Red: A Haida Manga, by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas - It's Monday, What Are You Reading.

Cover of Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas' Red: A Haida Manga. Image care of chapters.indigo.ca

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is often credited with the creation of the "Haida Manga" genre of graphica, and Red is one of his most well-known works. It tells a classic Haida cautionary tale of pride and revenge in a very visual style. What's more, the pages of the book can be removed and put together to build a mural (though readers will need two copies of the book to do this properly).

Mural made of pages from Red: A Haida Manga. Image care of Huffington Post.

Yahgulanaas encourages readers to take the book apart for this purpose, and as much as it hurts me to take books apart, I think this is required to really appreciate the art of this book. When read in a linear fashion, some of the book feels out of order or like bits are missing. The extra connections made between pages complete the picture, and the story. And I think students would love the opportunity to take apart a book, just for the taboo of it. It would be great inspiration before encouraging them to create any storyboards or comics of their own, just to show them the possibilities with this medium.

The idea of destroying this book reminds me of Keri Smith's Wreck This Journal in which each day the journaler is encouraged to do something specific to destroy the book as part of their journaling process. I would love to see more unconventional journaling of this type done in schools. The variety  would encourage student engagement and would reach a wider range of learners. Students can be given prompts to do creative things in their journals other than just answering a question: drawing, folding, writing a letter or scripting a conversation. I once wrote a journal where I spent 15 minutes a day sitting next to a specific plant and writing what I thought or felt while around it. There are many possible ideas.

Keri Smith's Wreck This Journal, completed by Youtube user SewCraftyAG.

Enjoy creating and destroying with your students! (or just on your own).


Smith, Keri (2005). Wreck This Journal. Perigree Trade.

Yahgulanaas, Michael, Nicoll (2009). Red: A Haida Manga. Douglas McIntyre.