Comics and graphic novels often get a bad rap as a child’s preferred reading material, but these days the genre is a deep well, filled with diverse characters, meaningful storylines and empowering messages.
Not quite a picture book and not quite a chapter book, graphic novels can be the perfect gateway genre for a reluctant reader, an emerging reader who is not quite interested in picking up the latest 500-page fantasy tome, or simply an incremental, enjoyable read for those who are already enthusiastic book lovers.
From a little girl with a hearing impairment and a little boy trying to save the planet, to squads of unlikely heroes ready to tackle anything in their way, these eight modern comics feature protagonists that are sure to capture a young reader’s imagination—as well as a parent’s respect.
Cece is leaving her school where all the students were deaf, and starting a new school with a new hearing aid. She’s not used to feeling like she’s so different from everybody else, but then a funny thing happens—Cece realizes that her hearing aid is so powerful, she can hear her teacher anywhere. Cece is sure she can use this superpower to make her life better at school—but power, she realizes, can be just another thing that sets you apart from everybody else.
Mirka is an Orthodox Jewish girl who doesn’t always want to follow the expectations set by her traditional religious family. She wants to battle out of control pigs! She wants to stand up to bullies! And she definitely wants to accept a challenge from a witch to fight a menacing dragon. But first, Mirka will have to find a way to get a magic sword. Can a girl be a dragon slayer and still be a respected member of her community?
by Noelle Stevenson, Shannon Watters, Grace Ellis and Brook A. Allen (illustrator)
Looking for a graphic novel that passes the Bechdel test with flying colours? Five friends investigate a disturbance outside of their camp … and that’s where the normal ends. Full of anything-can-happen sci-fi and fantasy plot-lines, absurd encounters and a whole lot of fun, Lumberjanes are not your average superheroines, and that could not be a better thing. Great strong female characters who, like the story, are anything but ordinary.
Catrina’s little sister, Maya, has cystic fibrosis, which prompts her parents to move the Mexican-American family to Northern California where the air is easier on Maya’s lungs. Upset about being separated from her home and her friends, Cat and Maya begin exploring their new town—a place their neighbour says is populated by ghosts, who will be making an annual appearance again soon. Telgemeier handles themes of illness, culture and history, death, and family with her signature sensitive, creative style.
D.J. and Gina’s regularly scheduled life is interrupted with a boy named Hilo comes crashing through the sky and lands right in their town. The problems start when they realize something else may have fallen to earth as well. They may seem like an unlikely group of friends, but together they will try to save the world—assuming Hilo can survive a day at school, first.
IMAGE SOURCE: VIA RANDOM HOUSE BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
Computer programming, puzzles, riddles, and a great mystery: the students of Stately Academy must travel through the halls of their creepy school solving problems along the way to reveal what’s actually going on—and they’ll need the reader’s help. Let by Hopper and her friend Eni, this is a fun and fantastic way to introduce beginner coding and basic logic skills to young readers.
Friendship, diversity, belonging and deliciously devious mischief are the main themes in this witty and wild story about Nimona, a shapeshifting girl who wants to be the villainous sidekick to the notorious Lord Ballister Blackheart. Good vs evil is not as simple as anyone thinks, and Nimona will do what it takes to prove it.
The story of 12-year-old Chanie Wenjack, who died in 1966 while trying to walk the 400 miles to his home after escaping from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School, helps to illuminate a terrible chapter in our country’s history. Accompanied by an available download to a 10-song album by Gord Downie, Lemire’s graphic novel is at once haunting and moving, and serves as a good way to help educate young readers (and their parents) about residential schools in Canada.
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