2021 Back to School: Graphic Novels
2021 Back to School: Graphic Novels!
This list will grow but I am overdue for shouting out my love for graphic novels.
As Fall rolls back in and kiddos bring in their favorite books from the summer and look for recommendations from us, remember our graphic novel friends.
They are contagious in the best way (they will ripple through a whole class quickly if it gets rave reviews!) and get everybody back into the reading swing from the summer if they have been stagnant. There has never been a better time for fantastic graphic novels and here are a few of my recent faves that I hope you can share with some of your students to get them excited about reading at school again.
Middle Grade
See some of our favorite graphic novel series to pass to kiddos here.
I know I have shouted this one out previously but it truly doesn’t get better than this quirky witchy, gender bendy mystery with a mixed POC with a black single mama and her new accomplice... the town witch!
Heavy and leans towards the YA side, based on a true story about being a refugee.
Odd, captivating, Chinese rep
More witches!? I love a matriarch and witchery remains fun, yes. I know this has also been a shout out but I will keep it on here because I think it will land for a crew of students!
Other cute ones that have return from summer vibes:
Check Please! (Book 1) I thought book 2 was just okay. Book 1 is wholesome and adorable.
Camp - I think this would be popular and a good transition back into school for kids.
The Backstagers - a fun crew of kids, I similarly think this is a good one to transition back from summer.
Young YA
Heartstoppper (series)
Alice Oseman’s sweet gay series keeps coming out with more new hits. We are up to volume 4 I believe. Coming out, bullying, mental health, eating disorders.. the content picks up a bit in intensity but the gooey cuteness of the MCs and floaty lovely art remains the same.
The Avant Guards (series)
I will plug this super inclusive adorableness forever.
Really great facts, and use of graphics, it is also physically large and just appealing and fun to flip through
I’d revisit this water color summer love one for any older kiddo still craving that summer escape.
Adult!
In case you want or need a few for yourself. Too tired to plow through a full textbook? Want to be truly taken away? Finish a book to get you out of your own reading slump? Model to students how all types of reading are great? Grab yourself a graphic novel and maybe enjoy one of these below:
Allie Brosh: Solutions and Other Problems (her second book delivers for a laugh and a cry)
My Favorite Thing is Monsters (Wowza, it’s huge and dark and twisty. Still waiting on her second one!)
One Hundred Demons (a classic, worth the trippy sharp re-visit) One day I will find a way to use an excerpt of this for a brilliant social-emotional lesson.
Dancing at the Pity Party (for a cry, there’s a lot of us grieving these days and graphic novels deliver well on processing/being with you in this)
Go To Sleep/ I miss you (if you’ve got a baby in your life!)
