Chester Comix
by Bentley Boyd
A Book Review by Troy Parrish

  We came across Chester Comixs at a home school fair in Sheppards Town, West Virginia. We had as a neighbor to our booth, where we sell organizer for home school families, a fellow by the name of Bentley Boyd who was selling comic books. I was initially puzzled by the presence of a fellow selling comic books at a home school fair, particularly since he had been one of the sponsors. During some of the lulls in the traffic, we were able to spend some time talking to him about his work.

He was generous enough to give us an autographed copy of one of his comics as well as the teachers guide to the book, Yes! a comic with a teacher's guide. Obviously, this read for me was a very easy read compared to some of the book I have been reading for this page.

Each comic book is researched for the writing and is written to be historically accurate, as accurate as a comic book can be. The purpose of the comic books is to encourage boys to read as well as to provide material that is historically accurate. Mr. Boyd studied both History and Literature at Harvard University so there is no slack in his academics and the comic that I read (I chose a period I know something about) was very accurate. But it is not only the accuracy that Mr. Boyd is shooting for, he also works to engage younger readers in the activity of reading and builds into the comics vocabulary words to expand the child's reading ability. Each comic book has several sections and the stories move rather quickly so they are fairly dense with information without being overwhelming.

The teacher's guides (which are purchased seperately) are very thorough with guides on how to introduce each of the stories in the comic book, introduction of the vocabulary, suggestions for word studies, suggestions for writing prompts, suggestions for activities that may include more history, social studies or science lessons as well as suggested questions for assessment of students. So each teacher's guide has these helps for each of the various stories contained in each comic (my comic had three stories within the one book). For anyone who does unit studies, this may be a really good addition.

Of course, the question to be asked is, do boys like to read the books? Mine did, and I took this quote off the Amazon web site concerning Chester Comix:

"These comics are enjoyed by our entire family. Our 10 year old son can't seem to put them down as the illustrations and content are clever and entertaining. We love how Bently Boyd brings history to life in a fun, creative and easy reading style. After my son is finished reading he can't wait to share what he read with the entire family. We have quite a few of Chester Comix with Content and love them all. This is a definate must have for the entire family."

You can find Chester Comix at: WWW.ChesterComix.com

See our article on encouraging boys to read here!

Be sure to check out our list of summer reading books here!