Annotated Bibliography
Aguirre, Abby. “Octavia Butler’s Prescient Vision of a Zealot Elected to ‘Make America Great Again.’” New Yorker, July 26, 2017. https://www.newyorker.com/books/second-read/octavia-butlers-prescient-vision-of-a-zealot-elected-to-make-america-great-again?_sp=7fa6eea5-a2b7-4a8e-a729-5e195d0772c3.1752515992282.
This article could be used as a pre-reading article for students to read before reading Parable of the Sower, introducing Octavia Butler and her background to students.
Collins, Chuck, and Josh Hoxie. Billionaire Bonanza 2017: The Forbes 400 and the Rest of Us. Institute for Policy Studies, November 8, 2017. PDF report. Accessed July 14, 2025. https://inequality.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/BILLIONAIRE-BONANZA-2017-Embargoed.pdf.
This article could be used to compare and contrast the society that is seen in Parable of the Sower and what we see in the present day when it comes to the class divide in society.
Cook, Michael P. “Reading Graphically: Examining the Effects of Graphic Novels on the Reading Comprehension of High School Students.” PhD diss., Clemson University, 2014. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. Accessed July 9, 2025.
This article can help support the rationale behind teaching a graphic novel to students, which could be used to justify teaching graphics novels in the classroom.
Lee, Stan. “Man in the Mummy Case.” Amazing Fantasy 1, no. 15 (August 1962): 20–24. Marvel Comics. Internet Archive. Accessed July 8, 2025. https://archive.org/details/Amazing_Fantasy_vol1_15_201607/page/n23/mode/2up.
Teachers can introduce this comic and have students focus on how the setting impacts the mood and tone of the story. Also, teachers can discuss themes with this comic as well.
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: William Morrow Paperbacks, 1993.
Teachers may want to read this book before starting this unit to get a grasp on how to teach graphic novels to students.
Minns, Camille. When History Rhymes: An Analysis of Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower as Policy Planning Analysis. Unpublished manuscript, 2022. PDF file.
Teachers may want to read this before executing this unit to familiarize themselves with Butler’s background and historical context to help students equally understand Butler’s influences on her writing.
National Museum of African American History and Culture. “Afrofuturism.” Explore – Exhibitions. Accessed July 8, 2025. https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/afrofuturism.
Teachers can have students use this as a pre-reading article to read before reading Parable of the Sower, introducing Octavia Butler and the term afrofuturism to students.
National Museum of African American History and Culture. “Remembering Afrofuturist Octavia Butler.” Stories. Accessed July 14, 2025. https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/remembering-afrofuturist-octavia-butler.
Teachers can have students use this as a pre-reading article to read before reading Parable of the Sower, introducing Octavia Butler and the term afrofuturism to students.
Oziewicz, Marek. “Speculative Fiction.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature, 2017. https://oxfordre.com/literature/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.001.0001/acrefore-9780190201098-e-78.
Teachers may want to read this article to get a better, further understanding on the genre of speculative fiction before teaching this unit.
Purkar, Namrata. “Dystopian Writing as a Part of Science Fiction.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English 4 (2013). ISSN 0976-8165.
Teachers may want to read this article to get a better, further understanding on the genre of dystopian and utopian fiction before teaching this unit.
Watterson, Bill. Calvin and Hobbes. GoComics. Andrews McMeel Universal. July 8, 2024. Accessed July 8, 2025. https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2024/07/08.
Teachers can introduce this comic and focus on the lack of text and have students focus on the action and facial expressions of the characters.
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