Graphic Novels' Stories Appeal to All Types of Readers

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Byline: Sarah Long

Outside they're the size and shape of an ordinary book, but inside they look like comic books. What are they? Most likely, they're graphic novels.

Joel Hahn, a cataloging assistant at the Niles Public Library told me that a graphic novel is a book that uses art and words together to tell a story and is much longer than a standard comic book.

"But it doesn't have to be fiction," he said. "One of the best- known graphic novels is about one man's life before, during, and after being imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camp."

Hahn was referring to "Maus," by Art Spiegelman, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992.

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