Full guide
Islands in the Sky: Educator Guide
Lessons, discussion questions, activities and standards for the complete book.
For educators
Teach with comics
Free, ready-to-use guides for teaching nonfiction comics about Appalachia, with lessons for grades 6–12 and college, standards alignment, and guidance for teaching hard histories with care.
Berea College chose Islands in the Sky as its 2026 first-year reading book. Every incoming student is reading it this fall.
Approaches
Four ways into the books
Each approach works with any title in our catalog. Mix them to fit a single class period or a three-week unit.
ELA · Visual literacy
Reading comics closely
Teach panels, gutters, captions and balloons as evidence. Students make claims about a page the way they would about a paragraph.
Social studies
Oral history in practice
Every story starts as an interview. Students record a family or community member and script a one-page comic from it.
Earth science
The science of a disaster
Pair survivor stories with river-gauge data. The French Broad at Fletcher crested at 30.3 feet, ten feet above its previous record.
Civics · Media literacy
Who tells the story?
Compare a news report, an official statement and a survivor’s comic about the same event. Whose account becomes the record?
Guides & resources
Find a resource
PBS NewsHour Classroom
From PBS
PBS NewsHour Classroom lesson: Graphic novel shares stories of Hurricane Helene survivors (opens in a new window)
A ready-to-teach daily news lesson. Students watch the NewsHour segment, answer warm-up and discussion questions, and look through selected pages from the book.
Lesson plan
Single lesson
Turn an Interview into a Comic
A 2-day oral history workshop: interview, transcribe, thumbnail, script.
Activity
Activity
Make a Family Emergency Plan (in Comics)
Students draw a six-panel preparedness guide for their household.
Handout
Use the Story Map
Place each story on the illustrated map of Helene’s path through the mountains.
Coming soon
Coming soon
Comics of the Movement: Educator Guide
Teaching the comics that taught the civil rights movement.
Teaching with care
Some of your students lived this
In Western North Carolina, Helene isn’t history. It’s a house still being repaired. Our guides include notes on choosing stories, giving students choice and opt-outs, and connecting families with support.
Get books into your school
Class sets, library copies and wholesale pricing on orders of 8 or more.
Wholesale ordering