure how it is portrayed in nonfiction for
> children. I know some high schools will not allow such
> footage to be shown in classes. Is it better to show
> what really happened to children and teenagers or
> should it be toned down?
>
> Jennifer Bromann
> Lincoln-Way Central High School
> New Lenox, IL
> bromannj at yahoo.com
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Received on Tue 12 Sep 2006 11:15:39 AM CDT