Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Get 'Em Hooked While They're Young
I leave a lot of my comics lying around the house, and occasionally my daughter (age two) will pick them up. Usually she just glances at them and puts them back down, but every now and then one holds her interest and she pages through the whole thing. I was particularly impressed the other day when she grabbed a manga (Gon Volume 1) that was sitting on my dresser and started reading the book right-to-left. I didn't coach her on how to read the book, and she never reads her other books "backwards" so I'm not sure how she knew this one read in the other direction. I suppose I'll have to leave other manga lying around and see if she reads those "back-to-front" as well.
As you can see in the picture below, she's turning the pages from right-to-left:
Even more interestingly, I could tell from watching her that she was reading the panels in the proper order as well (something I've been impressed that she's able to do with Western comics as well, since I never taught her how panel transitions work). And she understood what she read, because afterwards she couldn't stop talking about how the dinosaur was so small but he still beat up the big bear! And how the dinosaur rode the lion! And how the dinosaur built a really big beaver dam! And how the dinosaur flew like a birdy and fought a big cat! And finally she announced: "I really liked it, Daddy! Can I read it again?"* I guess it really is a testament to Masashi Tanaka's wordless storytelling skills that even a preliterate reader can follow what's going on in his books!
* I know I'm biased, but Best Manga Review Ever.
I leave a lot of my comics lying around the house, and occasionally my daughter (age two) will pick them up. Usually she just glances at them and puts them back down, but every now and then one holds her interest and she pages through the whole thing. I was particularly impressed the other day when she grabbed a manga (Gon Volume 1) that was sitting on my dresser and started reading the book right-to-left. I didn't coach her on how to read the book, and she never reads her other books "backwards" so I'm not sure how she knew this one read in the other direction. I suppose I'll have to leave other manga lying around and see if she reads those "back-to-front" as well.
As you can see in the picture below, she's turning the pages from right-to-left:
Even more interestingly, I could tell from watching her that she was reading the panels in the proper order as well (something I've been impressed that she's able to do with Western comics as well, since I never taught her how panel transitions work). And she understood what she read, because afterwards she couldn't stop talking about how the dinosaur was so small but he still beat up the big bear! And how the dinosaur rode the lion! And how the dinosaur built a really big beaver dam! And how the dinosaur flew like a birdy and fought a big cat! And finally she announced: "I really liked it, Daddy! Can I read it again?"* I guess it really is a testament to Masashi Tanaka's wordless storytelling skills that even a preliterate reader can follow what's going on in his books!
* I know I'm biased, but Best Manga Review Ever.
Labels: John's Daughter Reviews Comics, Kids Reading Comics, Manga
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