Thursday, September 26, 2019

Apple Harvest Day News

Our beautiful library building will be closed on Saturday, October 5, BUT...we'll all be at our Library Booth on Henry Law Avenue on Apple Harvest Day! Stop by and show us your Dover Library card---you'll get two free entries into our raffle!

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Have You Tried Learning Express Library?


LearningExpress Library is designed to help people succeed on the tests they must pass to gain citizenship, improve their testing skills or to further their education or career. Over 300 online academic and licensing practice tests including SAT, ACT, GRE, HiSET, LSAT, Advanced Placement, civil service, military, real estate, law enforcement, citizenship, TOEFL, ESL and basic skills for elementary, middle and high school skills improvement and much more.

All you need to access LearningExpress is a valid Dover Public Library card.

Tuesday, September 03, 2019

Why We Should All Be Reading Graphic Novels


Do you know what makes a librarian sad? When she suggests reading a graphic novel to a patron and that person instantly dismisses it because it's a comic.

Scholastic tweeted this a few months ago:



It almost brought tears to my eyes. Comics are one of the most misunderstood mediums. If we’re constantly being told to never judge a book by its cover, then why do people continue to judge comics because they have pictures?

Some of the best literature I have ever read was in the form of a comic. They are not quite as “simple” as people seem to think. The amazing thing about graphic novels is how much they put your brain to work without your even knowing it. When you pick up a comic, you’re not just reading a story but you’re also looking at every picture for clues about what’s happening. Things as simple as the way an image is framed, the way a character’s face is portrayed, or the objects drawn in the background help to tell the story. 

It doesn’t seem like such an important thing when you’re reading a comic, but when you consider all the actions, emotions, and other details you absorb from looking at just one frame – it’s extraordinary what a comic can make you feel!

Not to mention, it’s very impressive what intertwined processes the authors must employ. They must write a story that is just as compelling as a printed word book, but with less than half the words! That means that the pictures gain much greater importance in weaving the story. In addition, concise wording lends itself to more advanced vocabulary because the accompanying pictures lead our brains to associate and understand a more complex word because it’s meaning is linked with the picture. 

Do you know what this all means?

Graphic novels are WONDERFUL for struggling readers. 

I mean, graphic novels are great for everyone, but if you want further proof why comics are just as important as regular books then look at what comics have the ability to do:

1)      Some can be long and some can be short, but the concise text used makes it easier for struggling readers to enjoy because they don’t feel as intimidated.

2)      It helps struggling readers learn new words because they are able to associate words with the pictures they see. A frame that has a character saying they feel “dejected” can be understood by the reader because they can look at the character’s face and realize that the word is associated with feeling sad. 

3)      The connection between words and pictures means that this struggling reader is learning to comprehend the material they are reading. Why are they feeling dejected? Because they just read something sad on the computer (which we can see right behind them). 

4)      Comics are a great way to teach in a format that is easy to digest and understand. Graphic novels are not all superhero comics (although there are some great ones out there!). There are fabulous comics on non-fiction topics, classic literature, fictional stories about struggles that everyday people face, etc. Many articles cite the use of comic forms of classic works to teach student comprehension. These graphic novels use all the original language, just adding in pictures. Students who learn through the comic version understand the work equally (if not better) than those who were taught via the printed text. (See School Library Journal’s article “Teaching With Graphic Novels”.)

As a child, science was never really my thing. I enjoyed hearing about it, but I wasn’t an ace in class. I now understand more than I ever thought I would about quantum mechanics and astrophysics because of a COMIC I read. Things that had been repeatedly explained to me in physics class, but had never stuck, finally made sense when I read a graphic novel about it. That’s the power comics have!

I could go on and on about how amazing comics are and why you should try reading one instead of dismissing them, but then I might start getting a little too preachy. So instead, I invite you to try one of these wonderful graphic novels and find out for yourself why GRAPHIC NOVELS ARE REAL BOOKS. 

*mic drop*


 Fiction



Watchmen chronicles the fall from grace of a group of superheroes plagued by all too human failings as they are stalked by an unknown assassin. 


As 10-year-old Karen Reyes tries to solve the murder of her beautiful and enigmatic upstairs neighbor, Anka Silverberg, a holocaust survivor, we watch the interconnected and fascinating stories of those around her unfold


Hazel is a child born to star-crossed parents from opposite sides of a never-ending galactic war. Now, Hazel's fugitive family must risk everything to find a peaceful future in a harsh universe that values destruction over creation.

Wolverine, Deadpool, Doctor Doom, Thanos: There's one hero that's beaten them all-and now she's got her own ongoing series! It's a brand-new set of adventures starring the nuttiest and most upbeat super hero in the world!
 

From sixth grade through tenth, Raina copes with a variety of dental problems that affect her appearance and how she feels about herself.  


The author recounts in graphic novel format her experiences with hearing loss at a young age, including using a bulky hearing aid, learning how to lip read, and determining her "superpower."  





 

Nonfiction



A vivid first-hand account of John Lewis' lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. 

This innovative comic book provides a detailed look at the history, meaning, and art of comics and cartooning.  


Follow Albert Einstein and his traveling companion through space and time. Along the way, Einstein explains the science behind everything from the origins of the universe to the meaning of life, relativity, black holes, quantum mechanics, and climate change. 

An illustrated look at Abraham Lincoln’s most famous speech, the bloody battle of the Civil War that prompted it, and how they led to a defining point in the history of America.