Kelly E. Tumy is a consultant in Texas, former president of TCTELA, one of five editors of the journal English in Texas. She was a 20-year high school English teacher, 8-year district coordinator, and a 6-year county-wide curriculum director. You can find out more about Kelly here or connect with her on Instagram @kellyreads_tx
What draws your attention to a strong Young Adult (YA) novel? At the top of my list is a really, and I mean really, good map. There is something about a novel that crosses genres, includes a map, and asks readers to use this tool to imagine the setting, create this sense of place. The great part of YA maps is that one map never reveals too much; they lead you to think of the story, the characters, and the trials and tribulations a bit differently. You have in your hands a rendering of place. What will you do with that information?
Many classrooms see the end of year approaching and have an opportunity for book clubs/novel groups. Novel choices around books with maps allow you to work cross-curricular magic with your social studies department, and they engage students with a new tool: the narrative map.
Graphic Fridays
Before diving into a map attached to a novel with little to no support, start working with graphics to show students what creators do differently with a picture than with narrative text. One tool I used in class was something called Graphic Fridays. I handed out a list of questions I adapted from Picturing Texts, and I had a rotating slideshow of connected images. I asked small groups of students to guess what I Googled to put the slide show together. They had to make the case for the correct answer. I always just Googled one word, so it was a fun exercise for them. This laid the groundwork to then attach this kind of work to novels with maps. Here is a link to some of the materials I used for Graphic Fridays. This was an engaging way to end the week (it didn’t happen every week!) and it was a way to teach visual literacy in an age where students are consuming more from a screen than ever.
Other Tools
Once we moved out of Graphic Fridays, I moved into straight visual literacy with students. We worked with photo essays from photographer James Mollison: Where Children Sleep; The Disciples-photo montages of music fans outside concerts to Peter Menzel’s photo essays about cultures around the world, and my personal favorite–Hungry Planet: What the World Eats. There is also the tried-and-true OPTIC method for examining a picture, map, or any other graphic. Take a look at any of these to get you started examining visual literacy resources. Many will help students see visuals differently and see past one item on a screen.
YA Maps
Now you’re ready to dive into YA literature maps. If you start with the ABC’s of Everyday Places and Spaces, you can work with students to see beyond just the time and place of setting. Move next into examining the map with an OPTIC strategy and returning to it throughout the reading to see how the map helps or even hinders your understanding of the narrative text. There are some novels that have stellar maps–maps that make the novel richer, deeper, more engaging. While this is not an exhaustive list, consider it a starting point if you decide to create a novel unit that highlights maps.
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart–The map of the private island on which the Sinclair family takes summer vacations serves not only as a grounding force in the novel, but it helps readers navigate who lives where…and why that is important to the novel.
- Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys–This map of a “new to me” story from WWII helped me make sense of where the four narrators were in the novel and why their locations were important to the novel as a whole.
- Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo–A fantasy map always helps readers who are not well-versed in reading fantasy make sense of a fantasy world. This map went miles helping this reader make sense of where the journey took place and why the intricacies were as difficult as the text outlined.
- City of a Thousand Dolls by Miriam Forster–This novel has a rudimentary yet incredibly helpful map of each main characters’ residence or house. By outlining their location around this fantasy world she showcases setting and world nuances for the reader.
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