Books that are between graphic novels and traditional books

[Anonymous]

Trying to push my child away from only reading graphic novels and towards reading books without pictures. Looking for examples of books that can be a bridge from one to the other. I don't have a problem with graphic novels, but I do have a problem with my child being intimidated by large blocks of text.

[Anonymous]

If you’re trying to transition away from graphic novels, I don’t think I’d immediately shun all illustrated books. Illustrations are enjoyable, and even classics can be beautifully illustrated. The suggestions below do contain pictures, and while I wouldn’t necessarily describe them as literary classics, I do think they might be helpful into transitioning away from graphic novels into more traditional (and less illustrated) books. If you can give me an idea of your child’s reading level and preferences, I can give you more suggestions that might be better.

Kate Klise books like her Regarding the . . . series and 43 Old Cemetary Road are illustrated books written as letters, newspaper articles, etc.

Choose Your Own Adventure books tend to be engaging because not only are they very dramatic, the individual stories within the book tend to be short and are broken up by the choices.

Einstein Anderson and Encyclopedia Brown are basically mystery anthology books, so the individual stories are short, and they encourage the reader to solve the mysteries.

Wayside School books by Louis Sachar are also anthologies of quirky short stories.

You might try nonfiction books, as some have beautiful illustrations and text amounts can vary.

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein is a book of quirky poetry, of varying lengths.

I also highly recommend reading to your child. Reading together isn’t just for bedtime. You can read while the child has a snack, when you’re waiting in line, while they play with legos, draws/colors, etc. Pick a book you’ll both enjoy, and then when it’s getting really exciting, tell your child that you need to stop and rest your voice, cook dinner, fold laundry, etc. If they are disappointed you can give them the option of reading to you for a while or reading ahead and you can catch up later.

[Anonymous]

Wayside School series and Choose Your Own Adventure books are good ones with short chapters. Who Was...? and I Survived... series for nonfiction.

Alternatively, there's an illustrated Harry Potter series I remember seeing at the library.

[Anonymous]

Series with graphic novels for some but not all of the books. Wings of Fire got my oldest kid to make the transition because at the time there were only 5 graphic novels and 17 novels. (There are now 10 graphic novels, I think?)

The Warriors books also have 3 graphic novels, but I think the full length novels are a bigger jump in difficulty. The cat naming conventions are like Russian patronymics and nicknames from the 19th century and they replace regular nouns like "spring" and "road" with special cat names like "newleaf" and "thunderpath." (Yes, I hate them, but they're popular among kids!)

[Anonymous]

Geronimo Stilton and Thea Stilton books

[Anonymous]

Without knowing the age and reading level of your kid, this is hard to answer.

Also, if your kid is assigned reading at school are they overwhelmed by chunks of text or performing below grade level, or is that they just prefer graphic novels?

[Anonymous]

The Claude dog series.

[Anonymous]

Captain Underpants

[Anonymous]

I really love Something Like Home for that age group. It has prose spaced out like poetry which makes it very approachable for younger readers. There is very little actual reading material but it is packaged into the physical size of a regular novel, so it doesn’t feel like a junior book. No pictures. It checks all my boxes for the transitional reader.

[Anonymous]

Try the last kids on earth!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Trying to push my child away from only reading graphic novels and towards reading books without pictures. Looking for examples of books that can be a bridge from one to the other. I don't have a problem with graphic novels, but I do have a problem with my child being intimidated by large blocks of text.

Don’t choose books with large blocks of tests. Start easy reading so he can be comfortable. Go from there.

[Anonymous]

Graphic “novels” are a scourge. Having “novel” even in the name is absurd. All they do is enable weaker readers to remain weaker readers while pretending they are actually reading a book. While students reading actual books are reading fluency, comprehension and stamina.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Graphic “novels” are a scourge. Having “novel” even in the name is absurd. All they do is enable weaker readers to remain weaker readers while pretending they are actually reading a book. While students reading actual books are reading fluency, comprehension and stamina.

I agree. They are terrible for literacy- no matter how librarians and teachers try to argue otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Boy or girl?

[Anonymous]

Bad Panda series. They’re chapter books with short paragraphs/lots of dialogue so there’s a good amount of white space, and every 2-page spread has at least a small illustration to break up the text a bit. Captain Underpants is like that too (though leaning more towards graphic novel if he needs an easier easing in).
You could also try picture books, not the really simple ones but more like Where the Wild Things Are or Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Big illustration on each page but the text is organized as paragraphs.
Building up stamina takes practice. For one of my kids during the early reading phase (where he could read sentences okay but tired quickly and had trouble with comprehension as the passages got longer) it seemed to help when we took turns reading out loud so he could have a “break” and process what was happening.