{"id":15496,"date":"2019-12-16T15:47:29","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T15:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/ner\/?p=15496"},"modified":"2019-12-16T20:52:58","modified_gmt":"2019-12-16T20:52:58","slug":"graphic-medicine-for-kids-and-teens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_7\/2019\/12\/16\/graphic-medicine-for-kids-and-teens\/","title":{"rendered":"Graphic Medicine for Kids and Teens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-15498 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/ner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/12\/YAGM-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Collage of book covers for Sunny Side Up, Hyperbole and a Half, Ghosts, The Truth About Stacey and Hey Kiddo.\" width=\"506\" height=\"285\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/12\/YAGM-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/12\/YAGM-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/12\/YAGM-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/12\/YAGM.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 506px) 100vw, 506px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Graphic Medicine<\/em>\u00a0is comic books and graphic novels that cover topics of health and wellness.\u00a0 The visual format makes the information easier to understand and digest.\u00a0 By reading a personal, non-fiction story, we can learn about issues we may not have experienced ourselves.\u00a0 These stories can also help us feel less alone in our own lives.<\/p>\n<p>People who aren\u2019t familiar with graphic medicine often assume that it\u2019s mainly a tool for health communication with kids and teens.\u00a0 When mainstream audiences think about comics and graphic novels, they picture the comics they read as kids (superheroes, romance, teen drama), and may not be aware of the large variety of fiction and non-fiction works written for adults. In fact, a lot of graphic medicine works are primarily focused on communicating with adults with language and illustrations not designed for young audiences.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t as simple as \u201cadult content\u201d, but also references that may go over younger readers heads or don\u2019t resonate with them.<\/p>\n<p>Here are a few examples of graphic medicine works that were written specifically with kids and young adults in mind.<\/p>\n<p>For Kids:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/search\/book?keys=raina+telgemeier\">Many of the books by Raina Telgemeier<\/a> have health and wellness themes including <em>Smile<\/em>, <em>Sisters<\/em>, and <em>Guts<\/em>, autobiographical works dealing with dental issues, sibling rivalry, and \u201ctummy troubles\u201d caused by anxiety. <em>Ghosts<\/em> and <em>The Truth About Stacey<\/em>, fiction by Telgemeier, deal with cystic fibrosis, sibling relationships and diabetes.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/9781419712173\">El Deafo by Cece Bell<\/a> uses animal characters to illustrate the author\u2019s childhood experiences being deaf and having to use the Phonic Ear (a bulky hearing aid).<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/9780545741668\">Sunny Side Up by Jennifer Holm<\/a> and its sequels follow Sunny as she deals with changing family relationships, sibling substance use and growing up.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For Teens:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/9780545902489\">Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka<\/a> tells the autobiographical story of Krosoczka\u2019s experience being raised by his grandparents and his mother\u2019s substance use.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/9781451666175\">Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh<\/a> started as a webcomic and blog where Brosh talked about everything from funny childhood stories to illustrating and explaining how her depression manifests in her life and how she deals with it. Although not written with teens in mind, several of Brosh\u2019s works have become internet memes and may be recognizable to a teen audience.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/9781848193307\">What Does Consent Really Mean?<\/a> and coming in September, 2020, a companion book for parents, teachers and others on talking to young people about consent and other related topics, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Conversations-About-Consent-Resource-Professionals\/dp\/1787750817\/ref=sr_1_5?qid=1576072104&amp;refinements=p_27%3APete+Wallis&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-5&amp;text=Pete+Wallis\">Conversations about Consent: A Resource Book for Professionals and Parents<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These are just a few examples of graphic novels with health themes written for young people, but many graphic novels for kids and young adults deal with growing up, interpersonal relationships and other mental and physical health issues.\u00a0 Your local library probably has titles already in their children and teen collection that they may not have thought of as graphic medicine or for communicating health issues with kids.<\/p>\n<p>Learn more about Graphic Medicine, including lesson plans for grades 7-10, by visiting the NLM\u2019s website for the traveling exhibit\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlm.nih.gov\/exhibition\/graphicmedicine\/\"><em>Graphic Medicine: Ill-Conceived, Well-Drawn<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 Or request a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nnlm.gov\/ner\/graphic-medicine-book-club-kits\">Graphic Medicine Book Club Kit<\/a>\u00a0for your library, school or community group to try.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Graphic Medicine\u00a0is comic books and graphic novels that cover topics of health and wellness.\u00a0 The visual format makes the information easier to understand and digest.\u00a0 By reading a personal, non-fiction story, we can learn about issues we may not have experienced ourselves.\u00a0 These stories can also help us feel less alone in our own lives&#8230;. <a href=\"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_7\/2019\/12\/16\/graphic-medicine-for-kids-and-teens\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1173,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[275],"tags":[265,110,269],"class_list":["post-15496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-graphic-medicine","tag-graphic-medicine","tag-health-literacy","tag-youth"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1173"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15496"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15500,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15496\/revisions\/15500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}