Teaching with comics

I hate to even post this as I always post everything I do for free. I don’t want to put a paywall between this work and teachers who are already underpaid. Resources - like buying books, paying for my website, blog, etc. - gets expensive when funds are tight. If you use my resources and would like to send a little support, I’d appreciate it. If you can’t, I understand and I’ll keep on posting anyway! Thank you to everyone for all of your support over the years!

This first hand account is a fascinating look at what it means to be Jewish in modern Poland, and how the Jewish Holocaust is being handled. Great way to discuss historiography, historical research, personal impression/bias, culture, religion, and more. I would recommend for high school and up due to the complicated issues being discussed

Rating: 4/5
Reading Level - Middle School and up
Length - 150 pages
Teacher Thoughts
This book is very well researched and presents just about anything one would want to know about the Frank Family and their background. I also liked how the authors wove in historical events throughout the book to help with the background. I was a little disappointed in the style of the book - this reads like a textbook/documentary. I think that the authors tried to cover too much - especially in the beginning of the book where it centers on events before Anne. However, if a student was going to research something about Anne, then this would be a perfect book with which to begin. As you can tell, my feelings are on the fence with this book - but it is certainly a good book to include in the classroom library. I did gain some insight into the Frank Family - and enjoyed the questions brought to mind as to how much worse it was for Jews that did not have the same resources/wealth.
Lesson Ideas
Again - I would recommend this book more for a research project than for an assigned book for the class in general. This is a case where reading the book/diary would be much better. However - in my wishy-washy review here, I could also see using this text as a hand-out BEFORE reading Anne Frank's Diary to give the students some good background knowledge.

Rating: 5/5
Reading Level - 8th grade and up - some violent images
Length - 76 pages
Factual? A part of historical Jewish literature - JewishVirtualLibrary
Teacher Thoughts
Excellent way to engage students from another angle - particularly for boys. Using a huge mud Golem to destroy a Nazi attack force - awesome! This is also a visually stunning book.
Connections - what a creative way to integrate culture and history
Potential Issues - gunfire, etc -- nothing too graphic.
Lesson Ideas
Students are always asking why Jews did not fight back - this is a great way to introduce the concept that many Jews (and non-Jews) did indeed
fight back against this atrocity - discuss the importance of an individual taking a stand for what it right.

Rating: 4/5
Reading Level - High Schoo/Adult
Length - 50 pages - mostly pictures interspersed with text
Basic Premise
A collection of illustrations and quotes - allows the reader to sort through and form an opinion. Unique approach.
Teacher Thoughts -
Annotated and quoted. It presents multiple viewpoints of the Jewish Holocaust. Perhaps for an AP course.
Potential Issues
Certainly for a mature audience - the pictures are not over the top - but they are graphic. The book also references anti-Semitic quotes
from Martin Luther, Pope Pius XI, Mark Twain, The Hadith

Wow! This companian to Maus is simply amazing - it comes with a DVD full of sketches, interviews, essays, videos, etc -- if you teach this book, or even just are a big fan - this is a must have!

Teacher Thoughts
My students were impressed that I had a graphic novel on this topic - I have a class set that I use in my AP Euro class. This is a "story"
where truth is stranger than fiction.
Connections
9/11 was an Israeli plot? (of course not - but this book is a good vehicle to explain how propaganda can lead some to believe such absurdities).
 

Rating: 5/5
Reading Level - any age
Length - 29 Pages - mostly a picture book
Basic Premise -
To explain what was happening, a little Jewish boy was told he was a star (by parents?). He began to feel embarrassed by the star he wore.
The Star Hunters then came and the stars disappeared. When all was done, he was able to come out - but the other stars did not come
back. Others helped him.
Great book to introduce the Jewish Holocaust - could be used in just part of a class period
Connections:
Easy connection to Night by Elie Wiesel - stars are mentioned several times - literally and figuratively. (see p. 21)
Potential Issues
None - seen from the eyes of a child
Lesson Ideas
Interpret each page of words - what is happening?