Ben Hatke brings back our intrepid space heroine for another delightful sci-fi/fantasy adventure. Zita is determined to find her way home to earth, following the events of the first book. But things are never simple, and certainly never easy, in space. Zita's exploits from her first adventure have made her an intergalactic megastar! But she's about to find out that fame doesn't come without a price. And who can you trust when your true self is being eclipsed by your public persona, and you've got a robot doppelganger wreaking havoc . . . while wearing your face? Still, if anyone can find their way through this intractible mess of mistaken identity and alien invaders, it's the indomitable Zita, in Legends of Zita the Spacegirl. Legends of Zita the Spacegirl is one of Kirkus Reviews' Best Children's Books of 2012.

It's the middle-grade team-up of the century as the heroes of New York Times bestselling author Ben Hatke join forces to save the world in the epic graphic novel Mighty Jack and Zita the Spacegirl. Jack and Lilly are no strangers to heroics. They’ve befriended dragons, battled giants, and even earned the loyalty of a goblin army. So when they meet Zita the Spacegirl, fresh from her interplanetary travels and seeking their help to face a new threat, they’re more than ready for another adventure. But the danger growing just outside the door to their world is greater than anything the new friends could have imagined. An army of giants and screeds stands ready to lay siege to Earth, determined to put the age of humans to an end. With the gate between worlds growing weaker and time running out, can the heroes come together to save their world from their greatest enemy yet? This format is designed to be read on color devices and cannot be read on black-and-white e-readers.

Ben Hatke brings back our intrepid space heroine for another delightful sci-fi/fantasy adventure in this New York Times-Bestselling graphic novel trilogy for middle grade readers. Zita the Spacegirl has saved planets, battled monsters, and wrestled with interplanetary fame. But she faces her biggest challenge yet in the third and final installment of the Zita adventures. Wrongfully imprisoned on a penitentiary planet, Zita has to plot the galaxy's greatest jailbreak before the evil prison warden can execute his plan of interstellar domination!

Zita the Spacegirl has saved planets, battled monsters, and wrestled with interplanetary fame. But she faces her biggest challenge yet in the third and final installment of the Zita adventures. Wrongfully imprisoned on a penitentiary planet, Zita has

Covering genres from adventure and fantasy to horror, science fiction, and superheroes, this guide maps the vast terrain of graphic novels, describing and organizing titles to help librarians balance their graphic novel collections and direct patrons to read-alikes. New subgenres, new authors, new artists, and new titles appear daily in the comic book and manga world, joining thousands of existing titles—some of which are very popular and well-known to the enthusiastic readers of books in this genre. How do you determine which graphic novels to purchase, and which to recommend to teen and adult readers? This updated guide is intended to help you start, update, or maintain a graphic novel collection and advise readers about the genre. Containing mostly new information as compared to the previous edition, the book covers iconic super-hero comics and other classic and contemporary crime fighter-based comics; action and adventure comics, including prehistoric, heroic, explorer, and Far East adventure as well as Western adventure; science fiction titles that encompass space opera/fantasy, aliens, post-apocalyptic themes, and comics with storylines revolving around computers, robots, and artificial intelligence. There are also chapters dedicated to fantasy titles; horror titles, such as comics about vampires, werewolves, monsters, ghosts, and the occult; crime and mystery titles regarding detectives, police officers, junior sleuths, and true crime; comics on contemporary life, covering romance, coming-of-age stories, sports, and social and political issues; humorous titles; and various nonfiction graphic novels.

There is an increasing trend in teachers using graphic novels to get their students excited about reading and writing, using both original stories and adaptations of classic works by authors such as Homer, Shakespeare, and the Brontes. However, there is surprisingly little research available about which pedagogies and classroom practices are proven to be effective. This book draws on cutting-edge research, surveys and classroom observations to provide a set of effective methods for teaching with graphic novels in the secondary English language arts classroom. These methods can be applied to a broad base of uses ranging from understanding literary criticism, critical reading, multimodal composition, to learning literary devices like foreshadowing and irony. The book begins by looking at what English language arts teachers hope to achieve in the classroom. It then considers the affordances and constraints of using graphic novels to achieve these specific goals, using some of the most successful graphic novels as examples, including Maus; Persepolis; The Nameless City; and American Born Chinese and series such as Manga Shakespeare. Finally, it helps the teacher navigate through the planning process to figure out how to best use graphic novels in their own classroom. Drawing on their extensive teaching experience, the authors offer examples from real classrooms, suggested lesson plans, and a list of teachable graphic novels organized by purpose of teaching.

Reaching Reluctant Young Readers features 150 middle-grade books. Each profiled title has the potential to hook the reluctant reader and lure them to read the entire book. To specifically encourage elementary and middle-school-age reluctant children to read, there is first a pitch to get the reader’s attention. That is followed by a short reading passage to “set the hook” and encourage the young person to read the rest of the book on their own. Further, the book contains several hundred additional recommended titles. The books selected for this collection were chosen following the criteria of reluctant reader books created by the Quick Picks committee sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association. While these guidelines were designed for young adult books, they also work well for middle-grade books. The criteria include: clear writing (no convoluted long sentences with sophisticated vocabulary), high interest “hook” in the first few pages, well-defined characters, interesting plot, and familiar themes.