Reading Graphic Novels Well

Graphic novels tell stories through panels, pictures, and speech bubbles.

Graphic novels are book-length stories told in comic form, and they are real reading. They can be fantasy, mystery, memoir, history, or any other genre. Reading them well takes special skills. Panels are the boxes that hold each moment; read them left to right and top to bottom, like text. Speech bubbles show what characters say, and thought bubbles show what they think.

Captions in boxes are the narrator's voice. The gutter, the space between panels, is where your mind fills in what happened. For example, panel one shows a girl kicking a ball toward a window, and panel two shows her neighbor holding the ball and frowning. Nothing shows the crash, but your brain fills in that the ball hit the window. Slow down and study the pictures.

Facial expressions, colors, and backgrounds tell part of the story that words don't.

• 1Graphic novels are real reading, in any genre.
• 2Read panels left to right, top to bottom.
• 3Pictures and the gutter carry meaning too.