Graphic Novel Recommendations

[Anonymous]

Geronimo Stilton (good in any form! I actually liked the audio books when we had a long school drive)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Graphic novels are not the same quality as actual books. It's all pictures and simple blurbs of words. Why not try The Secret Garden, some Anne of Green Gables, The Little Prince, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, etc.

Some graphic novels are great. Some are not. Just like some novels are great and some are not.

For graphic novels I recommend:

* Zita the Spacegirl
* Marcia Williams books that retell things like Shakespeare and various culture's myths in comic book format
* Straight up comic books like Calvin & Hobbes (if you look you might be surprised at how high level the vocabulary and concepts actually are)

For novels for a 7 year old:

* Mercy Watson (heavily illustrated) and the follow on older kid series Tales from Deckawoo Drive
* Anna Hibiscus series and the Too Small Tola series by the same author
* Dodsworth series (again heavily illustrated)
* Henry and Mudge and Annie and Snowball series and basically any other beginning reader by Cynthia Rylant (don't be fooled by how short they are, the vocabulary is pretty complex). My kids were specially fans of High Rise Private Eyes.
* Frog and Toad and any other Arnold Loebel - classics for a reason
* Jenny and the Cat Club
* Hank the Cowdog
* Boxcar Children - there are a million of them and the repetitive nature can be really useful for kids
* Encyclopedia Brown
* Catwings series (not too often that you get an early chapter book by one of the greatest authors of our time!)
* The Poppy series by Avi
* Ronia the Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren

Also don't overlook the value of really high quality longer picture books for this age. Often the concepts in those stories are more advanced than those in early reader novels. There's a mix of heavily illustrated chapter books and longer picture books recommended in this thread: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/1028712.page

I know this is the Babylon Bee, but it hits PPs point about Calvin and Hobbes and is true:

https://babylonbee.com/news/man-got-90-of-his-advanced-vocabulary-from-calvin-and-hobbes

[Anonymous]

I don’t really have suggestions for graphic novels, but here are some things I think she might enjoy reading:

Magic School Bus picture books
The Quiltmaker’s Gift picture book
Jon Scieszka picture books
Seymour Sleuth picture books by Doug Cushman
Amelia Bedelia picture books
Dear Mrs. LaRue picture books

Regarding the . . . books by Kate Klise (may require her to read cursive)

Wayside School books by Louis Sachar
Frindle by Andrew Clemens
Flat Stanley books
McBroom books by Sid Fleischman
Beverly Cleary
Princess Tales books by Gail Carson Levine
Princess in Black by Shannon Hale
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle
Pippi Longstocking
Danny Dunn
Encyclopedia Brown
Einstein Anderson
Magic Treehouse
Time Warp Trio
Cam Jansen
Boxcar Children
Liza, Bill, and Jed mysteries by Peggy Parrish
Nancy Drew Notebooks/Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew
Rainbow Magic Fairy books by Daisy Meadows
Secrets of Droon (the special editions may be more intense)

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein (quirky poetry)
Guinness Book of World Records
I Spy books by Jean Marzollo and Walter Wick
CDB (See the Bee) by William Steig
joke books (if you have the patience for Knock-Knocks)

Also, Scholastic has a whole line of series designed for early chapter books readers, called Branches. While my kids are older and I don’t have direct experience with these, I’ve heard a lot of great things about them.
https://www.scholastic.com/site/branches.html

[Anonymous]

Speak Up, Santiago

Also agree with Hilo and Baby Sitters Club and Little Sister, and El Deafo!

[Anonymous]

My daughter got into Tintin and Asterix at that age.

[Anonymous]

Raina Telgemeier is basically God in my house

[Anonymous]

Hilo- below her reading level but kids love them and keep rereading
Max Meow

[Anonymous]

Chapter book series Ivy & Bean. Bonus Netflix has made 3 movies based off 3 of the books
Ivy & Bean, the ghost that had to go, doomed to dance.

Graphic novels Katie the catsitter series

[Anonymous]

My 7yo likes the same ones as yours. She also likes Catstronauts, Narwhal and Jelly, Hilo, and the easy choose your own adventure books.

She rejected magic treehouse for a long time but I think is getting into it now

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter got into Tintin and Asterix at that age.

My oldest devoured Asterix at about 11. Not sure I'd give them to my 8 year old. Tintin is great, but as with Pippi Longstocking, Secret Garden, and Little House it's good to discuss some of the blatant racism and read them together if you're reading them.

[Anonymous]

This blog about children's books is written by an Alexandria mom who is the children's book buyer for Old Town Books.

www.whattoreadtoyourkids.com

Melissa's recommendations are fantastic. Follow her on Instagram too. @thebookmommy

Here is a link to last summer's reading guide for emerging readers, for example. It contains some graphic novels.

https://whattoreadtoyourkids.com/2024/05/30/2024-summer-reading-guide-emerging-readers/

Her 2025 summer guide is coming shortly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Raina Telgemeier is basically God in my house

+1

She also loves Kayla Miller

[Anonymous]

All these are great, but I would stay away from Big Nate as well as Diary of A Wimpy Kid (which I bet will get recommended somewhere.) The kids are just negative and complainy, and the females are all know-it-alls. I don't believe that book characters have to be role models (Ramona Quimby is not exactly someone to style yourself after, and I think every kid should read those books), but I always feel like I need a good scrubbing after I glance at a page of my kid's Wimpy Kid book.

Have fun with the rest of these! Your kid is at such a fun reading age.

[Anonymous]

My daughter loved Raina Telgemeier too. We also loved El Deafo, especially because my daughter wears hearing aids (this book was enormously special to her, and us, when she was in elementary).

My son loves Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales - great historical stories covering things like the Underground Railroad, the pilots in WWI, Lafayette...

[Anonymous]

I also love Zita the Spacegirl.