Kid-Approved Graphic Novels

My kid, a ten-year-old girl, has gotten into graphic novels and has asked me to bring her some. Always happy to oblige a request for actual books, we’ve been testing out a few to see what she likes. Curious? Maybe you also have a kid of similar age?

Here’s the things to know about this girl:

• She’s not too girly
• She’s fresh off Harry Potter, so finding things to even touch that is tough
• She’s a girl of few words and a professional cynic, so a review of “okay” should be taken to mean at least 3.5 to 4 stars

And here are her verdicts on a few we’ve tried out…

Bone series, by Jeff Smith

She didn’t love these. One comment was that they weren’t that funny. She read these last year, too. To be honest, my feeling with these is that she read them too soon, maybe didn’t get them because of that, and should maybe try them next year. These are actually excellent, so I’m going to say give them to your kid, but maybe wait until grade 5.

Smile and Drama, both by Raina Telgemeier

She adored these. They are perfect tween girl fare, about the everyday dramas of that age and stage. Smile is about orthodontia, and my daughter really, really enjoyed it. The drama is a touch older, about the drama among a group of kids in a play together and the relationships among them. She liked this one, too, so it seems this is the right sensibility. It doesn’t hurt that her friends have also been reading these.

The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook,

by Eleanor Davis, Bllomsbury

Looking for something else to follow up with, I went to Toronto’s comic and graphics store for kids, Little Island Comics, to ask for some advice. One of their suggestions was this one, which I had read a few years back and enjoyed, but entirely forgotten about. Good call!

It’s about a trio of kids who secretly love science and inventing, and get drawn into the plot of an evil scientist who steals their work. Cool science nerds who win the day and defeat a bad guy with their inventions? Recommended as a great example of cartoon “grammar” by an expert? Kid really enjoyed it? All good reasons this is a winner, and it’s a fun read for grownups, too.

Three Thieves: Tower of Treasure,

by Scott Chantler, Kids Can Press

This is the first of a series — I got the it to see what she thought before investing in the whole run, which is not a bad idea. Unless you are pretty sure they’re going to love it or you get a good deal on a box set , particularly if your child is as notoriously fussy and underwhelmed as mine, try to avoid the investment until you are sure it will be worth it. Her answer seemed lukewarm, but that’s kind of her style, so I pressed a little further. She thought it had good adventure and was interesting, and yes, she’d like to read the others, so I’m taking that as a decent review, and will go about getting hold of the rest.

I’ve also tried a couple of classics — Tintin and Asterix — to see how those went. Tintin seems okay, but she said she didn’t get Asterix, and I can see why she wouldn’t. She’s got pretty much no schema for Roman history, so those ones may work better later.

I hope this helps you get started with trying a few graphics, but I also highly recommend talking to a librarian or someone at a comic book store to get some recommendations, as it is new territory to lots of us. There aren’t as many great graphic novel lists as, say, fiction online and it isn’t as widely read by bookstore clerks in general, so finding people who have some knowledge is really helpful. Read a few yourself as well, and enjoy them together!