Going graphic

"Usually, I sort of develop a little bit of a story line," she said. "I come up with all the characters before I start drawing it. I decide the characters and what the conflict is going to be."

Then Arrington sketches the panels and inks them in.

"It's actually a lot of work," she said. "It's pretty time-consuming, but I love it."

In the library at Art City Elementary School in Springville, students can check out "manga," Japanese comics that students read in English, but turn the pages from back to front.

Librarian Angel Pearce buys books on recommendation from the students and doesn't mind that the visual element is at least as powerful as the words.

"I think any kind of reading is reading, and I have over the last seven, eight years learned it just takes that one book to hook a kid," she said. "And they'll read everything from that author. And suddenly, they'll come up and say, 'Do you have anything like it?' And they'll start to branch out and try more and more things."

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com