Educational and library publisher ABDO announced an agreement to license and offer e-book versions of Marvel comic books beginning in the Fall 2011 school year. In addition the publisher—ABDO has long worked to highlight the utility of comics in education—has created a series of free downloadable teacher guides focused on vocabulary building and based on ABDO’s Spotlight pop culture line of comics licensed from such publishers as Marvel and Dark Horse.
ABDO pioneered the practice of producing library editions of comic books and has been releasing Marvel comics in library and school editions through its Spotlight division since 2006. Now the educational publisher will offer Flash driven e-book “flip books” of the more than 150 Marvel Age and Marvel Illustrated titles it publishes.
Publisher Jim Abdo said, “We know kids and teens love these action-packed adventure stories in print. With eBooks of Marvel titles, we’re going to help educators entice readers with the latest reading technologies using the most popular characters in the world, all for kids to enjoy a book while they build reading and computer literacy skills."
ABDO has also worked to create vocabulary teacher guides, compiling 23 sets of guides covering about 104 books from Marvel and Dark Horse that cover the entire Star Wars saga, Iron Man, The Hulk, Indiana Jones and more. The guides are free to download.
ABDO marketing director Dan Verdick said that “The old cliché of a teacher confiscating a comic book because it’s not good reading is long gone,” but added that “even today comic books and graphic novels are misunderstood by educators, parents and adminstrators when it comes to how much they can help build reading skills.” Not only are comics obviously popular “personal” choices for kids, Verdick said, “but they are also filled with academic vocabulary terms and sophisticated themes.”
Verdick said ABDO used a team of reading teachers, editors, and comics fans to produce the guides, which include reproducible vocabulary worksheets, research and creative writing ideas, themes for discussion and literature circles, and much more. The ABDO reading team found 3,519 separate terms in the 104 books that are 5th grade level and up. Marvel’s four-book Avengers set, Verdick said, contains more than 150 different 5th and 6th grade vocabulary terms and the guide runs to 22 pages.
In line with ABDO’s support of comics in the classroom, Verdick pointed out that the publisher sponsors a workshop entitled, “Reading is a Superpower: Comic Books & Graphic Novels in Schools & Libraries” that it conducts at state and district educational conferences across the U.S. And ABDO also offers a free research compilation, “Comic Books & Literacy” aimed at helping educators write grants or simply persuade colleagues that comics and graphic novels can build reading skills.
“The research is clear--for any reader, whether on-level, ELL, Title I, boys, or Special Ed.--comic books can help teach kids to read,” Verdick said. “Our free research compilation was designed to help educators understand how powerful these books can be for reading skill development. We’ve assembled great tools for educators to defend their collection choices, create super readers, and make the most of these incredibly popular adventures in their school or library.”
