Angela Amarhanov, Alejandro Gutierrez, and Christina Tomaselli
The three of us volunteered at Light
Street Branch Library every Tuesday in the Fall 2009 semester. We worked
with the youth that visited the library and participated in the youth programs
such as a monthly book reading, Wii games, and board games. The librarian, Melanie,
asked us to try to interest the teens in exploring the untouched classics section
of the teen area. She expressed the youth’s lack of interest in the classic
literature as opposed to the rising popularity of the graphic novel.
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Ange (front row, left), Christina (front row, middle), Alejandro (second from left), and Melanie (back row, third from left) with copies of the graphic novel version of Huck Finn. |
We worked together to formulate our own Tuesday youth program to spark interest of classic literature. We chose to focus on Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. We found a graphic novel version of Huck Finn and used a selection from it during a Tuesday program. We also had the youth come up with answers to the question “What would you bring if you had to go on an adventure like Huck?” and played the game, “Two Truths and Lie,” where each person states two true things and one false thing about him or herself. The program about Huck Finn stimulated the curiosity of the Light Street youth and one teen was the first to check out the actual The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn novel since 1999!
Meet the Light Street Liars and River
Rafters
Why a graphic novel?
The graphic novel version of
Huckleberry Finn
Photos from the book discussion