Tens of thousands of graphic novels are making their way to local students through Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8, Colorado Springs School District 11, and nonprofits that serve the military community after Comic Books for Troops donated 20,000 books to Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center.
The donated titles come from the Digital Lizards of Doom series, which follows a young warrior lizard named Dizzy Doom as he searches for answers after his universe is trapped inside a video game world. The books are intended to promote literacy among students who move frequently and change schools often — a circumstance common to military families in the Colorado Springs area.
Mt. Carmel was one of five sites across the country to receive a portion of the 100,000 books donated to military families nationwide. In addition to local school districts, Mt. Carmel is distributing the books to local nonprofits such as the Homefront Military Network, according to Paul Price, director of operations. Price described the books as "entertaining and educational."
The series' author, Gabriel Valentin, who grew up in a military home, has said he hopes deployed parents can read the same stories as their children while they are apart, allowing families to connect even when parents are without electronic devices. The books have proved popular with kids since the first installment was published in 2021, and teachers in the San Diego Unified School District have since designed a curriculum around the series, which is written in a format that mimics modern online gaming chats and text messages. A Johns Hopkins University evaluation of that curriculum found it also helped teachers discuss emotions with their students.
Mt. Carmel has also conducted direct distribution, with some of the first families to receive books attending Mt. Carmel's Patriot Day celebration on Sept. 11, where Valentin and Dan Brozo, co-writer of Digital Lizards of Doom and the voice of Dizzy Doom, signed copies.
How broadly the full 20,000-book donation will be distributed across participating districts and nonprofits, and on what timeline, has not yet been reported.