Category: Graphic novels

Kids of a certain age think that everything revolves around them. Heck, some adults haven’t realized it yet and still think that everything revolves around them. They’re the only one who has experienced whatever circumstance they’re wrestling with and nobody is capable of understanding or relating to their issues. I was that way as a kid and I see children in classrooms every day who are wrangling with those same emotions. A Sky of Paper Stars by Susie Yi is a graphic novel that tackles all of that, with a side order of cultural differences, maybe a yokai and a death in the family. It blends all of those things together, with an added sense of wonder to create a book that gives you the feels and makes you think.

A graphic novel with heart and feels

When I was a teenager I saw The Last Temptation of Christ. I was no budding theologian; it was the fact that the movie was being picketed that piqued my attention. Enlightened is not the graphic novel, Buddhist version of that experience. This is the lightly fictionalized story about the early years of Siddhartha, the human who would later be known as Gautama Buddha.

The path is strong with this book

As an adult, I know better than to laugh at repeated uses of puns. It’s the low end of the bad-dad joke pool.  I know that some would say that’s an impossibility, but there’s a distinct difference between puns and dad jokes, plus billiards is a highly underappreciated sport.  Investigators is a go-to series of all-age graphic novels and the seventh entry in it is All Tide Up. This series of graphic novels breaks the fourth wall, is loaded to the brim with puns, has colors that immediately give it a ‘classic’ vibe, and still maintains one of the highest laugh-to-page ratios that readers will encounter.

Here be puns, and lots of humor to be had for ages 8 and up

School-age children want to be scared. Nay, school-age children need to experience scary, spooky, well-told stories that shake their skin. They don’t need to be able to quote dialogue from some Korean horror film or break down their favorite Saw entry, but they need to see some darkness, even if it’s splattered with music, humor or thought. Eerie Tales from the School of Screams is a graphic novel that oozes with things that go bump in the night. Its thick presence, patient pacing, and varied short stories elicit a variety and genuine dread, with just a grimace of awareness that makes this graphic novel resonate with those aged eight and up.

All-age graphic novel and all-age horror meet in a bar….

The audience, it’s all about the audience and finding to whom it’s speaking. I’m teaching an AP Language class now and that’s a key trait that we’re discussing about certain texts. In Barb and the Battle for Bailiwick the audience for this graphic novel entry is crystal clear. If you’re eight-years-old and like to read, this is your jam. If you’re eight years old or older and a reluctant reader, because reading isn’t cool and you’re parents are content to let your brain turn to Minecraft mush, then this is your jam. If you’re looking for an action-packed all-age graphic novel that screams with enthusiasm, runs with energy, and has humor for days, then this is your jam.

This is the sign your looking for, go no farther