Thank you to who?Comics for sponsoring this post and encouraging my child to read biographies in comic book form! Please click here to learn more about the app. And follow who? Comics on Twitter for updates!
Let’s just say that I am less than enthused when it comes to history and social studies. That’s why I was very excited, as was my daughter, to try the new who? Biography Comics app for the iPad.
One of the free comics included was about Bill Gates. Consistant with comic genre (Korean manhwa), somewhat serious characters would suddenly morph into deformed and exaggerated drawings which seems completely out of place but provided a light-heartedness to the material. That occured a lot in these comics. After all, how else do you make Bill Gates and his entire life of computer programming fun?! My daughter couldn’t wait to read each new chapter and often giggled as we went though the 150-something pages together.
After the book I asked my daughter two questions to see if she gained anything from the biography:
Me: So who is Bill Gates?
Munchkin: He is the person that made Windows and Microsoft.
Me: What made him special?
Munchkin: He was very smart.
The second book we read was about Coco Chanel. Wow, what an interesting story! Actually, I meant to skim through the story before going over it with my daughter but got so involved that I ended up reading the whole thing. This turned out to be good because there were a couple of mature themes I needed to prepare my daughter for. When reading these, there is one major point you need to keep in mind: These are not fictional comics with happy endings and unicorns but, rather, these are biographies of real people merely drawn in comic form. That means certain subjects are touched on such as death of loved ones, sickness, war, disagreements, persecution, etc.
Overall the situations were addressed tastefully but in Coco’s story, you do see her mother cough up blood (she ended up dying of tuberculosis) and one scene shows several Nazi swastikas (during WW II). They did not draw out either of these past one frame. After comparing the story with what I read on Wikipedia, it seemed pretty close to the summary of her life without mentioning her political ties, her numerous affairs, or drug addition – not necessary tidbits for elementary-aged children. Further research can be done when they are older to get all the nitty-gritty details of the person if desired. I think the way her story was related was done very well for an audience of children 8 to 13 years of age. It is even a nice introduction for those 14+.
Me: So who is Coco Chanel?
Munchkin: She was a famous fashion designer.
Me: What made her stand out as special?
Munchkin: She was very bold.
I have been very impressed with what we’ve read so far. While $4.99 is a standard price for digital books, the discounted sets are much more cost effective. I would like to see some figures from more ancient times but perhaps that will come later on. In the meantime, I already started to recommend who? Comics to other homeschooling families to try free. This is a great resource and we can’t wait to read another biography!
Thank you again to who? Comics for sponsoring my post. Please click here to learn more about the app. Visit who? Comics for updates. I was selected for this opportunity by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions expressed here are my own. #CleverWhoComics #spon
