Books & Beyond: Graphic Novels

Not Your Father's Comic Books...
Why Graphic Novels for Kids Are All the Rage for Youth

By Kathleen Krull

Get ready for a wave of graphic novels for kids. These are stories told in comic-strip-style panels, bound like a traditional book, easy to get addicted to. Adults have been surfing this wave for years, with topics R-rated or of no interest to kids. But the trend is migrating down to teens and tweens. All sorts of creative people are making juicy graphic novels with young readers in mind.

Word on the street is that these are great for those who balk at large chunks of text. Because they're not "proper books," they lure kids in by seeming slightly forbidden, often spiced with a playful, sly wit. But these aren't easy reads - they demand active decoding. All at the same time, the reader is absorbing characters, emotions, plot, action, setting, symbolism, dialog, captions, commentary, facial expressions and more. Is this a dream sequence taking place, a flashback, a fantasy or foreshadowing?

It's fun, but they require a flexibility that can be taxing for older readers (i.e., middle-age parents), but not so much for nimble young minds with more brain cells. To kids who have grown up immersed in a multimedia world, this is just another way to tell stories.

Many librarians actually approve. Kat Kan, a librarian and well-known consultant specializing in graphic novels, collects statistics about how much circulation of all materials goes up when a library adds graphic novels. And there's something for everybody. In her article "Why Graphic Novels Belong in Libraries" for First Second Books, Kan notes that they offer something "for every genre, for every age level, for those who love slam-bang action, and for those who love thought-provoking, serious, literary stories, for reluctant readers, and for very sophisticated readers."

For Young Readers

On the younger end of the spectrum, for ages 6 and up, is Patty-Cake and Friends Color Collection, by Scott Roberts (SLG Publishing, $12.95). Almost an extension of Saturday-morning cartoons, these noisy and splashy episodes star a little smart-aleck named Patty-Cake Bakerman. The stories are cartoonishly violent and gross, mischievous, undeniably funny. Sort of Little Lulu meets The Three Stooges meets Captain Underpants.