RAR #137: Why Your Kids Love Graphic Novels (and which we like best!)

Graphic novels … they sometimes make us a little nervous, right? As parents, we worry if they have any value.

In this episode of the Read-Aloud Revival podcast, I’m joined by the RAR Team, and we’re talking all things graphic novels.

Do they count as real reading? Will they make our kids lazy readers? And what about questionable content?

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• what’s happening in your child’s brain when they read a graphic novel (aka what on earth is “multi-modal” reading?)
• why some kids can’t get enough of them
• our favorite graphic novels to read in our own homes

And you’ll find a whole slew of our favorites in the booklist below. Pop in your email for the printable version. Scroll down for the clickable version.)

Listener Guide

Use the time stamps below to skip to any part of the podcast:

1:45	Graphics novels for middle schoolers and older
2:52	Helping graphic novel fans expand their reading
6:22	What is a graphic novel?
8:16	Graphic novels as storytelling
10:06	This matters: multimodal reading
11:34	Jan Brett and her panels
13:26	How graphic novels are like audiobooks
15:54	Kortney’s artistic pals
17:31	Choosing graphic novels
19:26	Great sources
21:08	Where to start
22:58	Classics with scaffolding
29:43	Drawing books
30:28	Spreading a feast
35:39	Let the kids speak

Graphic novels for emerging and reluctant readers:

Classics with scaffolding:

More graphic novels:

Books on drawing and comics:

Links from this episode:

• RAR #82: Why Fidgeting is a Good Sign (and what brain science has to say about reading aloud), Dr. Michael Gurian
• TOON Books – Tips from Mom and Dad
• Redeemed Reader
• RAR #132: Books for Teens, and Why YA is a Genre (not a reading level)

Quotes to remember:

“I catch myself thinking that text-only is the best kind of reading … but that’s not the case. Reading a story in text-only is indeed a beautiful kind of storytelling, but so is visual storytelling.” – Sarah Mackenzie

“We don’t know always exactly what our kids are getting from a book. We make our own judgments about what they’re doing, but that book might be feeding something in them that we don’t know fully what it is.” – Kortney Garrison

“If our goal is that they fall in love with reading, these books can absolutely help them do that and be part of just a whole spectrum of reading.” – Kara Anderson

More books from this episode:

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You’ll also enjoy:

• Picture Book Biographies We Love
• Focus On What Matters Most (psst … that’s your relationship with your kids)
• Sharing a Wrinkle in Time with Your Family