‘Superman, Before Truth’: Academic guide

For those library personnel who work with young adults, I want to share a free reading and discussion guide for Superman, Vol. 1, Before Truth, a D.C. Comics publication authored by Gene Luen Yang (National Ambassador for Young People's Literature and National Book Award nominee).

You may wish to share this resource with educators at your schools.

Before Truth deals with the issue of online privacy versus public sharing, as Superman receives anonymous text messages from someone who has discovered his secret identity as newspaper reporter Clark Kent.

The sender threatens to reveal Superman’s identity if Superman doesn’t follow his instructions. Preserving his privacy would make Superman the pawn of a sinister organization but if his identity were known, those people close to him would be placed in danger.

I think this issue is especially relevant for young people who themselves are beginning to address responsible use of social media.

The academic guide identifies key themes and poses questions for discussion with examples cited from text. It also provides students with an essay prompt and leads them through a guided close reading using text and visual information.

Posted to the Southern Oregon Education Services District listserv for school library/media center personnel