Will Fenton

A lot has happened with the Ghost River digital edition since I introduced it last July. In addition to the interactive, digital edition of the graphic novel to which we committed, Ann McShane and Nicole Scalessa worked hard to add additional materials, including lesson plans, primary source documents, and even an original essay annotated with documentary videos. Today, I want to give an overview of some of these tremendous resources—all of which you can access for free.

• About: Read the introduction, artist statements, and acknowledgments; plan your visit to the exhibition; and watch the documentary film, Making Ghost River (Mangrove Media).
• Read the Book: Navigate the digital edition using a desktop or mobile browser. In some ways, the digital edition may be preferable to print as most pages are annotated with contextual images, essays, and video clips (all of which include alt-text for screen readers).
• Buy the Book: Purchase a copy of the volume from Red Planet Books & Comics. Teachers may receive significant discounts on class sets by submitting an inquiry before placing orders.
• Teaching Materials: One of the most important distinctions between the print and digital edition is that GhostRiver.org includes a dozen additional middle school and high school lesson plans developed by the educators who attended out 2019 Teacher Seminar. Every lesson is keyed to Common Core standards and available in a rich digital edition (hosted on Digital Paxton) and as a downloadable PDF. Teaching Materials also includes the contextual essays included in the print edition as well as a video-enabled essay written by our Spring 2019 intern, Emma O’Neill-Dietel.
• Historical Materials: Explore all of the primary source materials that inspired the project.
• More Information: Continue your journey by exploring Digital Paxton, interviews with our partners at the Circle Legacy Center, and further reading suggestions. My favorite feature is the annotated script, which places the final artwork from Ghost River beside the script and a record of the conversations that we had about the choices we made.

Finally, the most significant recent change might not be immediately visible. Thanks to the efforts of our Systems Manager, Tristan Dahn, GhostRiver.org is now hosted on a dedicated cloud server, which ought to enable faster load times, especially with the digital book. We’ve also added other ways to experience the volume, including the options to download it as an open access PDF or ePub file for e-readers.