Story Times: Ages 7-12 In addition to excellent graphic fiction, publishers have also been providing young readers with quality graphic nonfiction books. When Jerry Craft’s graphic novel “New Kid” won the 2020 Newbery Medal, it was a great day for “visual readers” — those kids who prefer books that use words and pictures together to get their meaning across. Many of these young people are labeled “reluctant readers,” when the truth is that, more often than not, they love books. Just not books with big chunks of text and no images.
Now, great stories like “New Kid” finally have the official stamp of approval that only a shiny gold librarian-approved medal on a book cover can deliver. Parents and educators have been put on notice: Graphic novels are novels! But let’s not stop there. Just as publishers have been churning out a steady stream of excellent graphic fiction, they’ve also been providing visual readers with quality graphic nonfiction books.
Many visual readers, it turns out, are also fact-seekers — they like books that provide information. They are curious about the world and want their books to provide answers. And even the most avid story lover is not always in the mood for a made-up tale. For all these kids, you cannot go wrong with the books below, which manage to make the real world thrilling, accessible and endlessly attractive.
I often get the very same question from parents across the country: “My son is 10 (or 9, or 11) and I can’t find anything he wants to read these days. ” I always answer the very same way: “Have you tried ‘Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales’”? These books are, quite simply, brilliant. They worked like magic when my first son turned 9 and began to get restless with the usual novelistic fare offered to kids that age.
The author/illustrator — whose real name is Nathan Hale, like the Revolutionary War hero — channels his historical namesake to tell thrilling, bloody, action-packed stories from American history. The conceit is this: It’s the night before Hale is going to be hanged by the British for being a spy, and he is able to see ahead into the whole of the history of the nation he is giving his life for. He gathers the other prisoners in his jail cell to tell about the Underground Railroad, the Alamo, the Donner Party — my son’s favorite — World War I, and more. Of course, there are lots of other great books for history loving, visually oriented 9-year-olds.
Group Text “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” will spark lively conversation among people who have run out of things to say. Welcome to Group Text, a mo...
But Nathan Hale should be your first stop. The inspirational life of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is already the subject of several excellent picture books, but this graphic biography is packed with artfully presented details that flesh out a fuller picture of RBG. The author conducted interviews with the Justice herself, and she also includes documents such as a column Ginsburg wrote for her middle school newspaper on the United Nations Charter and a bit in her synagogue newsletter about building community after the Holocaust. We see young Ruth standing her ground when a teacher tells her she has to write with her right hand — she is a proud lefty.
When another tells her not to sing in choir because she can’t carry a tune, she turns to piano lessons instead. When Ruth gets to law school and into her legal career, Levy makes the concepts easily understood, and Gardner’s lovely images move the story along too. Rocks and minerals, the digestive system, crows, skyscrapers, wild weather: This series — written by a handful of authors — seems determined to offer a useful introduction to anything a curious grade-school student might wonder about.
“The insight behind these books is a powerful one.”
So much information about the world around us is actually better conveyed visually, through charts, illustrations and sequential panels, than purely using words. (Imagine if the directions for putting together your new Ikea bed came only in words. ) That’s not to say the words aren’t helpful, too — with their peppy tone and dashes of humor, they add to the package. But it’s the clear, attractive visuals that will keep your kid turning the pages.
With charged-up illustrations featuring words that seem to leap off the page in electrified fonts, Hendrix tells the heroic and tragic life story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor who came to believe that even though killing was a sin, radical action was necessary to stop Hitler. So he led a group of conspirators in several attempts to assassinate Hitler. This book reads like a thriller: There’s deception, a bomb in a gift package and an explosive briefcase sneaked into Hitler’s fortress. We see Hitler’s terrifying rise to power, and we also see — something rare in books for young readers — the growth of Bonhoeffer’s faith in God, which guided him to the end.
This charming graphic memoir looks back to 1972, when the author/illustrator, then known as Cindy, was in seventh grade. She’s full of anxiety just walking into the school cafeteria after her best friend leaves her to join a clique of mean girls Cindy calls “predators. ” Cindy feels her clothes are wrong, her hair is wrong, everything is wrong. The solution?
A job as a junior reporter at her local daily newspaper, with a grown-up mentor who really needs Cindy’s help. The chance to get out in the world and ask the adults questions, and to make a difference, changes everything. Soon she realizes she doesn’t even care what the “predators” say about her. Along with a handy life lesson about following your own interests, this book offers a fascinating peek at the nuts and bolts of journalism.
A smart treat for more readers ages 10 and up, this gorgeously drawn book traces the writer’s life from her girlhood in rural England to the age of 31, when she first tried to get a novel published. We see Charlotte dealing with the loss of her mother at an early age, and we see her close ties to her siblings and the elaborate stories they construct together. Even Charlotte’s obsessive reading and writing seem active, dramatic and important, with pages whirling above her as she furiously writes. Young readers will get a feel for everyday life in the 19th century — as well as the timeless struggle of an ambitious, focused girl to be taken seriously.
For young teenagers and mature tweens, Don Brown’s graphic books provide a smart, sophisticated, compassionate way to approach difficult events and subjects like Hurricane Katrina (“Drowned City”) and the flu pandemic of 1918 (“Fever Year”). Using first-person accounts mixed with statistics and succinct descriptions, “The Unwanted” begins with the Arab Spring, when Syrians unhappy with their corrupt government protested and were met with violence that led to civil war. Brown shows masses of desperate Syrians leaving for neighboring Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. We learn about life in the refugee camps and the situation in the countries that accepted refugees.
Throughout, Brown anchors the narrative with facts and the real-life stories of young people who — despite their struggles — still manage to share moments of joy and hope. Follow New York Times Books on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, sign up for our newsletter or our literary calendar. And listen to us on the Book Review podcast.
Books of The Times It’s been 20 years since Anthony Bourdain published his best-selling memoir “Kitchen Confidential,” with its solemn warning: Never order fish...
August flew back to Michigan for Thanksgiving. It was his first time on an airplane, and even though he tried to be nonchalant about it, he held his breath duri...
