Children's+Graphic+Novels

Children's Graphic Novels
Graphic novels are chapter books in graphica form. I have chosen a few popular ones to discuss. Most of the graphic novels quickly become series and captivate the young readers with funny and loveable characters.

// Babymouse Series // (Holm & Holm, 2005- Current) is about a little girl mouse and so may be more appealing to girls. Babymouse stories are written in black and white, but when she daydreams, it's all in pink! Story lines have her in typical situations for an elementary aged girl. In 2010 she introduced a new character // Squish. // Baby Mouse learns how to snowboard. Another fun one is Baby Mouse's birthday--She tries to compete with another birthday party but will she have a happy birthday?

Okay another favorite becoming popular: //Blinky (series) by Ashley Spires (2010)//. This series brings humor and adventure into any child's reading.

// Captain Underpant series. B // oys enjoy the superheroes with wedgie powers. Join Captain Underpants as he fights the evil Principal Krupp. The panels are in comic art style. The stories are available both as comics and graphic novels. Appeals to 3-5 graders and mostly males. They are not a teacher's favorite, but the children enjoy reading them.

//Magic Pickle// (Morse, 2008) is a series of books about a pickle who was irradiated & turned into a super hero. Some other vegetables that were irradiated turned into villains and Magic Pickle has to vanquish them. He is aided by a little girl who appears to be 6 or 7. Story lines find her in school or at home and bedeviled by the villainous vegetables. Magic Pickle books are becoming quite popular with youngsters. While there are some difficult words, the reading and interest level is 2nd grade through 4th or 5th grade.

//Squish// (Holm & Holm, 2010- Current) is a twinkie-eating amoeba searching for his place in the pond. The graphic novel series includes scientific vocabulary and problem solving. The panels are in lime green (grades3-5)

A new twist to familiar books:
//Babysitter's Club// books have been popular for several years. Some of those are now being adapted into graphica form and some new ones are coming out only in graphica form. These deal with a group of pre-teen (tween) girls who babysit for their neighbors. Interest level is mostly pre-teen (approximately ages 9 - 13) and reading level is about 5th grade. There is some narration, but text is primarily dialogue supported by pictures. As with other examples of graphica, there are typically 5 or 6 panels to a page.

// The Boxcar // //Children// comes into its own updated graphic novel. It's the traditional storyline embedded in visual literacy. A nice update to a classic read. (grades 3-5).

// The Tale of Desperaux // is available in the original chapter book version by Kate DiCamillo (DiCamillo, 2004) as well as in picture book form & graphica form. Both the picture book and the graphica version rely on pictures from the movie. Differences are that in the picture book, paragraphs of text on each page support the pictures. Each picture typically covers one page or spreads across 2 pages. In the graphica version, the pictures are chosen to carry the message & the text is primarily dialogue. The pictures are paned as in a comic book with 5 or 6 panels on a typical page. The graphica version is easily readable at a 3rd grade level and probably below that if the reader has seen the movie.