Best Friends

Presentation of the graphic memoir Best Friends

written by Shannon Hale and illustrated by LeUyen Phamwritten

Sarah Betard, Astrid Videloup - MEEF2 Anglais

Interactive Table of contents

Analysis

Presentation of the graphic book

POSSIBLE UseS in ESL classroom

• Fairy tales
• Bullying
• Women
• School trip
• From comics to drama

• The authors
• The Real Friends series
• The plot
• The characters

• Change in social relationships
• Emotions
• Questions of identity

Presentation of the graphic book

The REAL Friends series

The authors

The Plot

The Characters

The authors

Shannon Hale was born in 1974. She grew up in Utah, in a mormon community. She mostly writes for young adults and teens. She is bestselling author of the Ever After High series and the award-winning graphic novel Real Friends (#1). She co-writes with her husband middle grade novels such as The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, The Princess in Black.

LeUyen Pham was born in 1973 in Saigon. She attended university in California and lives now in Los Angeles. She is a children's book author and illustrator. She won a prize for Bear Came Along in 2020.

They work together on the Real friend series and on The Princess in Black series

The Real Friends series

The series belong to the genre of the memoir (an autobiography revolving around a specific event or time, here the transition from childhood to adolescence). Shannon Hale relates the difficulties she encountered as a child. The targetted audience is children from 8 to 12 years old.

5th grade

6th grade

8th grade

The plot

The main character, Shannon, is in 6th grade. The book focuses on her school year and her relationships with her friends. The graphic novel enables the reader to access her internal thoughts and emotions and can strongly identify with her. The book is divided into 4 chapters. A fictionnal story, written by Shannon Hale at the time, interrupts and echoes the main plot throughout the book. Check out the summary of each chapters : And the plot of the fictional story here :

Here is a trailer of the graphic novel :

The CHARActers - PART 1

The kids in Shannon's school

Put your mouse on the characters to reveal who they are

The CHARActers - PArt 2

The Characters from the fictional story

Shannon's family

The teacherS

AnalysIs

Change in social relationships

Questions of IDENTITY

Emotions

Change in social relationsHIPS

• New rules:

As Shannon enters in 6th grade, she struggles to understand how relationships work: - What’s popular? what should she listen to or watch on TV? Is it ok to hang out with boys?

• Becoming a teenager

She tries to understand all the changes: what's still funny? What's not? What's can I say? What can I not? Am I “normal”? and she pull it all internal. The shape of the panels also participates to express the teenage years The use of the gutter and large panels shows two perspectives from two different worlds.

Emotions

• Shannon’s emotions are emphasized

• Use of splash pages shown before like this one highlights Shannon's anxiety. The use of splash pages reveals how her emotions are out of control. This technique allows a moment in time where the story stopped.

• The authors use a lot of captions. Indeed, they are not many dialogues from Shannon, the main character but much more captions so she can express how she feels, tell her experiences. It is a way, as readers, to know more about her.

• Perspective from an adult (the author) to raise awareness on anxiety disorder

When Shannon visits the doctor for her stomachaches, he announces “It’s probably just anxiety” as he gives her a candy. Shannon is alone on this panel which represents how lonely and misunderstood she is.

• Powerful of weak

LeUyen Pham made the choice to draw Shannon according to her characterization in the story. Her size in the panels changes. When she feels confident, she finds herself having the same posture in her group of friends. Whereas, when she feels anxious, she diminishes.

Questions of Identity

Because Shannon is growing up, the graphic memoir rises several questions linked with identity : Shannon is figuring out who she is and who she wants to become.

• Becoming a woman : hannon questions her identity as a girl. The second chapter revolves around this question between the changing relationships with boys and the definition of womanhood by people around her.

• Ethical questions : With all the bullying and rejection happening in her school, Shannon often feels bad about mistreating other people. She is stuck in a moral dilemma: being popular and keep her friends or being a bad person. This affects how she feels about herself.

• Becoming a writer : The novel tends to show Shannon as a predestined writer.

• The whole graphic novel revolves around the word "essence". Shannon's quest is to find hers.

POssible uses in ESL classroom

The main difficulty of adapting the book is that the themes could be too childish for old teenagers or high school students; yet the language is too complex for young teenagers. Besides, OCD and anxiety could be a difficult issue to talk about in class.

Here are 5 ideas to use the graphic novel Best Friends in class, in Junior High or in High School:

• Use in 6e or 5e as an introduction to the simple past
• Use in 4e or 3e as a discussion work on bullying
• Use in 4e or 3e to study the achievements of women
• Use in 4e or 3e as a model to write their own sequential art on their school trip
• Use 3e or Seconde as a whole reading of the graphic novel and introduction to performing arts

From comic to drama

School trips

FairyTales

Women

Bullying

Fairytales

Notions of the curriculum: Cycle 3: Imaginaire Cycle 4: Voyages et migrations

Target class: 6e 5e

Theme: Fairytales

What would be studied: - simple past (-ed) - characteristics of the fairytale: a quest, magical object, companions and villains, narrative scheme.

Pages used: The entire fictionnal story.

Idea of final mission: Write a fairytale.

Bullying

Notions of the curriculum: Ecole et société

Target class: 4e 3e

Theme: Bullying

What would be studied: - modal: SHOULD - emotions felt by victims - open a dialogue on bullying

Idea of final mission: For Bullying National Day, create a poster on what one should do as a bystander to stop bullying.

Pages used: p. 99, 189-190, 220.

Women

Notions of the curriculum: Ecole et société

Target class: 4e 3e

Theme: Women

What would be studied: - relation between gender and job - superlatives - adverbs of intensity

Idea of final mission: You belong in Shannon's class. Write about someone you know who you think should be the next civilian astronaut.

Pages used: p.100-105

school trips

Notions of the curriculum: Voyages et migrations

Target class: 4e 3e

Theme: School trip

What would be studied: - simple past - present perfect -> common project with the Art teacher

Idea of final mission: After your school trip, write your own comics about it.

Pages used: p. 219-223

FRom comics to drama

Notions of the curriculum: Cycle 4: Langages Seconde: Représentation de soi et rapport à autrui La création et le rapport aux arts.

Target class: 3e Seconde

Theme: From comics to drama

What would be studied: - emotions - drama techniques - how to adapt a comic into drama

Pages used: The whole novel.

Idea of final mission: Act out a passage from the novel.

CONCLUSION

This graphic memoir represents the transition between childhood and adolescence:

• Relationships with others are always changing
• Shannon is invaded by her emotions
• Shannon shapes her identity (as a woman, as a writer, as a Christian)

Because of this, any young teenagers can identify to Shannon. Teachers can use Best Friends to open discussions about their environment, their daily life, their emotions. Some subjects should be questionned depending on the age of the students.