GRAPHIC NOVELS FOR YOUNGER READERS
Recently, a friend of mine, Melissa @mllittleauthor asked me for help. A young girl she nannies had always been a VERY reluctant reader until Melissa introduced her to the graphic novel series, Bad Kitty. Her young charge had almost finished every book in the series! Now Melissa was looking for some new series to keep up the reading momentum.
This question really made me stop and think. When I was an elementary teacher librarian, a position I retired from four years ago, there had been very little interest in graphic novels. The ones I had purchased simply didn’t circulate. (except for two series: Calvin and Hobbes and Garfield. every book was in shreds and I frequently replaced them. And these series are part of the reason kids came to the library everyday; even the “reluctant readers”!) Perhaps it was because both parents and teachers discouraged them because they “weren’t really books”. However, in my opinion, anything the kids read was a win. I was, and still am, a firm believer when children read graphic novels they will become more confident readers. Not only do the children need to read the words, they also need to interpret every picture; every facial expression; every setting. If they don’t, the story will make a lot less sense. Ironically, as I was thinking about writing this post, a person a really admire. Pernille Ripp, shared a post stating much the same position in her piece, Stop Rushing Kids out of Graphic Novels.
I hope you’ll read this to learn more.
The fact that graphic novels weren’t popular in my school, led me to spend my precious book budget on other choices. Due to this fact, I wasn’t familiar with graphic novel series and I realized I needed to catch up quickly. This meant spending quite a few hours at my library browsing through the graphic novel section and through Instagram. Happily, I found several series to suggest to Melissa and now I want to offer these suggestions to you. You’ll have a lot of fun reading these with your beginning reader and then they’ll have a great time reading them on their own. These titles might even entice some of those reluctant readers to dive into a book, and isn’t that exactly what we want? If they become graphic novel fans, please let me know. I have several more series I can suggest for your next library trip! And be sure and tell us about your kids’ favorite graphic novels in the comments!
bad kitty by Nick Bruel 
From the publisher:
Bad Kitty is bad. Very bad. But she doesn’t always mean to be. Whether she is trying to be a good little kitty and eat her vegetables or be a quiet little kitty and behave at a birthday party, it seems that trouble finds a way to her. Children will fall in love with Bad Kitty–and be roaring with laughter at all of her antics. Bad Kitty is a delightful picture book and an alphabetical romp through berserk cat behavior, and the follow up books are the perfect introduction to chapter books for young readers.
babymouse by jennifer l. holm and matthew holm
This is a hilarious, fun, action packed series. Here’s the publisher’s summary:
Meet Babymouse—Her dreams are big! Her imagination is wild! Her whiskers are ALWAYS a mess! In her mind, she’s Queen of the World! In real life…she’s not even Queen of the lunch table.
lunch lady by jarrett j. krosoczka
Here’s another series that will grab your kids’ attention with humor, mystery and plenty of adventure. Good Reads description:
This series of graphic novels chronicles the adventures of a school lunch lady who fights crime when she’s not serving sloppy joes.
Geronimo and Thea Stilton
by geronimo stilton
Geronimo, and his younger sister, Thea are trying their best to make the world a better place. You can read more about that on the Geronimo Stilton website and The Philosophy of Geronimo Stilton.
THE TREE AND ME by bea garcia
This isn’t strictly a graphic novel series, but it is packed with illustrations and many panels that help tell the story. The four books in the series are a lot of fun and will inspire your kids to write, draw, explore and imagine.
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