Hey everybody, we are back and I am excited. We are gonna be talking to someone a little different this time. We are almost always school librarians, but my friend Tim is here and he's going to share some awesome stuff and I'm really excited because, well, we'll get to it. We'll get to it. So let me just dive right in here. Tim, why don't you take a second, tell everybody about yourself and then we'll get going. Hey, so Tim Smythe, I've been a high school social studies teacher for 23 years.
9 -11 was my second day on the job and I stayed on. And I am an Eisner nominated author of a book called Teaching with Comics and Graphic Novels. So I get to travel around the country, give them professional developments at libraries and schools and museums, like pinch me, it's been an amazing journey. And it's an amazing book. If people haven't gotten it, they should absolutely get their hands on it, because it's got so many great resources. So yes, that is awesome.
And it's funny because while you are not a school librarian, I think we might've met for the first time at a school library event, because you have been popping up at so many school library things, which I love, because what you do is so tied in to what we should be doing in school libraries. Yeah, and I love seeing you present, Steve, but you are a very expensive friend because I'm always writing down the names of good books that I'm graphic novels and everything.
I was like, I've never even heard of that one. And so I really appreciate all the work that you do as well. Well, that's what I love is that there's always so many great chances for cross -disciplinary learning when we are able to kind of get out of our own little silos and kind of see what else is going on in the world. And social studies, holy smokes.
mean, obviously social studies in the library are just a match made in heaven because between archives and resources and artifacts, and I mean, we're all about helping the kids learn. So I am so excited you're here because the way you go into history and into social studies is such a refreshing.
way of looking at things because I was looking over this lesson and one of the things that I love so much about it is you had originally posted this post 10 years ago and I can't believe it's 10 years but it talks a little bit about how you were a little worried about bringing the things you love into the classroom and that it wasn't going to be taken
seriously and yet once you did I mean this is I hope I'm not out of line when I say this is like such a main focus of your journey as an educator now that you are the history comics guy and it's awesome. And it's so awesome that you were able to bring that in and kind of see, yes, this is something that's valuable. And yes, this is something that we can't just push aside because it's not just valuable for the teachers. It's valuable for the students too, which I love.
You know, I was brought in, you know, I'm 50 years old, you know, I've been teaching for a while and you know, the idea of, know, don't let the kids see a smile till Christmas, you know, here's the textbook on the first day of school, like here's why the kids must fear you, here's all the rules, like all that stuff.
And like, and I bring it up because you said about 10 years ago, I had a staff developer who was like, yeah, you need to start sharing like the things that you're doing in your classroom. And honestly, I was like, no, that's like what millennials do and I don't want to show off, you know, all those kinds of things. But like you said, it's about the journey of the students and what we're doing in the classroom. And it literally was, I almost left teaching.
Like I had a really awful year, nothing to do with what was in the classroom, of course, it's everything else. And PBS reached out to me, they saw some of the things I was doing and they were like, hey, do you want to write some articles for us? And of course, you know, and so it just kind of exploded from there. And so that's always my message too, is those of us involved in education, whatever our role might be.
we need to share what we're doing because if we don't, we let other people control the conversation about what we're doing. So I don't teach a comic book class. I teach a traditional social studies class, but I am blessed to work in a district that is not scripted. They let me do what I do as long as I'm also given the same assessments that my other colleagues are giving in the same courses. And so we all do our own thing.
We are allowed to bring our personal passions in and it sounds cheesy, but It really is contagious when the kids see you all jived up on something and they wanted to kind of do the same thing. a hundred percent. mean, when we care about it, that comes across and that makes the kids want to care about it too. So I think it's such a great message that you bring with this lesson that like, yes, the things you care about can and should be part of your practice.
So my first question is usually, what's the backstory to this lesson? But I feel like we kind of maybe covered that a little bit. Is there anything else you want to kind of toss in there about where this, where you kind of came up with this or how you brought this in? So for one thing, I firmly believe we're all teachers of reading. I don't care what content, whatever it might be. I have my master's degree as a reading specialist.
And when I went back to school, I was the only male in the entire program. And I was the only non -elementary school teacher. And literally, my professors at Gwinn and Mercy didn't know what to do with me. And so they said yes to me, which is now why I say yes to my students. And so, you know, 2006, 2007, I started doing the research about, I they were sharing articles with how boys don't like to read and, you know, lack of engagement.
And so I was like, well, what are you giving your kids to read? And I kind of said, well, how about comic books? And I said, well, do you do anything with hip hop? Do you do do you annotate songs? And the answer was was no. And initially there was a little bit of hesitancy, but my professors were like. Yes, like whatever reading is reading and all that kind of stuff.
And so that's why this lesson that I do is on the first couple of days of school, I try to take the capital H history away and make history more accessible. It's not just about kings and queens, it's about us. It's about the students. They all play a part. what comments come out once a week, right? And I'm at the Count Bookstore every Wednesday.
what's... going on in the world is reflected in our pop culture, whether it be TV shows, movies, music, know, Mary Shelley was, know, pop culture, Frankenstein was impacted by the industrial revolution. And so long story short, I've got all these comics around and things have changed in our comics, our heroes. have, you know, so much more representation in our superheroes.
Like we were just talking about Sam Wilson, Captain America, Jane Foster, his store, you know, all these kinds of things and Muslim and, you know, LGTBQ and all these different characters. And I was like, how can I work this in? So I started sharing comics from all the different, from many different decades, 50s, 60s, 70s to today. And I had the kids analyze those comics literally as artifacts. Like you're a historian, you come across these things as 300 years in the future.
What could you tell us about the society in which this was published? And so they started taking their research skills, their English language, skills, their historian skills, and really picking things apart, looking at the advertisements, looking at the letters to the editor. looking at the representation or lack thereof. And so all of a sudden it's you know, blowing some minds on the first couple of days of school. And I'm like, we'll get to the syllabus later.
We'll get, all that kind of stuff later. And I find that it really opens up the conversations in my classroom a lot more. And before people freak out, because people say all the time, like, what do mean you give your kids comics to read from the sixties? Those things are worth like a lot of money.
You So if you go to the dollar bin at the comic book store, you can find, or you go to a garage sale, you go, so I find, you know, what we call reader copies, they're not worth any money, but it's actually relatively easy to do, or ask kids to bring in comics. Parents love to donate comics and things to the classroom. And so that just kind of sets the tone for the rest of the school year.
Yeah. I mean, absolutely you can have the originals, but there's also lots of great reprints out there that you can get your hands on that aren't too expensive. You know, if you want something that's a little more, I mean, some of those older comic books, they definitely have shown that they've been read and loved, you know? And so some of the reprints might have some, a little better condition to them when they come into class, or if you're planning on reusing them. But I completely agree.
Like I was fortunate enough, I got to teach a graphic novels class, for a little while as an elective. And one of the things I love talking about with the students is how you can look at the themes and the creation stories of so many characters, and those reflect the time periods that the characters are from. I mean, you look at the 1960s, especially with Marvel and the explosion of the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Spider -Man. What was going on in the 50s and 60s? Science.
was all about, we've got to push science more in schools. And what were all these characters based around? Look at how science can transform us, like literally science transforming us, you know? So when you get the kids starting to think about like, wow, I never really thought about that. And you start look at the origin stories. It's like, huh, that's interesting.
mean, Superman, here is an immigrant from another world who has made good on, you know, where he is written by immigrants from another country to America. I mean, it's just, there's so many amazing historical tie -ins that I think it's easy to overlook because I think too many people, and I know you and I have talked about this before, I think too many people look at comic books as like, that's kid stuff. And there's so much to be mined in that quote unquote kid stuff.
Like there's so much good stuff in the stories, in the creation, even in just the structure. I mean, I'm talking too much because I could talk about this forever and ever. I know you and I could probably just spend the whole day talking about how amazing comic books are for education, but. There's so much great stuff that I think is too easy to pass over when it comes to this kind of stuff.
Yeah, and it's funny you bring up Superman, because here he's created by two young Jewish writers in 1938 when it comes out. And that connection, obviously, to what's going on in the world at the time really kind of allows us to have these conversations about anti -Semitism today and then, and those connections, and all those sorts of things. right. I always say to my kids when I start talking about this, all right, I'll stop nerding out. Let's get back to kind of what we're doing.
Well, like in just recently, Gene Luen Yang had Superman smashes the clan, which was based on an old audio radio story for Superman, but he did it as a graphic novel. And I mean, it's set in the 1940s in the graphic novel that's come out. But tell me that's not a prescient story about here are groups that are looking at immigrants as something that need to be feared and hated. could that fit more perfectly into what's going on in our society this very week?
I mean, it's just, it's mind blowing and it's there and it's, I think it comes back to not to try and bite off the history side of things, but it comes back to that idea of history repeats itself because we're seeing this thing that was from the thirties and the forties and now it's back again in a very obvious form. And so I think there's those connections that we are missing when we don't take advantage of these resources.
Yeah, I mean, when G. Willa Wilson, who co -created with Sana Aminat, Ms. Marvel, a 16 -year -old Pakistani American girl from Jersey City, she does this great TED Talk called Generation Why. And she talks about the fear when she was approached to create the story of death threats and having a Muslim superhero. And it really just didn't happen. And it showed the power of where we're coming. And so for my own kids, I have three kids of my own.
them having superheroes of all these, all this different representation and not just on the page, but also those who are creating them. It's like if a superhero comes out as gay now, they're like, okay, like it's not even a big deal where, you know, when Bobby comes out and Iceman is being gay, like it rocked the world. And it's so awesome that it's not such a huge deal anymore.
Like when I was teaching about Sam Wilson becoming Captain America, like there were people who were freaking out and now it's just like, well, yeah, of course he is. There's all different kinds of Spider -Men and Spider -Women and there's a Korean Hulk and there's a Black Superman, all this kind of stuff. And I just, it's so awesome to kind of see all this stuff with my own kids and with my students. Yeah, yeah. man.
could continue to go down the rabbit hole for forever, but I'm going to try and redirect us a little bit. So you do this lesson, comics as artifacts, and you kind of talked about how you give the students these comic books to look through and they're looking at all of it, not just the story, but like even like you were saying, the ads and the letters to the editor and there's so many elements that they can mine for details about the time period that this might have come through in.
So as a student, What might that look like as I'm coming in? Like, am I gonna see, what am I gonna hear as this lesson unfolds? So one thing I've got a giant playlist of all different kinds of music of superhero, know, the Spider -Verse, end of the Spider -Verse soundtrack for one thing, the hip hop music that's in there. so the music is playing. There are, so what I do is I put two piles of comics. One are the quote unquote older comics. One of the quote unquote newer comics.
And I have the kids, so they sit in tables of four. My classroom is very collaborative. And their job is to, two of the kids pick two older comics, two of the kids pick two newer comics. whatever one they want. So I try to get all different genres, different publishers, you those kinds of things. And then I give them some questions to take a look at. And initially, I mean, there's kids who fight. mean, when you come into my room, looks like, you know, my wife calls it the clubhouse.
Like there's just comic book stuff everywhere. But particularly AP and honor students who want to look down their nose at comic books because they don't see it as real literature or real whatever, because they've been taught differently. Right. And so initially there's kind of a little bit of a fight where they're literally right on the questions where no comic books cannot be used as artifacts, no, they can't be used as literature, those sorts of things.
So then we do it, we talk, and then I said, all right, and I give them a list, go back and look at these things. And so a lot of times they skip things like simply the price of the comic, the year that it came out, the gender roles, like I said, the letters to the editor, the advertisements, all these things. And then the light bulbs start to go off. Okay, all right, so let's start to take a look at these things.
One of my saddest and favorite responses was the kids knew it was an older comic book because the kids were outside playing. And it just, yeah, was like, wow, is that a statement of kind of where we are right now? But then when we go and analyze songs and hip hop and images and political campaign buttons, posters, advertisements, it's all these same skills of really deep reading.
So just like we would want to do in a library when we share books or an ELA classroom, you know, take a look at the cover, take a look at the back, take a look at the author, who wrote it, why did they write it, what's the background? So it teaches them, other than just looking at chapter 19 in the history textbook, these skills of, you know, and I find that, and I teach mostly 10th grade, a lot of times kids weren't taught to read past like second or third grade. the news.
need to be having these conversations. Like I've taught coursework at the University of Pennsylvania graduate study coursework where I'm teaching these young teachers about how to read text and it kind of just blows their mind sometimes. Yeah, yeah. Well, and I think especially with comic books and graphic novels, I think there is a complete lack of teaching how to read those.
So in addition to, I agree that we need to continue to focus on how to read generally, but there's a specific set of skills that I think people don't recognize are going on with graphic novels. Like the amount of inference that goes on between one panel and next panel. things that happen in the gutters of the panels. And like, I'm sure that there are some people out there who might be listening to this episode going, what are gutters? Why are there gutters in comic books?
Like, and that's, that's partly, I think, a failing of our general system of education that we're not teaching these kinds of skills because it's not just an art term and it's not just a literacy term. It's a understanding so much of other types of information that you might be taking in. So I completely agree. We've got to think more about teaching literacy across all different styles and fields and subject areas.
And I love that you said we're teaching literacy across curriculum because that's absolutely something we should be doing. Yeah. But you raise a really good point. sometimes I forget, I could have a 10th grader who's never read a comic before. And so we do need to slow down a little bit. And a lot of times teach how to read the comic that when you see a splash page or a page without words, a lot of times that's the most important page in the whole story.
And our non -comics readers will skip that. And so we have to kind of go back and teach those skills. Yeah. And like manga too, like manga is, I know a huge push right now in school libraries and in schools to get, cause there's kids who love it, but there's so many kids who don't even know what it is because I've in that same graphic novels class I got to teach, we talked about, here's a manga and here's how you read it. And so many kids were like, wait, you read it backwards?
What's going on here? Like it was just, they couldn't figure out how do I even approach this? So. Some things that we take for granted, I think, and I think this happens in a lot of different areas in schools, but there's some things we take for granted that students are just gonna know, and we don't therefore budget the time to sort of go into some instruction.
And I think that's really to the detriment of our students, because even though some kids might know it, not all the kids are gonna know it. So we're leaving kids behind when we do that, unfortunately. But. Yeah, and when you bring up manga, it's, so I teach this lesson, the other resource I shared with you, Madaya Mom. So when we talk about manga being quote unquote backwards from a Western point of view, well then that leads us into a conversation about Arabic and the Quran.
And so on my website, I've got a lot of free comics that you're allowed to use. I love when people share them. One of which is this comic from Marvel Comics and ABC News. And it is based on texts that they were getting from this mom in Medea in Syria, the civil war that's been going on for over 10 years, the United States involved, the Russians are involved, all these things that geopolitically is so important. And a lot of Americans don't even know that this is going on.
But ABC News was able to get text from her and they turned it into a comic. And so this is freely available. If you Google Medea mom, it's my most powerful thing that I use. So even that resource wise, there are a lot of free resources that are out there. And I think in absolutely, I didn't realize that I hadn't seen that part yet. So I am definitely going to be digging into that.
But when you we talked about how manga you read backwards and I always try to think very carefully about how I phrase that because it may be backwards to people who are used to a particular tradition of reading, but that ignores a whole segment of the population of the world that does not follow the same traditions and that we've got to be a little more open and thoughtful about how we look at even, you know, things we might think of as being very basic as
maybe there's more to this than we initially thought. So there's so many things that just get kind of lumped in together and they're so easy to gloss over when we're talking about these things that I'm so glad that we're getting to have this conversation because I could not think of a better educational expert to talk about the myriad of ways that this is such an important form of text for students. And it's something that, mean, you know I'm kind of a comic book geek too.
I'm not nearly on the same level that you are. I have to admit, but I love a good graphic novel and I love trying to get as many as possible into our collections because there's some students who, for them, that's their main way of interacting with the text. You you might have the graphic novel adaptation of something and they might need that extra support that the images offer, but they may also just find it more engaging.
And for, like you were saying, there's some readers who are not as enthusiastic about diving into prose, but this gives them a new way to interact with text. sorry, again, I'm going off on tangents because this is such a wonderful topic that we can dive into. okay, let me circle it back around. we've got the students, are looking through different styles of comic books. We've got audio that they're listening to to take a listen. They're doing some analysis.
And so how do you sort of bring them from their group analysis and sort of bring that to a place that they can all learn from each other in the classroom? So again, like I said, I my classroom is because I'm an introvert which education is a really weird thing to be in as an introvert But I don't put them on the spot There's not you know giant presentations and so like I said, my classroom is purposely set up with small tables of four So they have those conversations.
I'm sitting with them at the different tables. I'm interacting with them I'm talking with them and then we come back to the bigger group I'll share some examples the students will throw some things up on the smart board. Hey, I noticed this I saw this and then we'll switch groups, we'll switch tables. And so it's a really low key way to build community. It's a good way to open up those discussions rather than whole class presentations and those sorts of things.
And so it's just then I go through all the kids examples, all the things that they're sharing with me, and then I'll pull things out. And then the next day, I'll share some of those things in a PowerPoint. So within my five classes, we're sharing things across the classes, and then they do an overall reflection. And then we go back to... their initial reaction to how do you feel about comics and use them as artifacts and using them as literature.
And while I don't have the data, I will say that overwhelmingly, of course, that the positions have changed. But what's amazing is I see students like my son, students like me in that classroom where forget about even the lesson. The second they walk in my room and see everything, they feel seen for the first time. Mm. And now they're able to talk about something that they're super passionate about that they've literally never had the opportunity to talk about.
And now all of a sudden they're able to nerd out. I'm getting like chills because I just love this moment. They at their tables now where they've always been quiet, they're able to lead this conversation because, my God, do they know about all these things? And it just is really super empowering. And I can't tell you how many times students have said, thank you. They send me emails. And then I have parents who come back to school late because they just they had to see my classroom.
That's awesome though. mean, when we can give students that sense of agency or even better expertise that they can then share with their peers, that's awesome. And I love, I used to do as an English teacher, I did an activity that was sort of similar where we had different parts of a story laid out on different tables and the kids would, they were on big poster sheets and the kids would write their thoughts as small groups on each one.
Then they'd rotate, see what other people wrote, add their own thoughts. And I think being able to do that with graphic novels and comics, they're getting to learn from each other. Like, here's what that other group saw. And so they get to see it in the graphic novel or the comic, but then they also, there's always that little element of how can we one up the other group, right? You've always got that little bit of a, so they found this, what else can we find?
Which I love as a sort of motivational goad for them to kind of dig themselves in deeper into material. So I love that they're doing that. And like you said, giving them that space where they feel comfortable. That should be, every student should have that feeling somewhere in their school. Maybe not everywhere in their school, but like every student should someplace in the school feel like this is the place I can feel safe, I can feel seen, I can feel respected.
So I love that there are students who get that when they go in your classroom. That's awesome. Man, this is such an awesome lesson. I really truly love it. And I love too that even though you may not be on the school library side of things, You are very clearly a supporter of school libraries and I can see, do you get to collaborate much with your school librarian? So what can I say that doesn't get me fired?
We've had a bit of a struggle, I think, in our library for a little while for various reasons, not the librarians fault. There's just outside pressures. But we just now had a new librarian come in and she asked if I would sponsor. She's reaching out to clubs and teachers if we would sponsor a library shelf. whole books in the library that we appreciate that we, and maybe share a review of things like that. So I immediately was like, okay, right next to the graphic novel section.
So I put out a bunch of Laurie Hall Sanderson's books and her really powerful graphic adaptation of Speak, which I'm always surprised when I mentioned it, people are like, wait a minute, I didn't even know that that existed. And it's super powerful. So anyways, I put that up there. And so really excited for where this might lead moving forward.
But no, I actually don't have a lot of interaction within my own district, which is odd because I give like entire district -wide in services across the country, even around the world, because I teach through, I used to do a program through the US State Department. But I work with, like you said, we've met each other at, I think it was NJASL, and I do a lot of work with librarians and things like that because I think it just goes together.
And my wife who has her master's degree from Drexel, her librarian degree, she's also an English language arts teacher. It's just those humanities, they all go together. And I think I agree, Jarrett Lerner, does a lot of, like he shares this great stuff about how the library needs to be the center of the school. And I firmly believe that.
And I'm always so blown away when I go to other schools and the music is jamming in the library and the comfortable seats and there's books everywhere and there's a great vibe. And it just sets the tone for the whole district. And I'm hoping my district can get there. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's great that you've got a librarian who is looking to engage the faculty and the students via the faculty.
That's that's a really great way to build some community and some reading, some sense of reading community there. That's outstanding. So, okay. This is an awesome lesson. People absolutely should be taking this. They should be sharing it with their social studies teachers. They should be Think about how they can use it with their English teachers, their library. Their librarians should be building up their graphic novel collections to help support this. I love it. I love this. I love this.
I love this. We are now going to take a 90 degree turn and we're going to go into our book break. So the book break, we talk about any book you want that you think people should know about, personal, professional, whatever it is. What's something that you think people might want to get their hands on? So I always share about the March trilogy and run, right? So Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell, based on Congressman John Lewis's life during the Civil Rights Movement.
And it eliminates the issue, like Andrew talks about all the time, of the kids come out of this knowing about Rosa Parks, I Have a Dream, and Martin Luther King Jr. It gets into a much wider spectrum. And it talks about the connection to this idea that the Civil Rights Movement is not over. It's not just a black and white issue, you all these sorts of things. and it humanizes the movement.
And what I love is John Lewis as part of SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, these are students who are leading the charge. And so it's a really powerful thing with my kids. I have some really lower level kids in terms of reading ability in my 11th grade course some years, and the kids will tell me honestly, like this is the first book that they've read cover to cover. And so the first book we read, and I give them the teacher got all that kind of stuff.
The second and third books, all I have to do is I hand out sticky notes. And the kids just put in sticky notes when they react to different pages. The kids are like, you know, hollering across the classroom, like, did you just see this? Did you see that? And it's very authentic. And I am forever grateful for these books. They're so powerful. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. When I first read those, I literally, I was reading it. I read every night before I hit the, before I sack out.
And I was reading the first book of March and I had tears running down my face. Like I knew about the civil rights movement. Like I knew the theory, I knew the history of it, but like to see it humanized in that way and to experience it, literally through that first person perspective. And it is. perspective because you are seeing it happen as it happened to John Lewis. Like it is just, it's so powerful and it's so moving. And each of the books is so powerful and moving.
And it brings in so much, so much of the emotion and so much of the human element of something that I think in textbooks tends to get kind of dry. And like we talk about the facts, we talk about the history, we talk about these key people, but like you said, there were so many more people engaged and involved in what was going on with that than I had ever realized.
And I consider myself a fairly educated person, but there's just, it's such a wonderfully humanizing perspective of what was going on there. I'm really, RUN is gonna have some more sequels, isn't it? Or is it supposed to? So after the congressman died, they kind of was put on pause. And the question that Andrew in particular is asking is what made these books so powerful is it was authentically John Lewis. And so should they, could they, will they move forward?
And I don't have the answer to that, but maybe they approach it in a different way. But as far as I know right now, no. Although I will say Andrew runs at, Good Trouble Productions. He's got his own kind of upstart. comic book company and they're putting out comics now in the comic book stores to try to encourage young people to register to vote. And so I'm really hoping that even through that vehicle, I'm really proud of Andrew and the efforts that they're making.
And I'm excited for what might come about from all of this. Yeah. yeah. that's awesome. I didn't realize that's, that's great. Hmm. Man. That is, cannot agree more with that recommendation, man. What's a, what a great book. Even if you're only personally reading it, you absolutely want to get your hands on it, but man, you should have copies of this in your school. It is just so great. Hmm. Man. Love it. Love it. Love it. Anything else you want to toss out there that we might like?
I just read the Knight librarian. I don't know if you've seen this one. But what hap but I haven't seen the book itself yet. Yeah, so it's the New York Public Library and the characters in fairy tales and literature come to life at night. And I would say it's probably like fourth to seventh grade, you know, somewhere in that range. I absolutely loved it. Like I just it was such a great read and it's such a love letter to librarians.
So I figured I would share that obviously with you on the podcast and everything. But yeah, the night librarian, Christopher Lincoln, it just I loved it. I really did. And then I'll share two more if that's okay. So Ripple effects is out by fan base press. So they're doing a Kickstarter on this. They're redoing it. That's where I saw that title. saw them talking about their Kickstarter and I was going, I know this book from someplace. I'm sorry, go ahead.
no, no, no. Yeah. So what makes it so powerful and my own students have read it is their superheroes, the main superhero has type one diabetes and the focus is on invisible illnesses. And so, of course, we have a lot of kids with invisible illnesses in our classrooms. And I really saw this as being empowering. And in the comic, they have essays from people with like MS, with schizophrenia, other people who share their experiences. And so I'm going to try not to get upset.
So whenever I talk about my son, get upset. My son has an invisible illness, this really rare form of molar raised meningitis. And they had actually asked my son to and other kids to create a superhero to be included in this new book. And so he did. And they actually auctioned off the artwork to raise money for Make -A -Wish. And I wrote the teacher guide for it. You like I don't have my time because I find it to be a really super powerful book. But that's ripple effects.
And then The other one I just will throw out there. I was just absolutely blown away because you mentioned manga. So H .P. Lovecraft at the Mountains of Madness is this manga that I never, I just happened to pick it up at the comic book store. like, that looks really interesting. So I've never honestly read a whole lot of H .P. Lovecraft, but this is based on the Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Chariot -Garrett. So it's about one of the first Antarctic explorations. So you've got this.
giant book of prose, which is like, you know, it's one of those books that's on your bookshelf that, you know, nobody reads kind of thing. So he turned it into a graphic novel and it is so much more powerful in so many ways. So that led me to read this book. So I'm thinking like in a library what you can do, because in this it talks about Jules Verne and an Antarctic mystery. Then it led me to Fires on the Plane, which was written during World War II.
from a Japanese perspective and the influence from there. Then that led me to the narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe, which is also, so I must have bought like 10 books because of this one book. And I haven't read them all yet, but you you put that out in your classroom, in your library, and you're like, this will lead you to this. And we want, you know, kids and readers to make the connection. so he, Tanevay has also written like a lot of other H .B. Lovecraft.
graphic novels that I've started to read. So he's allowed me to jump into Lovecraft, which, and I know there's some complications with racism and things with Lovecraft, but what he has done in this graphic imagery is just so powerful. So, you I could nerd out about that too, but I just, you know, in the library, I love when you walk in and there's one central book and then it's also, you might also like these. And I love when I see that. Yeah. that's awesome. I love that.
Yeah. I was just saying something this morning about how when we can set kids on a path of something that interests them, they will consume all sorts of supplementary materials about that. like that is, that's it. That's it right there. You've nailed it. Man. Tim, I am so glad we got to have this conversation because this is awesome.
I think so many people are going to get so much out of this lesson and out of these recommendations and I hope that they are going to get your book, because your book is awesome. I hope they're going to visit your website, historycomics .net, right? Yep, go to there or teachingwithcomics .com. I'm trying to figure out, I'm not a tech guy, but either way I'll get you to my website, so many great free resources there. It's awesome. Tim, thank you so, much. I really appreciate it.
Yeah, and Steve, thanks for all you do as well.