Reading With Pictures: Comics That Make Kids Smarter

Reading With Pictures asserts that high-quality comics can be a great tool to introduce children to complicated concepts. The idea is that children love to learn when information is presented in an engaging, succinct style, so this book presents specific, short concepts in core academic areas of Language Arts, Science, Mathematics, and Social Studies. Various artists are represented. Links to a website of lesson plans and potential uses of the book are included.

Most of the pieces I did find both engaging and informative, but others I felt took too much exposition to introduce characters and backstory before getting to the concept, and others I could not find the point at all (although they were fun to read). Sometimes the learning got completely lost in the comic. However, when it was done well it was an effective tool, and this collection should convince educators that this can be an effective learning method. Students will enjoy engaging with the characters in some of these stories in future adventures, and more information could be presented, faster, if new characters did not have to be introduced each time; I hope many more volumes are to come.