Reading about challenging issues in an appealing format such as graphic novels can be an even more rewarding and validating literary experience for today's teens.
Caring and compassionate school librarians have long known the value of using books to help students address challenging issues in their personal lives. These school librarians know the importance of providing students with titles that help them understand life's everyday ups and downs, as well as more difficult concerns. School librarians have often used bibliotherapy strategies to help K-12 students cope with life's problems. Karen Davis and Timothy L. Wilson describe bibliotherapy as a process that leads youth toward emotional good health through the medium of literature (1992). Ancient Greeks used the terms biblion (book) and therapeia (healing) (Rudman, Gagne, and Bernstein 1993). Graphic novels can be effective bibliotherapy tools for middle and high school students, since many of the titles deal with challenging issues that students have experienced.
When school librarians use engaging 21st-century literacies like graphic novels to help students address challenging issues, this activity enables school librarians to "cultivate attributes that will serve them and society" (AASL...