The past few weeks, I have shared a number of terrific moments with creators, educators, and librarians talking about graphic novels. 

My adventure started in Charlotte, North Carolina, where we were one of the sponsors of a Drink ‘N Draw event at the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Conference. The night was emceed by John Shableski from Diamond Book Distributors. Michele Gorman, who is the teen services coordinator for the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County in Charlotte, was one of the early champions of graphic novels in libraries and she opened the evening with some cheerleading words to the librarians in the crowd.  

From there, the audience was asked to give word clues to the creators, who then would draw their interpretations of them. Most of the words had absolutely no relevance to one another, so it was fun to see how each of them took them in a different direction. The creators --- Jimmy Gownley, Andy Runton, Eleanor Davis, Barry Lyga, and Shawn and Matt Fillbach of the Fillbach Brothers --- were fun to watch. I am told that beer definitely helps when you are drawing under pressure like that. You can see some photos I took that evening here in our Charlotte Drink ‘N Draw photo gallery. 

The following week we were sponsors of the Day of Comics and Graphic Novels Education at the Miami Book Fair. Last year, I had attended this event as an audience member and, seeing the enthusiasm of the crowd, I approached Lissette Mendez, who championed the Comix Galaxy there, to see if we could take on a larger role.  

An audience of between 80 to 100 teachers and librarians was on hand to hear a terrific lineup of speakers. John Shableski led off with a history of comics and graphic novels to give attendees a sense of how we got where we are now. Next up was James Sturm, who shared stories about his work, as well as the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont, which he cofounded. Sturm has worked on a number of American historical books, including the bestselling and award-winning graphic novel The Golem's Mighty Swing, which had the audience thinking beyond fiction for how they can use this format to reach their students.  

We then took a short break where we got to explore the fair and check out the VERY busy action going on in the Kids Comic-Con area. On the Friday of the fair, many schools in the area bus students and teachers over to the event, where they can participate in the activities. Alex Simmons had brought his team from New York Comic-Con to the Miami event, and their workshops for kids throughout the weekend were busy! 

The next session had two tracks. People either joined Dr. Katie Monnin, an assistant professor of literacy at the University of North Florida, for her talk on how to use graphic novels based in the classroom (a program that is also covered in her new book, Teaching Graphic Novels) or spent time with Dan Goldman, the author of 08: A Graphic Diary of the Campaign Trail, who shared his talk on how webcomics can be created within the classroom environment and how a creator works.  

The group joined together again to hear Carol Tyler, the author of You’ll Never Know, the first book in a three-part memoir about her dad. She teaches comics at the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning. She brought props of things she uses to motivate her students and gave an enthusiastic presentation on engaging  creativity. She’s the kind of teacher that I would have liked to have had. 

From there, Alex Simmons gave his talk on superheroes and how the principles of science (chemistry, biology, and physics) can be interpreted by superheroes, which made science sound like a lot more fun than what I learned in school. We all were to create a superpowered being, either a hero or a villain, give him or her powers, and explain how they worked. I, who cannot draw a straight line with a ruler, drew Snowball, a skier who rolls uphill to thwart avalanches. The drawing was pathetic, but it was fun to do and it was interesting to see what others created. I could see kids definitely engaged with this. 

The final speaker of the day was Harry Bliss, who shared stories behind his cartoon work for The New Yorker and other places. He told great backstories on the pieces that got the audience inside a creator’s head. 

The following two days had a number of well-done panels. As always, I could not get to everything, but some highlights included:

• A conversation with David Small and his editor, Bob Weil, moderated by Shableski
• A  panel about memoir and historical work with Tyler, Sturm, and Laurie Sandler, author of The Imposter’s Daughter
• Tim Hamilton on Fahrenheit 451 and Sid Jacobson on Vlad the Impaler
• A panel about The Art of Harry Kurtzman with Denis Kitchen, the author of the book, Nellie Kurtzman (Harvey’s daughter), and Nick Meglin, the longtime editor of MAD Magazine, moderated by Charlie Kochman, the editor of Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. (Jeff also created the poster for the fair.)
• The History of Manga: A Conversation between Eric Nash, who wrote Manga Kamishibai, and Kurt Hassler from Yen Press  

I also finally got to see the  exhibit of the art from The Photographer, which was even more spectacular than I thought it would be. And the Color of Comics exhibit that illustrated the importance of people of color in comics also was a nice experience to walk through. 

This is the fifth year that I have attended the fair, and it was wonderful to see how the appreciation of the graphic-novel format has grown in the past two years. In follow-up comments from attendees of Friday’s event, there was clear enthusiasm for what they had seen. There also were special moments at evening events where I met Josh Neufeld, the author of A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, and his wife, Sari Wilson, who is an education consultant. 

To make it three weekends in a row of graphic-novel travel, the weekend before Thanksgiving I was in Philadelphia for NCTE, the National Council of Teachers of English conference. Last November, just before we launched GNR, I had attended this event in San Antonio; one reason was there were 11 panels about graphic novels. Along the way I met Monnin, who has since become a friend of the site. 

Thus, fueled by my trip to Miami and the questions from the audiences there, I headed down the Turnpike to this conference. Junot Diaz was the opening speaker. I had been reading his book The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and enjoyed the way that comics and graphic novels were laced into his prose. He made a very bold statement when he told audience members that he felt that until 7th grade, children should not read anything but comics. We want them engaged. His talk centered a lot on his concern about the lack of enthusiasm for reading in this country --- and how we need to cultivate a love of reading. He feels strongly that comics and graphic novels will encourage that. 

The following morning, I started my day at a session that was chaired by James Bucky Carter, Ph.D. I had heard him speak at a day seminar at Fordham University last year; thus it was nice to have him present at a smaller, hands-on session. As I looked across the table at the first breakout, where Dale Jacobs, University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, was talking about teaching A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, there was John Weaver, from Williamsport High School, who had written for GraphicNovelReporter.com about his using Watchmen in the classroom. That was a nice surprise and it was fun to introduce myself to him after the session. 

Jessica Mitchell and a team from The School at Columbia University talked about how they did an interdisciplinary unit on the Holocaust and discussed its ramifications for 21st-century literacy and mixed-ability classrooms. The way they worked together on this project was impressive and had the students immersed in the time period.  

Gene Luen Yang’s luncheon presentation was such fun, since he spoke both as a creator and a teacher --- and the audience clearly loved him. I have seen Gene present a number of times, and he never disappoints!

Sean Kottke from Robert B. Miller College, Battle Creek, Michigan, and David Seelow from Excelsior College in Albany, New York, talked about incorporating graphic novels in their classrooms to promote critical thinking.

Peter Gutierrez, who has reviewed for us with GNR and is with Montclair, New Jersey school district, and Jen Powers, Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vermont, did a terrific seminar on how to use graphic novels to teach media literacy.

In Jeff Kinney’s talk about The Diary of a Wimpy Kid, he explored how the story of Greg, the wimpy kid, came to be. He talked about translating his webcomic into these bestselling books, where his inspiration comes from and his thoughts on why kids love these books. The room was packed with teachers who clearly see that these books engage readers! 

Gareth Hinds shared the backstory of his work on Othello and other classics and how he interprets the classics to engage readers. He drew on the spot, which definitely engaged the audience! 

I caught one last panel on Sunday with Katie Monnin and Lori Menger, from San Jose Episcopal Day School, Jacksonville, Florida. It seemed fitting to end this way, since I started this adventure with Katie last year. This year, I was a lot more discerning about what I wanted to see --- and I left with notes on people we want to interview here, people I would love to see on panels, and creators whose work I want to read.   

Throughout this weekend, there were many good panels, and I found a number of speakers I would love to see participate in future events with us. It’s clear that enthusiasm for graphic novels in the classroom, as well as the library, has been taking hold and shows no signs of letting up!