Links: Middle School Confidential

YA novelist Sara Ryan (Empress of the World) has signed with Vertigo, a DC imprint, to write Bad Houses, a coming-of-age graphic novel, to be illustrated by Carla Speed McNeil. McNeil just won an Ignatz Award (for independent comics) for the latest episode of her long-running series Finder. (Via Chasing Ray.)

At Book Nut, Melissa has 10 questions for Neil Numberman and Aaron Reynolds, the creative team behind Joey Fly, Private Eye.

Rachelle Goguen talks to Gregg Schigiel, the writer of Marvel’s X-Babies series and an artist for Spongebob Squarepants, among other things. (Via Robot 6.)

Out from the Comic Shop lists this week’s kid-friendly comics.

The Sioux Falls, South Dakota school board has removed the anthology Stuck in the Middle from middle-school libraries in the district, due to a parent’s complaint about language, sexual references, and smoking. Editor Ariel Schrag responded:

In terms of foul language, sexual content, and teen smoking in this book, all the authors strove to present the teens and pre-teens in a realistic light. We may not like all of the decisions teenagers make, but if we sanitize their speech and behavior in our stories, our characters won’t be authentic. Real teens and pre-teens sometimes use these words and say and do these things.

In this case, the complaint prompted a committee to look at the book, and they decided it was not suitable for teens; some of the stories, one member said, seemed to be aimed at adults even though the subject matter was middle school. And there was this:

[Library services coordinator Ann] Smith, who started her job in 2001, said the last handful of books the school district reviewed were novels. In that long format, the authors have raised controversial issues but resolved them by the end of the book.

The graphic novel, at times, leaves students to draw their own conclusions. She said the message a student draws from a cartoon might be a bad one.

New book alert: Teaching Graphic Novels, by Kate Monnin, is available now. At her blog, also named Teaching Graphic Novels, Kate points to a useful resource for teachers: Bitstrips, which allows students to make and share their own comics.

The Toon Books blog reports on the kids’ comics panel at King Con.

Bone: Rose has been picked as a Junior Library Guild Selection for Fall 2009.

Archie Comics will be at the Miami Book Fair this weekend. Can’t make it? Relax and enjoy these previews at home!
Your latest vintage kids’ comics treat from The Greatest Ape is Carl Barks’s Barney Bear.

Reviews

Eric Federspiel on Kampung Boy (Out from the Comic Shop)
Shaenon Garrity on Zot! (comiXology)

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