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Publishers Weekly has a great article about the use of comics and graphic novels in the classroom. With the literacy work we do with young people, BackList sees this shift as VERY NECESSARY.

Here's one reason why:

The visual component of comics may be difficult to quantify, but it is also part of what makes comics a valuable learning tool, particularly in an increasingly image-oriented world. "We're a visual culture now, not a typographical culture," Coogan says. "Comics teach visual literacy."

Literacy isn't simply being able to understand the written word, Mouly explains, but "being able to extract meaning from a printed page. There's a kind of visual literacy that is innate. There's a lot that kids are able to understand and an enormous amount of complexity that can be used. It's like poetry: deceptively simple, and levels and levels of meaning can be brought out."

Read the entire article.