Adorable Empire: A Graphic Novel

Learning Goals

• Explain how the words and illustrations in Laura Terry’s Adorable Empire work together to tell the story.
• Use facial expressions, body language, and dialogue from selected panels to describe a character’s feelings and actions.
• Retell a short sequence from the book in panel order, identifying what happens first, next, and last.
• Create a three-panel comic showing a character’s response to an event, using visual details and dialogue or dictated captions.

Activity Steps

1. 1.Introduce Adorable Empire by Laura Terry. Display the cover and ask: What do you notice? What might the title suggest? Record predictions, explaining that readers will check them against the story.
2. 2.Read a short, coherent scene aloud while displaying its pages. Model how to follow the panels and connect any speech bubbles, captions, and pictures. For K–2, trace the reading path together; for grades 3–5, invite students to explain how the layout guides readers.
3. 3.Revisit two or three panels featuring the same character. Ask students to identify a feeling, point to an expression or gesture that supports it, and explain how the words add information. Have younger students respond orally and older students record panel-based evidence.
4. 4.Have partners retell the selected scene using first, next, and last. Discuss how one character’s action affects what happens next. Return to the cover predictions and identify which the scene supports or leaves unanswered.
5. 5.Give students a three-panel comic template. Ask them to depict an event from the scene and the character’s response, including an accurate visual clue from the book. K–2 students may draw and dictate captions; grades 3–5 add dialogue and a brief explanation of their choices. Finish with partner sharing.