Graphic Novels

Graphic novels are generally stories presented in a comic style. The story is told through pictures with the assistance of speech (or thought) bubbles to express the dialogue. I find graphic novels more difficult to use as a read aloud, but it’s not impossible. And they are also for more established readers as often there is information implied or subtlety hinted at that a younger audience wouldn’t pick up on. Also, many of the main characters are in the 10-14-year-old age bracket, which doesn’t mean that kids younger or older couldn’t enjoy the stories, it’s just that often the content is aimed at that age bracket too.

Recently we’ve been enjoying a few cool graphic novels that are all quite different but still really interesting.

Mighty Jack, by Ben Hatke

After Jude whipped his way through the Zita the Spacegirl series by Ben Hatke I went looking for other books by him. Mighty Jack seemed really promising and gets really good reviews online s I got the library to purchase it for us.

This turned out to be a great way to enjoy the book as both Jude and I loved it, but reading it took only half and hour or so. That is one thing about graphic novels, they might look thick but because there are so few words on each page they can be really quick to get through. This is great for readers who are more reluctant and perhaps need a ‘win’ by finishing a book quickly.

The story is a modernised version of Jack and the Beanstalk, so instead of swapping the family cow for some beans, Jack swaps the family car. Along with his sister Maddy and a neighbour Lilly, Jack starts a garden with the new seeds, but gets more than he bargained for when the garden shows signs of been magical and dangerous.

The Cardboard Kingdom, by Chad Sell

I’m not sure exactly where I saw this book, but I’m sure it was the title that captured my interest. Isn’t it brilliant? The book is set in a neighbourhood where some dozen or so kids are involved in a make believe game. Each kid has their own character in the game and has constructed a costume (mainly using cardboard) which shows who the character is. We also get to see what the kids actually imagined their characters look like as sometimes they are drawn in character and sometimes they are drawn as kids in costume. This is really helpful to the reader as we can easily separate the two story lines, the one which the kids live and the one which they imagine.

This is the closest to being a comic book of the three books here. It is divided up into what would be called chapters in a novel, but here we might consider them as separate short stories involving the same characters. It also feels more comic book-ish as there are masked heroes, monsters, robots, weapons, castles and themes of overcoming limitations, dealing with bullies and joining forces.

Nightlights, by Lorena Alvarez

I know I said that graphic novels don’t usually make the best read aloud books, but I have read this aloud to my girls a few times. It does take longer, as the reader I have to quickly look at the pictures to see what is happening and then I can adjust my reading tone to match the mood of the story. But I think it is just too complex of a story for my girls to understand by themselves yet. It centres on a Sandy, a tween girl who loves to draw and gets swept up in imaginary worlds.

As you would expect of a graphic novel, the pictures in Nightlights are spectacular. The colours and shapes and design of the book are so attractive and expressive. Although it is set out in a comic style with several small rectangle pictures on most pages the look of the pictures is not what you might be familiar with; there is so much detail in each picture it feels more like a long picture book.

A couple of great graphic novels I have already reviewed on my blog are El Deafo and Be Prepared.