Graphic Novels

Good As Lily by Derek Kirk Kim Illustrated by Jesse Hamm

Recommended Reading Grade: 8 & up

This was my first time reading a Graphic Novel –and I really liked it! I thought that black and white cartoons would be slightly dull but they weren’t at all. The pictures in these graphic novels I read were so good and entertaining and grasped my interest. The stories read so much faster than an ordinary novel that I could see how this could intrigue children that don’t necessarily like to read. Good As Lily is about a girl Grace Kwon who turns 18 and has this weird experience with a piñata that results in her meeting herself at different ages of her life. She encounters a 70 year-old version of herself, a 29 year-old version, and a 6 year-old version simultaneously. Grace has to deal with her present situation of hiding her other selves, but along the way the other Graces help enlighten or waken her up to certain things in her life that will happen if she doesn’t change. It’s a really cool book and even has some Korean translations.

Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks

Reading Level: Ages 12 & up

Friends with Boys is about a girl Maggie who has been homeschooled her whole life and is going to attend public school for the first time. Not only has she never had any friends outside of her three brothers, she is starting high school where many kids that have attended public school all along still don’t know who they are or where they fit it. On top of trying to find out who she is, Maggie is dealing with her mother’s abandonment and a ghost who is stalking her! This is an awesome graphic novel; and some pages don’t even have (or need) words-the illustrations do all the talking. Again, I didn’t think I’d like this style of writing and couldn’t put it down!

As You Like It Manga Shakespeare Adapted by Richard Appignanesi Illustrated by Chie Kutsuwada

Age Level: 12 & up

Manga Shakespeare is a series of graphic novels that take William Shakespeare’s plays and adapt them. I loved reading Shakespeare in high school and college courses so I thought this would be really neat and it delivered. Appignanesi takes the play As You Like It and transports the basis to an Oriental setting with some twists. I’m not going to lie; it was a little hard to get through-but so is the original plays! There is a lot going on (fighting, four weddings, girls who dress like boys-many ideas from the original version) but Appignanesi supplies the reader with a colored (the rest of the book is black-and-white) character glossary in the beginning that you can refer back to, which I needed to in order to keep track of who is who. Overall I thought it was cool to see a Japanese version of Shakespeare, especially in graphic novel form! Very unique and would recommend to students who may need to read Shakespeare but don’t like to read or are having trouble understanding his works; this is a great alternative.

Michael Townsend’s Amazing Greek Myths of Wonder and Blunders

Age Level: 8 & up, Grade Level: 3^rd & up

This book is adorable, and does a great job simplifying 9 common Greek myths. The graphics are not only all in bright, vivid color, but are pretty funny. They (the graphics) mock the myths’ literal interpretations; like “Arachne Gets a Big Head” taken literally and she’s pictured with a blown up head and so on. Although these graphics are comical and clever, they do get the actual messages across from the myths and explain why they occurred. This is an excellent resource for students learning about Greek myths and classic tales, and I believe it would definitely be more memorable with the graphics rather than just reading about them.

Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan

Reading Level: Ages 12 & up

This book was strange; very imaginative but weird to me. It is a graphic novel and contains more pictures and fewer words, but wasn’t a graphic novel in the sense of cartoon strips. It is a compilation of 15 stories, each containing a strange circumstance or random event that takes place in this made-up suburban community. There could very well be an underlying message or theme here, but I didn’t comprehend it. Although, I could see how some children might see this as an interesting, different type of book, and enjoy the author’s bizarre imagery. The two short stories I liked best were the one about the community decorating their government-issued missiles, and the one about the foreign exchange student who liked discovering small things found on the ground.

Fish You Were Here by Colleen Af Venable Illustrated by Stephanie Yue

Grade Level: 2^nd & up Age Level: 7 & up

This is a part of the Guinea Pig Pet Stop Private Eye series (#4). Mr. Venezi hires a new assistant for his pet store, Viola. At first the pets love her and all that she does for them, but then they see that Viola plans on not doing any work once Mr. Venezi is not around. The pets, mainly the hamster and the guinea pig, are upset when they think that Mr. Venezi has left them. They consider themselves detectives and decide to team up with the other pets to figure out where Mr. Venezi has gone. This is a great example of getting younger readers to read without realizing they are. I think that young readers, especially boys, would enjoy these types of graphic novels because of all the pictures. I thought the facts on Goldfish and Plecos, as well as the job recommendations for animal lovers in the back of the book were adorable!

BabyMouse Queen of the World by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm

Grade Level: 2^nd & up Age Level: 7 & up

This was my first experience with BabyMouse – and she is adorable! I loved that this was a girls’ graphic novel, or I should say this would probably be a girl-based audience, because of the girliness of the main character. For example, BabyMouse is fashionable and loves tiaras and big, pretty dresses, she seeks fame and glamour, she wears a heart on her dress, she talks about having curly ‘whiskers’ (which I thought was so cute), and every page number is placed in a pink heart. The pages are in black-and-white with touches of pink only throughout the book. Most graphic novels I thought were male-based, where as this definitely stood out to me. There’s a moral to the book too. So BabyMouse desperately wants to be invited to Felicia FurryPaws’ sleepover to show everyone how fun and adventurous she is. After sacrificing her book report and almost her friendship to her true friend Wilson, BabyMouse finds out that this sleepover and Felicia FurryPaws isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.

Ann M. Martin’s The Baby-Sitters Club #4 Claudia and Mean Janine by Raina Telgemeier

Age Level: 8 & up, Grade Level: 3^rd & up

I couldn’t believe it when I first saw The Baby-Sitters Club books in the graphic novel section! I grew up reading these and adored them, and had no idea that some of them were turned into graphic novels. Since I have read them all (ages ago), I was curious to see how accurate they were or how much of the story was included. The story summed up is Claudia, one of the members of the club, is having issues with her older sister Janine. When their grandmother has a stroke, the family must come together to help get her back on track. I think it was cool that some of the books were turned into graphic novels so that students who may not be avid readers would get to know these awesome books. What I didn’t like though, was that the graphics give the readers an image of the members and characters in the book. I think that most readers come up with their own images in their minds while reading, and seeing them from an illustrator’s perspective can ruin that experience for the reader – not that this illustrator wasn’t on with certain characteristics because she was and did a great job. I just feel that, in general, an author’s descriptions of characters or settings can be interpreted slightly different from each reader. So I think that’s a disadvantage to readers who are given the image, instead of them picturing it for themselves.  

The Boston Tea Party by Matt Doeden illustrated by Charles Barnett III & Dave Hoover

Age Level: 8 & up, Grade Level: 3^rd & up

This is an amazing resource for learning about the Boston Tea Party, and should be used in social studies lessons to help instruct. We live in a visual world where a lot of students learn better visually, so for topics that are harder to understand or remember, graphics are definitely a great choice to use. This non-fiction book describes the colonists’ protest against being ruled by Britain. It includes an index, a glossary, a table of contents, key facts, Internet sites, and more books to be read on the topic. I found out that they have published many other graphic history novels such as The Battle of the Alamo, The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, The Salem Witch Trials, and The Sinking of the Titanic to name a few. I would absolutely add these to my classroom library as an elementary teacher because they are perfect for students to read up on topics, with pictures included, that they normally wouldn’t understand just by reading the words. Graphic novels are perfect for remembering history because the pictures aid the memory.