to read or not to read...Graphic Novels

I've been a graphic novel fan for a long time, but there's quite a bit of controvery among educators about them.  Some say they're worthless, while others vehemently disagree. I'm in the latter group; I like them very much.   Here are a few of my favorites and a bit about them. 
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Persepolisis is Satrapi’s memoir-in-comic–strips. It is the story of an unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution. It  chronicles a girlhood and adolescence at once outrageous and familiar, a young life entwined with the history of her country yet filled with the universal trials and joys of growing up.

Stitches by David Small

One day David Small awoke from a supposedly harmless operation to discover that he had been transformed into a virtual mute. A vocal cord removed, his throat slashed and stitched together like a bloody boot, the fourteen-year-old boy had not been told that he had cancer and was expected to die. In Stitches, Small, the award-winning children’s illustrator and author, re-creates this terrifying event in a life story that might have been imagined by Kafka.

Maus I : a survivor's tale : my father bleeds history 

A story of a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe and his son, a cartoonist who tries to come to terms with his father's story and history itself.

The Arrival by Shaun Tan

In this wordless graphic novel, a man leaves his homeland and sets off for a new country, where he must build a new life for himself and his family.

Enjoy!