Graphic elements

Christmas came early this year for the Mariposa County Library as they continue to look for ways to support the wants and needs of the community.

The library received a graphic novel grant from the John Henry Eldred Jr. Foundation.

The organization takes pride in helping to fund regional nonprofits dedicated to addressing food security, housing stability and youth education, as well as low-income rural libraries.

“This grant was right up our alley,” said Mariposa County Librarian Matt Johnson.

“I’ve been a big proponent of building up our graphic novel collection.”

The grant is worth $5,500 and can be used to build the library’s book collection along with programming.

“We’re probably going to set aside about $1,000 for hosting programs and doing things related to graphic novels while the rest of it is just for buying books for our branches,” said Johnson.

“We see a lot of kids coming in and they really like the Dogman series and Wings of Fire,” Johnson explained.

“We get adults and young adults who want the latest Manga and other things, so we’ve really been putting a focus on that over the last year or two.”

The Mariposa County Library hosted its first Comic Con a couple years ago and the event proved there is a desire for that kind of content within local libraries.

Two years ago the library also had a Comic Book Club for the first time.

“With this funding we would be able to do another Comic Con and continue with the Comic Book Club,” Johnson said.

“We’re looking at maybe doing that again.”

In the past the library has offered a slate of activities centered around graphic novels.

“We looked at how do you create a graphic novel, what goes into producing it, what are the elements of a good story along with popular comic book producers such as Marvel and DC,” continued Johnson.

“We looked at offering that again this last summer but we had a lot of other things going on.”

Another idea would be participating in Free Comic Book Day which typically occurs within comic book stores during May where stores give away a comic book or two to customers.

“That would be really cool and it’s an idea we’ve tossed around,” Johnson said.

Graphic novels support literacy and can be a positive avenue to get kids excited about reading.

“I taught for two years (fourth and fifth graders) and I had kids who didn’t like to read,” Johnson said.

“With graphic novels, it opens up a whole other world to them. It can really help kids with their literacy and forming a love of reading early in life.”

The library has received the funding, it’s been added to the budget and the money is ready to be utilized for relevant, updated materials.

“Our staff has been researching and putting together a shopping cart,” Johnson said.

“We basically get a shopping spree to add something that I absolutely love and a lot of people in the community love. It’s just fun.”

The community, especially the youth, want newer, up-to-date titles.

“Kids become familiar with titles they see so if we’re not adding those things to the library they’re not going to show interest,” Johnson said.

“Most of what we will be getting for our branches will be books that have been published in the last year or two and we’ll try to get a little bit of everything for everyone.”

The library is looking for recommendations from the community.

Anyone interested in submitting recommendations can stop by the Mariposa County Library (4978 10th Street) or call (209) 966-2140.

Recommendations can also be sent by email to Johnson at matt.johnson@mariposacounty.org

“We just got this grant so the wheels are still turning in terms of ideas but we’re super excited,” Johnson said.

“We’ve done several grants but this one might be one of my favorites.”