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[taraljc]

Not the usual puff piece, as a South African article discusses the potential of fan fiction to improve youth literacyI think that is actually AWESOME. Speaking as someone who has long pushed the idea of comics as improving literacy at skeptical parents as a way of getting their kid to read (and read for pleasure), I like the non-judgemental

Comments

[amand_r]

OMG that is awesome. When I was in college I wrote at least three papers using comics as my main literary medium, just to "stick it to the man" because I worked in a comic shop and still to this day see it as a very valid and complex medium. I remember one paper compared Hamlet to Batman, and one ended up requiring me to photocopy and include the whole issue of Alpha Flight in which Northstar reveals that he is gay. I think that was for a literacy and juveniles class.

[kattahj]

That's really cool.

It just occurred to me that I've been using fanfic and fanart with my group of third grade boys - but since it was published fanfic in the first place, I didn't even notice! We read a book called "TV-tämjarna" (The TV tamers) about two kids who can take things from their TV or hop into it themselves. Among the TV characters they meet are the Cookie Monster, La Linea, and the Huxtables. When we were done with the book, we all drew what we would do if we had the same powers as the kids in the book. The boys drew Superman, the Simpsons, and Ronaldinho's soccer shoes, while I drew the TARDIS, and the Doctor fighting a Slitheen.