Compiled from works produced by its publisher-clients, Diamond Book Distributors has released The Diamond Graphic Novel Common Core List, a collection of 101 graphic novels arranged by grade level that will satisfy the Common Core curriculum. Released during the annual American Library Association Convention in Chicago, the list includes other support resources and is designed to highlight graphic texts that can be used to prepare students for the specific grade level achievements demanded as part of the Common Core State standards, the much debated and ballyhooed national educational initiative to focus and standardize the country’s educational goals.
The Common Core Standards are said to be designed so that kids across the country will have the same educational skill level at each grade level. The Diamond Graphic Novel Common Core List is intended to highlight graphic texts that teachers can use to prep their students for the testing that will be a part of implementing the Common Core Standards. But the list is also part of a growing marketing push to educate trade and comics publishers, as well as teachers, librarians and parents, of the utility (and popularity) of comics for education and the burgeoning commercial opportunities for book-format comics in education at all levels.
Kuo-Yu Liang, DBD v-p, sales and marketing said the list represents Diamond’s longterm commitment to support and promote “graphic novels as legitimate teaching tools. With the Diamond Graphic Novel Common Core List, we hope to help educators and librarians get ahead of the curve of this new initiative, while enjoying some great stories and art.”
The list is compiled from works produced by publishers distributed by Diamond and includes titles targeting curriculum requirements starting with pre-K through first grade on to Tenth grade and upwards. Titles include James Kochalka’s Johnny Boo Does Something (Top Shelf, Pre-K-1stgrade), Jill Thompson’s Scary Godmother (Dark Horse, 4th Grade), Jim Ottaviani and Jeffrey Jone’s Fallout: J. Robert Oppenheimer, Leo Szilard, and The Political Science Of The Atomic Bomb (G.T. Labs, 7th Grade) to McCreery, Conor and Belanger’s Kill Shakespeare (IDW, 10th Grade) and Eddie Campbell’s The Lovely Horrible Stuff: My Book About Money (Top Shelf, 10th Grade). There’s even a Pinterest board.
The list was produced by Ellen Myrick, president of Myrick Marketing & Media, an library/educational consultant for Diamond Books Distributions. The list was put together, she said, with the help of “graphic novel experts and teachers suggested and selected the titles for inclusion, highlighting those titles that can be used as informational texts, those based on the literary canon and award-winning, critically-acclaimed works.”
