Daisy Kutter: The Last Train

I loved this book!! Which surprised me a little. Though my husband loves them, I have never really gotten into the comic book genre. Like Amy says in her blog, I generally have my own picture in my head of the characters and the story. I was so pleasantly surprised with this book though. I loved that the illustrations told just as much of the story as the dialogue did. "Reading" the illustrations took a little bit of getting used to at the beginning of the book. I think we are so used to just reading dialogue and skipping over the pictures, because normally they are just reitterating what is being written about, that taking time to actually pay attention to the illustrations was difficult at first, but well worth it as the story went on. This book was also remarkably good at developing the characters with very few words. I was able to really get into the story and felt like I knew Daisy personally by the end of the book.

It was interesting, because my husband (who is a 5th grade math teacher) read this book with me and we had a great discussion about ways it could be used in the classroom. Obviously you can teach all of the same conceptual ideas about stories with this book (ie. plot, story/character development, etc.). One thing that he mentioned though was that this format of book would be wonderful to use with struggling readers. My husband is severely Dyslexic (to the point that he was told by his teachers that he would never graduate from high school) and yet he loved and would actually read comic books. One of the reasons he loves comic books so much is because of the fact that you get to "read" the illustrations. With other books, my husband would easily give up, becuase he spent all of his time trying to decipher the words instead of comprehending the story, A person does not necessarily have to be a great reader to read and comprehend a book like this one, because the story is told jointly with words and pictures. It is not 153 pages of deciphering words. This type of book would probably attract students like my husband who struggle with reading and would be a phenomenal tool for developing those reading skills.

I also believe that this story appeals to both boys and girls, but might attract more boys than other more traditional books would, even with a strong, independent female as the main character. However, I think there was some language in the story that would make it inappropriate for younger readers.