Libraries Today Guest Contributor Kat Kan

Graphic Nonfiction Clearly Informs

by Katharine

(Kat) Kan

Adult Reference Librarian

Kat worked as Brodart's Graphic Novel Selector for 19 years. She is an Adult Services Librarian in Panama City, FL. Kat has worked with comics in libraries for most of her career, has been reading comics for more than 60 years, and often dresses in casual cosplay at work.

People who have read Brodart's Connect Blog know that I love reading comics, and that I have been reading them since I was in Kindergarten. I always loved the way words and art worked together to form stories, whether they focused on superheroes, fairy tales, literary classics, or any other type of fiction.

My appreciation for graphic nonfiction came later. I read a lot of nonfiction books, mostly history and mythology, starting in 2nd grade, but I didn't fully experience reading nonfiction in graphic format until my adult years. Throughout my library career, I have promoted using comics in libraries, and then in schools, but even though I included lots of nonfiction in my booktalks at schools, I didn't use a lot of books in the graphic format.

This all changed with the publication of The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon, published by Hill & Wang in 2006. These two veteran comics creators took the official report of the 9/11 Commission, 511 pages of dense text, and translated it into 128 pages of comics. The hardcover edition of the graphic adaptation condenses the accounts of the four doomed flights into two 6-page fold-out pages depicting the timelines of each flight. When I read this book, it not only made the multiple tragedies come to life for me, but it demonstrated the power of the comics form to convey information in a succinct fashion.

Ever since then, I prefer most of my nonfiction reading in comic book format, and there are some great ones available now, ranging from the rock 'n' roll biographies published by NBM (from Elvis Presley to Janis Joplin to Michael Jackson, by way of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones) to books covering important social topics.

Many librarians will know Nate Powell as the illustrator of the late Congressman John Lewis’ graphic nonfiction trilogy, March, which depicted Lewis’ involvement in the formative years of the Civil Rights Movement as he looked back to them on the morning of the 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama. Powell’s own book, Save It for Later: Promises, Parenthood, and the Urgency of Protest (Abrams Comicsarts, 2021) includes seven comics essays written and drawn over the years since the 2016 election. He unflinchingly portrays his efforts to both protect his children and to guide them to understand and confront racism, the COVID-19 pandemic, and bullying, among other things. His stark black

and white art can pack an emotional punch in the reader.

I’m a first generation immigrant in a way, since I had to be naturalized along with my Japanese mother their prose book, Fault Lines in the Constitution, into the graphic format, published in 2020 by First Second Books. They examine the Constitution of the United States, analyzing its strengths and

“I prefer most of my nonfiction reading in comic book format…”

when I was very young. My husband is a descendant of Japanese immigrants who came to and settled in Hawai’i. I therefore wanted to learn more about immigration issues, especially in light of everything that has happened since the 2016 election. Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration by Bryan Caplan and Zach Weinersmith (First Second Books, 2019) provides an informative look at immigration. Caplan is a professor of economics at George Mason University, and he backs up his text with extensive notes on sources. Not everyone will agree with his position in favor of free migration, but his very readable text and Weinersmith’s clear, color illustrations will help readers understand what he says.

These are just a few of the many great graphic nonfiction books for adult and older teen readers. Most graphic nonfiction for children and teens tend to be straight factual books on science and history, but some books published in the last year or so do cover similar topics to the books I've mentioned. Cynthia and Sanford Levinson worked with illustrator Ally Schwed to adapt weaknesses for readers in middle grades to high school. Our Stories Carried Us Here: A Graphic Novel Anthology, by Tea Rozman Clark and illustrator Tom Kacynski, gives teen readers stories of immigrant youth coming to the U.S.; it was published by Green Card Voices in August 2021. And actor/activist George Takei wrote his autobiographical account of his family's incarceration in the U.S. relocation camps during World War II in They Called Us Enemy (with co-writers Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott, and art by Harmony Becker). Top Shelf Productions published an expanded edition in August 2020. Author Don Brown has written several great graphic nonfiction books in recent years, on topics from the effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans to the lasting effects of the 9/11/2001 attacks.

You can find these and many more books in Brodart's database. I hope you'll try some of these outstanding graphic nonfiction books and see how comics are so much more than "Biff! Bam! Pow!" many ways, not having to do with the pandemic and gave me a sense of self-worth where I didn’t always have [one].”