Wires and Nerve: Volume 2 - Gone Rogue

It’s been several years since I fell in love with Cinder, Cress, Scarlet, Winter and other strong female leads within the Lunar Chronicles series. A few months ago, I was pleasantly surprised to discover the graphic novel additions to this series. If you’re not familiar with the Lunar Chronicles, the best way to describe these stories would be science fiction meets the Disney Princesses. Despite the change in format from text to graphic novel, Wires and Nerve Volume 1 and 2 are a conclusion to the series, and not a spin-off from the series.

These graphic novels are told through the droid, Iko’s, perspective in order to conclude the series. To me,the graphic novel format felt perfect as a way to share the perspective of a droid compared to the previous perspectives of human characters. The difference in formats relates directly to Iko’s ongoing internal conflict between having human emotions, but only being a droid. In Wires and Nerve Volume 2, Iko and her friends attempt to hunt down Alpha Lysander Steele in order to save Cinder and the innocent people on Earth from his revenge. However, Iko struggles to come to terms with being a droid in a world of human emotions, which takes her on an emotional journey that risks being in the way of a mission to save the innocent people on Earth.

I would recommend the Lunar Chronicles series to readers grade 7 and above. However, readers may be confused with character relationships and conflict if they do not have the background knowledge from the previous books in the series. Therefore, I would encourage readers not to start with the graphic novels, but with getting to know the characters in Cinder, when starting this series.

Given the large number of characters throughout this story, and the amount of time that passed since I read the previous books in the series, I appreciated the visual representation of each character to help me keep track of relationships and emotions throughout the conclusion of the series. Stephen Gilpin, the illustrator, did a fantastic job illustrating the fast pace of ideas during arguments throughout Volume 2, and the thought process of the narrator as demonstrated on page 172. On this page, I love the look of intense concentration on Iko’s face (center character with braids) while the rest of the characters are quickly sharing their ideas; as demonstrated by the large number of scattered speech bubbles around her on the page.

Recommended Related Readings:

• The Lunar Chronicles series 
• Book 1: Cinder
• Book 2: Scarlet
• Book 3: Cress
• Book 4: Fairest: Levana’s Story
• Book 5: Winter
• Wires and Nerve: Volume 1
• Science Comics: Robots and Drones: Past, Present and Future by Mairghread Scott and Jacob Chabot
• The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

Science Comics: Robots and Drones: Past, Present, and Future

The Science Comic series published by First Second is a favorite among all readers in my life.  The most recent release from this series is Robots and Drones: Past, Present, and Future by Mairghread Scott and Jacob Chabot.

Pouli, the narrator, is a bird (born 350 BCE) who also happens to be the first machine that flew in the sky.  Pouli takes readers through a chronological progression of the history of robots and drones.  As someone who is very new to the world of robots and drones,  I appreciated the real-life comparisons made throughout this story to help the reader better understand how robots are everywhere within our lives.   I'll admit that I never considered my coffee pot a robot until I read this book!  In order to help readers understand the differences between robots and non-robots (remote control cars, humans, computers, simple machines), the author and illustrator used visuals and vocabulary to help describe the subtle, yet important, differences between the two.

Given that I have no background knowledge about robots and drones, I would have been completely lost if it weren't for the engaging visuals used to describe the vocabulary throughout this book.  My favorite example of how visuals helped me understand a concept was on page 71 when describing the difference between resistors and conductors:

In addition to the vocabulary, the author and illustrator did an amazing job making this book enticing to all readers.  I would recommend this book to any reader who has a budding interest in robots and drones.  The fact that the illustrator was purposeful in incorporating diverse characters, as shown on page 67, was something that I noted multiple times while reading this book.

As a teacher, I couldn't help but think about how I could use this book to inspire argumentative writing topics.  Near the end of the book, there were many ethical and hypothetical questions asked relating to the future developments of robots and drones.  These questions could be used to help students deeper investigate arguments for or against the advanced developments of robots and drones.

If you have readers that will enjoy this book, they might also enjoy these titles:

• The Secret Coders (Books 1-5) by Gene Luen Yang and Mike Holmes
• Science Comics: Flying Machines by Alison Wilgus and Molly Brooks
• Wires and Nerve (Vol. 1 and Vol. 2) by Marissa Meyer and Stephen Gilpin

My Purpose Was Hiding with the Monsters

I miss blogging.  I still write daily in my notebook, but the audience piece of blogging always motivates my purpose for my writing.  At least once a week, I have some kind of conversation with my husband about the purpose of why I want to blog.  We discussed many ideas such as sharing about teaching instruction, co-parenting or interventions.   As much as those topics fill me with joy, there are some not so joyful moments that I just don't wish to make public.  I could easily skip those parts, but then I feel as if I'm not telling the full story and I don't think I could commit to those ideas.

After talking to Melia at Cover to Cover Books in Upper Arlington, I realized my blogging purpose is right in front of me, and under my bed, above and below my nightstand, hidden under the couch, living with the monster under my daughter's bed and scattered around my classroom.  If you know me, you've probably guessed it by now...graphic novels!  I love anything and everything to do with graphic novels.  I have witnessed many self-proclaimed, non-readers transform into avid readers with a graphic novel in hand. 

While I would love to share teaching strategies and ways to use graphic novels within the classroom, I want this blog to focus more on reviews of graphic novels.  When reading a graphic novel, I read it with my students and own children in mind. 

• Does this book have strong vocabulary?  
• Do the graphics help tell a story along with the words?  
• Do the gutters between the panels help readers to infer?
• How diverse are the characters?  
• Are the graphics appropriate for certain ages?  If not, why?
• What is the conflict in this story?  Is it going to be something my readers can relate to?  Or is it going to be to childish or mature for them?
• What other books could I recommend that are related to this story?
• Are there specific Notice and Note strategies that stick out to me as I'm reading this story? 

These are just a few examples of the information that I plan on providing in my reviews.  I would love to hear your feedback on other types of information that you look for when considering purchasing graphic novels for your classroom.  

If you are new to the world and graphic novels and are looking for resources on how to better understand, incorporate and use graphic novels for instruction in your classroom, these are two of my favorite resources.

1. Adventures in Graphica: Using Comics and Graphic Novels to Teach Comprehension by Terry Thompson  
2. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud