The first rule of punk       vs.           Spider-man: Miles Morales 

                                         

Miriam:

Spider-man: Miles Morales and the First rule of punk both have protagonists who are people of colour; this is where the similarity ends.  While Spider-man is tongue-in-cheek funny and self-referential, Punk is trite and derivative.  Both narratives explore issues surrounding racial identity and cultural heritage (for Spider-man that's pop-cultural heritage, to be precise) Punk does it without comedy or subtlety, while Spider-man doesn't take itself too seriously, but gets the message across nonetheless; I choose Spider-man to move ahead!

Judy:

The First rule of punk reminds us that your roots define who you are but only you can decide how important they are in your life.  It also reminds us how to be yourself among a group of popular teens.  Nice easy story and I liked the zines but... Spider-man is my first CHOICE.  The graphics are appealing and the story line is engaging and covers a variety of social issues.  Spider-man would appeal to more teens who might want to read the rest of series.    

Suanne:

It was great to read a comic, not graphic novel, because it was not something I would have chosen myself even though so many of my students read them.  While reading the Spider-man comic I had to do a lot of self-monitoring and re-reading to figure out how the panels went and what was going on, and in doing so I could feel what some of my struggling readers must go through, which was a good experience for me.  Once I understood the structure I thoroughly enjoyed the humour and story very much and Spider-man is my choice to move on.  

Katrina:

If you go on Good Reads there is so much love and praise for The first rule of punk and it is a good book it is just not my favourite book.  I have read so many of these books where the new girl comes to town, makes some enemies and some friends, find herself and must overcome her relationship with her mom.  I am making the story very simplistic but the book was fairly simplistic in how it dealt with its issues so my vote is for Spider-man.  I am really glad we were the last pick and had to read it otherwise I probably would not have picked it to read; I found it very entertaining and I laughed several times.