The Best Graphic Novels for Kids, and Why They Count as Reading

Your child reads the same Dog Man book for the fourth time, and someone at school pickup asks whether that counts as reading. Graphic novels for kids now fill whole library sections, and the worry behind the question is fair: is your child reading, or only looking at pictures? So what is a graphic novel, why do librarians count it, and which books fit each age?

What is a graphic novel?

A graphic novel is a complete, book-length story told in sequential comic panels, with words in speech bubbles and captions. Wikipedia's entry on the graphic novel calls it a self-contained, book-length form of comics. The story has a beginning, a middle and an end inside one cover.

Fiction, memoir and nonfiction all come in this format. Smile and El Deafo are memoirs, Amulet is fantasy, and the I Survived adaptations are historical fiction.

Graphic novel vs comic book

The difference between a comic and a graphic novel is mostly length and binding. A comic book is usually a thin, stapled issue that carries one chapter of an ongoing story, and you buy the next issue next month.

A graphic novel holds the whole story, or a full volume of a series, in a bound book. Both use the same tools: panels, gutters between them, speech bubbles, thought bubbles and captions. For a child, that means the reading skills carry over in both directions.

Do graphic novels count as reading?

Graphic novels count as reading. Your child still decodes every word in the bubbles and follows a plot across dozens of pages. On top of that, they read faces, track who is speaking, and infer what happened in the gap between two panels.

Librarians said so in writing two decades ago. A 2006 guide from the National Coalition Against Censorship, the American Library Association and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Graphic Novels: Suggestions for Librarians, states that graphic novels "promote visual and verbal literacy, as well as love of reading." The same guide notes that a good collection appeals to young people who might otherwise avoid the library.

The awards followed. In January 2020 Jerry Craft's New Kid became the first graphic novel to win the Newbery Medal, the top American prize for children's literature.

What a page of panels asks of a child

A page of panels asks for more work than it looks. The text is short, but the words are often harder than in an early reader, because the pictures carry the context that lets an author use them.

The gaps matter too. Between two panels, a character crosses a room or a whole day passes, and your child fills that gap alone. That is inference, the same skill a teacher checks with "what do you think happened next?"

The best graphic novels for kids by age

Age bands are a starting point. A confident six-year-old can read Dog Man, and a ten-year-old who is tired of long chapter books may love Narwhal. Every title, creator and year below was checked against a publisher, award or library record.

• Ages 4 to 6. Toon Books, founded by Françoise Mouly in 2008, makes hardcover comics for children ages 4 and up in three reading levels. Start with Otto's Orange Day by Frank Cammuso and Jay Lynch (2008) or Little Mouse Gets Ready by Jeff Smith (2009), a Geisel Honor book.
• Ages 6 to 8. Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea by Ben Clanton (Tundra Books, 2016) won the 2017 Eisner Award for Best Publication for Early Readers. InvestiGators by John Patrick Green (First Second, 2020) adds spy gadgets and puns for kids who like silly.
• Ages 8 to 10. Dog Man by Dav Pilkey (Graphix, 2016) is the Captain Underpants spin-off kids reread to pieces. Babymouse: Queen of the World! by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm (Random House, 2005) and Hilo: The Boy Who Crashed to Earth by Judd Winick (Random House, 2015) round out the shelf.
• Ages 10 and up. Amulet: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi (Graphix, 2008) opens a nine-book fantasy. Smile by Raina Telgemeier (Graphix, 2010), El Deafo by Cece Bell (Amulet Books, 2014, a Newbery Honor book) and New Kid by Jerry Craft (Quill Tree Books, 2019) are the school stories.

Graphic novels for kids 9 to 12 from series they already love

Three big prose series now come in panels too. I Survived graphic novels from Scholastic started in 2020 with I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic, 1912 and I Survived the Shark Attacks of 1916, based on Lauren Tarshis's books.

Wings of Fire graphic novels began with The Dragonet Prophecy on January 2, 2018, drawn by Mike Holmes for Graphix; Tui T. Sutherland's series is listed by Scholastic for ages 7 to 12. Warriors graphic novels from HarperAlley started with The Prophecies Begin, volume 1, in July 2024 (list of Warriors books).

These work in both directions. A child who loves the dragons in panels often picks up the prose book next, and a prose fan gets to see the world drawn.

Graphic novels by age, compared

The table puts the picks side by side, so you can match a book to the child in front of you.

Where The Bad Guys fits

The Bad Guys by Aaron Blabey (Scholastic, first published in Australia in 2015) sits on the border. Its pages mix large cartoon art, speech bubbles and short blocks of text, so some shelves file it with chapter books and others with graphic novels.

Treat it as a bridge. A child who reads The Bad Guys easily is ready for both Dog Man and a first illustrated chapter book.

How to read a graphic novel aloud, step by step

Reading a graphic novel aloud feels awkward the first time, because there is no single line of text to follow. Five steps fix that.

1. Show the reading path first. Panels run left to right and top to bottom, and so do the bubbles inside a panel. Trace the path with your finger on the first page.
2. Give each character a voice. A different pitch for each speaker tells your child who is talking without "said Narwhal" after every line. Keep the voices simple so you can hold them for forty pages.
3. Read the pictures out loud too. Name what happens in a wordless panel: "Oh no, the bridge snapped." Those panels carry the plot, and skipping them loses the story.
4. Pause at the gaps. Every few pages, ask what happened between two panels. One question keeps a child reading the art instead of only the words.
5. Hand over a character. Once your child knows the path, let them read one character's bubbles while you read the rest. Shared reading turns into solo reading this way, one speaker at a time.

LibraryRead sample storybooksBooks made with KidTeller

The part people get wrong

Reading too fast is the common mistake. An adult reads the bubbles and turns the page, but the joke in a Dog Man or Narwhal page often sits in the last panel's picture, not in the words.

Slow down and let your child set the pace. If they want to stare at one page for a minute, they are reading it. For more books to share out loud, see our list of read-aloud books for kids.

Common mistakes when choosing graphic novels for kids

A few habits get in the way of a good match between a child and a book.

• Mistake: treating graphic novels as a phase to grow out of. It pushes kids away from books they enjoy. Keep them on the shelf next to chapter books; the same child can read both in a week.
• Mistake: choosing by art style alone. A cute cover can hide a story written for teens. Check the age band and read the first few pages yourself.
• Mistake: assuming a comic-style book is easy. El Deafo and New Kid deal with deafness, race and belonging. They are short to read and long to talk about.
• Mistake: buying the whole series at once. Buy or borrow book 1, and wait for your child to ask for book 2. Requests are the best sign a series has landed.
• Mistake: banning rereads. Rereading a favorite builds fluency, and kids catch new jokes in the art each time. Four reads of Dog Man is a good sign.

The edge case: a child who reads only graphic novels

A child who reads only graphic novels is still a reader. If you want to widen the range, use the bridge books: The Bad Guys, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and other heavily illustrated chapter books.

Our list of books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a good next shelf, and kids who came for the jokes will find more in the funniest books for kids. Let your child keep their graphic novels while they try one prose book at a time.

Your graphic novel checklist and next steps

• Match the band. Start with the table above, then adjust for your child's reading level and interests.
• Read the first one together. Show the panel path and give the characters voices.
• Pair formats. Put a graphic novel and a related prose book side by side, such as Wings of Fire in both forms.
• Let rereads happen. A favorite read many times is practice.
• Let your child draw one. Kids who love panels often want to make their own; our comic book creation guide has ideas.

Your child can also be the hero of the story. KidTeller turns a photo of your child into an illustrated character and writes a new picture book around them. Pick a preset style (3D Animation, Anime, Clay Animation or Watercolor) or describe a comic-like look in your own words, and add up to five characters such as a sibling or the family dog.

Try itCreate a personalized storybookYour child's name and photo, a story in minutes