TRAPPED IN A CHILDREN'S BOOKSTORE!

8/26/2014

How Comics Work (Part 1) By Jay Shapiro

Have you ever been trapped in a children’s bookstore with seven or so kids? Well, this happened to me last month and I admit it was pretty refreshing. Not only did it remind me of how smart children are, but I also I ended up with some answers to the complex question of how we perceive stories. Children haven’t yet learned to dance around conversation topics the way adults do, so it was a great set-up. It allowed me to learn a lot and I recommend it.

I started out casually enough: the kids, their parents, and I were waiting out the rain. As the parents chatted with each other, I flipped through the comics section, loudly declaring my appreciation that the store, the Bankstreet Bookstore on 112th Street and Broadway, had a copy of Shaun Tan’s The Arrival. This attracted the attention of a curious nine-year-old, and soon enough I was surrounded, trying to explain the story–and its author’s unorthodox narrative methods–to a bunch of kids.

Abstract monsters haunt Shaun Tan’s The Arrival - www.shauntan.net

Shaun Tan’s story, told entirely in pictures–with no words–opens with the protagonist saying goodbye to his family in a vaguely Eastern-European setting, as the shadows of monsters are cast over his homeland. The kids were quick to point out that he was fleeing from a dragon. I said they were probably right, but tried to explain the concept of metaphor. “It doesn’t really need to be a dragon,” I said, “In this case, it’s really just a stand-in for something bad. Let’s say for anything that can get across that idea.”

“The inspection,” from Shaun Tan’s The Arrival

As we went on through the book, the kids offered up their theories on what was actually happening. I told them I loved all of their ideas, but that it might be more useful to look for the emotions the story provokes rather than taking guesses at what each drawing truly represented. “If you focus on the emotions experienced by the reader,” I said, stressing that I wasn’t discouraging them from using their imaginations, “all your theories will be true because the only thing that’s absolutely critical in this story is that the main character feels alienated in his new location.”

Reflecting back now, I’m struck by two things that I want to try and explore. The first is the difference between children intuiting and inferring. How do children learn to look at parts of a situation – or in this case, story – interpret it, and infer the information around it, rather than bluntly assuming? To understand this, we first have to examine the most basic principles of a story: Recognizing details, interpreting the meaning of those details, and using that knowledge to infer the information we don’t get. This can be anything as complex as a character going through an emotional revelation brought on by eating a bagel, to something as basic as a character buying a bagel and eating it. Whether we mine away at the hidden details of prose or prick up our senses to the onslaught of information from a movie, understanding a story is dependent on our ability to use the parts to know the sum.

It’s no coincidence that we introduce children to reading just as they reach Jean Piaget’s preoperational stage of cognitive development. According to Piaget’s model, between the ages of 2 and 7 children begin to understand the difference between the past and the future, laying the foundation of memory, and develop the ability to associate symbols with inherent meaning. What the model also says is that kids at this stage still lack abstraction and conservation; they usually have trouble grasping ideas beyond physical situations. Going back my Shaun Tan reading, I was going over the story with kids who purportedly were past this stage–indeed they were very much in line with what Piaget calls the concrete-operational phase. They had no problem following the basics of the story, even though at the age of nine or ten, they are much more familiar with full-prose books than with silent comics. But while they accepted my broad abstract statements as interesting, they still clung to the desire to keep the story grounded in concrete facts.

When kids are below the age of 7, Piaget points out that they do not infer conclusions from lots of tiny parts, while the kids I was with were clearly past that stage. How does this apply to reading, and more importantly, why is this so critical to comics?

From Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

In chapter three of Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud elaborates on how comics utilize one mental skill more heavily than any other medium: closure, or “observing the parts, but perceiving the whole.” As McCloud points out, we use closure every day as a mental compensation for the shortcomings of our senses. When you talk on the phone and assume that your friend on the end of the line still has a physical body, you’re using closure. It’s why children in the preoperational phase fantasize that the world goes away when they close their eyes; they base their inferences on intuitive reasoning, not logical reasoning. Reading words is as dependent on closure as any aspect of our lives: once we are able to recognize the full meaning of a sentence, all the sentences together to help simulate a real life experience from only a description of such. But, as McCloud puts it, “Comics is closure.”

What exactly does that mean? In one case, it would suggest that comics are made up of closure methods instead of relying upon them. A series of static images is presented and readers must rely upon their knowledge of cause and effect to infer what has happened in between the spaces. Closure in comics is used to fill in the gaps of the story, rather than make the simulation of life more convincing as in written word. It’s startling to me that many parents think that good books for children are gauged by vocabulary size–I now see that the level of abstract representation in a book is what makes it good fodder for a young mind.

Knowing all of this, let’s re-evaluate the idea that comics are easier to read than “real books.” When those kids – most of whom already trained to read chapter books – were presented with The Arrival and asked to follow only pictures, and all these pictures can be interpreted both factually and metaphorically, were they not asked to work harder than when reading an ordinary book of prose? I think so. The silent comic, and the visual part of any comics have much more room for interpretation by the reader than a story told in prose.

And if it that’s true, maybe comics are one of the best tools we have for teaching inference, for encouraging young readers to go back and forth between literal and metaphoric meaning when they read. In comics, reading is not about following instructions–it’s about creating meaning; comics force you to fill in the gaps in the narrative, just as children learn to fill in the gaps of the world they see.

Shaun Tan’s The Arrival - www.shauntan.net

In part 2, I’ll explore the other thing kids do with the knowledge they acquire when reading comics: they imagine their own stories. Jay Shapiro is a native New Yorker studying creative writing at Oberlin College and can be reached via Twitter @JayRayShapiro.

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16 Comments

Sandy Cupps

8/27/2014 02:13:32 am

I'm an elementary school librarian, so I am always trapped in a children's book store. My first TOON book was Benny and Penny. Keep up the good work.

Samantha E.

8/27/2014 02:32:20 am

The best advice someone gave me about reading with children is to ask "WHY" not "WHAT". So much of instruction focuses on retelling (and comprehension is of course important) but the real thinking happens when you ask a child WHY. Why is she smiling? Why did he go to the market? Why did they hide? I think because comics force readers to draw inferences about images simultaneously to reading the text, comics actually do utilize more brain power!

Françoise link

8/27/2014 04:02:07 am

Well said, Samantha–a good echo of the point Jay Shapiro is making. Asking young readers to focus on the "WHY" will get them to think about the motivations of the characters, and really enter the story.

I. J. Hamilton

8/27/2014 06:12:38 am

I totally agree with asking WHY? I teach students who have special needs and frequently have to deal with reading and language difficulties as well. Because my students have global acdemic issues, they are sometimes firmly set in the pre-operational stage as mentioned by Jay Shapiro. Asking them WHY and to explain/justify specifically helps my students not only make inferences about the story and/or its pictures and deppen their understanding, it also helps develop their vocabulary and language skills.

Diandra Mae link

8/27/2014 03:19:10 am

I agree with the idea that comics offer a level of sophistication to developing readers. As a middle school teacher, I often used them in my classroom to lead my students in exercises of inferencing. Silent comics were the best because there was so much room for interpretation. Also, talking through the stories with the students really slowed them down and forced them to think. Sometimes they would surprise themselves with their answers. It's a great exercise, and it made an impact because later in the year as they worked independently, I would often hear one student ask another "Yes, but WHY?" when working on their reading units. :)

Kathleen

8/27/2014 04:29:04 am

For the past 10 years or so I have been using particular Far Side and other comics to help my second graders practice inferring and become aware of what they are doing. I ask them, "Why is this funny?" We talk about how the author & illustrator don't need to tell us everything -- they leave clues for us so we can figure stuff out for ourselves. We discuss the clues left and the background knowledge needed in order to appreciate the comic.

Clare link

8/27/2014 04:36:12 am

I enjoy teaching inference to the young ones with picture books. Asking 'what's coming next?' and 'why do you think so?'
I SO need these mythology books for my library as we hold a mythology bee every year! They look great!

Megan Sutton

8/27/2014 05:03:33 am

It's nice to have a prompt for a comment, but I am stumped a bit thinking about inference. I'm more inclined to think about perception.
I agree that comics can actually be more complex than unillustrated books - The Arrival is a perfect example. I think that as teachers, when we teach children about a concept like inference or perception, we need to have an awareness of students' prior knowledge and/or experiences. It may be a developmental stage, but I also think how one experiences the world and in turn makes inferences is contextual. These differences of experience can lend richness to the reading experience regardless of the printed words. As teachers and librarians, we can help students recognize details like facial expressions and graphic metaphors (like the dragon in The Arrival) so that they can infer the full story that the author/illustrator is telling.

Craig Seasholes link

8/27/2014 02:33:32 pm

If I wanted to teach or demonstrate inference to upper elementary and older, I'd have my colleague's 5 grade students (who will be hitting Ancient Greece in October, I believe) read the wordless two page depiction of the battle in the bath between Toon Graphic's Theseus and the Minotaur by Yvan Pommaux. Ask students questions like "What new information about the Minotaur is suggested in the illustration? What clues to you have to the outcome of the battle? What can you surmise about how this legend has come down to us?" Listen for inference as students closely examine and describe this one drawing that carries so much of the story's main plot. The brilliance of the graphic format is in great part the artist's ability to pack so many clues into a single image that allows it to tell itself to the mind/eye of the observant reader.

Kelly Farrow link

8/28/2014 10:15:13 am

I think a big part of harnessing the power of comics in teaching inferences is in focusing on what's happening BETWEEN the panels. In those little white gutters, your brain is making all kinds of connections and inferences that you don't even notice until you take the time to analyze them. So I've done lessons where we've taken a 3- or 4-panel strip, read it, discussed it, and then cut it apart to leave room for a blank panel, which the students must fill in with whatever action or dialogue they believe is happening in the white space! It's so amazing to see how no one's is ever the same. (Recommended for 4th grade and above.)

Peow Yeong link

8/28/2014 12:47:51 pm

Have a stand in front of the class and ask what the rest of the students could tell about him if they did not already know him, just by looking. For example, his eyesight is not very good (he is wearing glasses). He likes the Sea Hawks (he is wearing a Sea Hawks T-shirt). He walked in some mud on his way to school (there is some mud caked on his shoes).

Fourth Musketeer link

8/29/2014 01:12:16 am

As a children's librarian, I often have a hard time with parents who somehow think that graphic novels are "inferior" to chapter books for their kids. This is a great argument to make to try to explain that graphic novels are just as important for their children's intellectual development, particularly as many kids begin to think that traditional picture books are too "babyish" for them by the time they're in the 8-12 year old range.

Katja Magus

8/29/2014 02:09:13 am

I believe that teaching inference begins long before a child can hold his own book and read it. Examining the natural world and drawing conclusions begins at birth for children whose parents are carrying them, pointing out new experiences: "that wet feeling in the air, what does it mean", "why does the police car turn on his lights and sirens", "what does kitty mean when she makes that noise". I have three sons and one of them is on the autism spectrum, and while he does attend public school, I have always considered myself his primary teacher. Beginning at birth we have been teaching, helping him understand how to grab meaning from a world that doesn't always make sense to him. Inference, knowing what is meant without words, is a huge challenge for him and learning how to do it well has helped him integrate with his peers.

Liz Dejean link

8/30/2014 09:39:53 am

I emphasize to parents how important picture books, comic books, and wordless books are for building reading comprehension. During Family Library Time, a program I present for parents with their children on Fridays after school, parents are often surprised at how much their children gain from talking about the pictures. This also helps parents understand that thinking and talking is much more important than the "right answer." There is often more than one plausible interpretation.

Wayne Beamer

9/1/2014 08:08:06 am

I learned about inference reading American superhero comics in the 1960s written by men and women who skills were honed crafting stories for the pulp market 20 to 30 years earlier. Inference -- or perhaps context is a better term for it -- helped me understand the relationships between characters through verbal and nonverbal cues. The faster I picked up on them, the better understood the subtle messages the authors/artists were trying to convey.

Pamela Hansen

9/6/2014 01:18:46 pm

So much is learned about what is going on in the story is by inferring from the expressions on the faces of the characters. In character education, I teach the children empathy for other people by asking the students how is the character feeling from looking at the picture. It is especially effective when working with a wordless or almost wordless story because the whole story must be shown by the pictures.

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