{"id":9226,"date":"2014-08-12T00:01:07","date_gmt":"2014-08-12T04:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=9226"},"modified":"2014-08-11T22:58:09","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T02:58:09","slug":"collecting-graphic-novels-what-belongs-in-the-childrens-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/collecting-graphic-novels-what-belongs-in-the-childrens-library\/","title":{"rendered":"Collecting Graphic Novels: What Belongs in the Children’s Library?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"graveyard\"<\/a>I was so excited when the graphic novel adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s\u00a0The Graveyard Book\u00a0<\/em><\/a>arrived in my library this week. I’ve been looking forward to the graphic novelization for months – advance reviews were glowing, and it seemed like the perfect addition to our Kids Graphic Novel section, which serves all reading children in our library (mostly ages 6-12). Then I opened the book.<\/p>\n

Gaiman’s Newbery Award-winner famously opens with the eerie, perfectly spine-chilling line, “There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.” The graphic novelization of a novel which begins with a family’s murder was always going to be on the dark side. I expected that. I\u00a0did not<\/span> expect to turn the second page of a book\u00a0touted as acceptable for age 8<\/strong> by 4 of the 5 major review journals and see graphic, bloody images of a family with their throats slit open, red blood pooling around them. These images are hinted at but not described\u00a0in the novel ( I know, I reread the chapter to be sure!)<\/p>\n

\"Where<\/a>
Where did you shelve The Lost Boy?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After quickly conferring with my coworkers, we decided to move the book to the YA Graphic Novel collection. The magic power of the internet helped reassure us in our decision: none less than the venerable NYPL had shelved the book either in YA or Adult <\/a>graphic novels, depending on the branch. I was bummed to lose what I am sure will be a highly-circulating book to another department, and doubly bummed after reading it – the book was excellent, just not quite a fit for the Children’s Library. I was also\u00a0glad this happened, as it made\u00a0me think about how much I rely on reviews when adding to the collection, and how badly reviews had failed me this time around.<\/p>\n

Here is my question to you, fellow graphic novel collectors for children: how do you decide if a graphic novel is appropriate for the children’s library, especially when the collection has to appeal to a wider audience than kids in grades 3-6? If a book is\u00a0dark\u00a0but not graphic, does it stay (The Lost Boy<\/a>)<\/i>? If the characters are battling in a fantastical setting\u00a0(Battling Boy<\/a>)<\/em>, does it go in YA or children’s? If there are romantic entanglements (a la Drama<\/a>)<\/em>, where do you put the book?\u00a0Where did you put The Graveyard Book<\/i>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was so excited when the graphic novel adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s\u00a0The Graveyard Book\u00a0arrived in my library this week. I’ve been looking forward to the graphic novelization for months – advance reviews were glowing, and it seemed like the perfect addition to our Kids Graphic Novel section, which serves all reading children in our library (mostly ages 6-12). Then I opened the book. Gaiman’s Newbery Award-winner famously opens with the eerie, perfectly spine-chilling line, “There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.” The graphic novelization of a novel which begins with a family’s murder was always going to be on the dark side. I expected that. I\u00a0did not expect to turn the second page of a book\u00a0touted as acceptable for age 8 by 4 of the 5 major review journals and see graphic, bloody images of a family with their throats slit open, red blood pooling…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":153,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[236,22,47,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogger-elisabeth-gattullo","category-childrens-literature","category-collection-development","category-evaluation-of-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/153"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9226\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}