When students pick up their phones, they aren’t reading eBooks. They are checking Insta, scrolling Tik Toks, binging YouTube. They bombard themselves with visuals. They find themselves more comfortable with visual literacy than textual literacy. It’s no wonder, then, that graphic novels are so popular today and so present in so many genres.
Search for “graphic novels popular,” and you’ll find graphic novels about the Holocaust, graphic novels Greek mythology, graphic novels classics, graphic novels nonfiction, graphic novels sci fi . . . oh my, there are so many different genres of graphic novels books. Even at my school, the library has exploded with these books, giving students more options than ever to find a book that’s right for them–even if it means those books have pictures and captions and colors and panels.
And that’s what they are, right, regardless of genre? Books. When we give students graphic novels to read, we aren’t just giving students books to read. We are giving them a voice or a perspective to wrestle with, to learn from, to be inspired by in graphic novels’ ideas. We know students aren’t reading as much as they should, so let’s see how, perhaps, graphic novels meaning books with pictures challenge, perhaps even begin to remedy, students’ reading apathy and lethargy. And, have no fear, the research is here to support using graphic novels in the classroom. For instance, educational researcher P.E. Griffith notes that “processing text and images together leads to better recall and transfer of learning. With [graphic novels], students not only learn the material faster, they learn it better.”
Learning faster? Learning better? Yes, please. Sign me up. So the question isn’t one of if we should incorporate graphic novels, but how and which ones? Well, to start, consider the books below of 15 graphic novels you want to teach . . . badly! (Not that you want to teach them in a way that’s bad; you are a good educator! No, these are books you and your students will want to read in the classroom!)
Graphic Novels YA (Young Adult) to use Today–Yay!
Graphic novels’ characteristics are best summed up here by Scholastic as a story that “is told using a combination of words and pictures in a sequence across the page.” Because those graphic novels characteristics are so broad, graphic novels come in many shapes, sizes, and Lexile levels, covering any number of different subjects, so a graphic novels list you might give your student could go on forever, which is why it’s good to do some careful selecting.
See below, then, for a graphic novels list that will introduce you (and your students) to graphic novels new to you, your students, your classroom:
Let’s start with graphic novels by women because, likely, your students have read plenty by men as the traditional canon of literature is mostly male, mostly white. Honoring women authors can be a way to bring more diversity, equity, and inclusion into the classroom. Check out these titles below:
- Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
- Special shout-out: Graphic novels Persepolis is the acclaimed graphic memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. The New York Times named it as one of their top 50 memoirs of the last 50 years!
- This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki
- The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang
- Stories & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
- Take the reading of Poe stories such as “The Cask of Amontillado” or “The Tell Tale Heart” to the next level!
- March by John Lewis
- When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson
- They Called Us Enemy by George Takei
- This is a graphic memoir recounting the author’s childhood imprisonment in WWII American concentration camps.
Below are some titles younger readers will appreciate. Indeed, by engaging students with reading early, we can hope that it will build skills, endurance, and habits that carry through later in life, too.
Next you’ll find some graphic novels series here, and I’m always a fan of series for young students; if they are hooked by the first one, they can jump on the train and ride it all the way through the rest.
- Amulet series by Kazu Kibuishi
- Bone series by Jeff Smith
- Special shout-out: One of the most popular series of all times, graphic novels Bones is funny, exciting, and scary in all the right ways for students.
- Dog Man series by Dav Pilkey
- Coraline by Neil Gaiman
While some illustrated novels are geared to adults and others to kids, here are some graphic novels for tweens, a special group that finds themselves in that transition between childhood and adulthood (much like many of the characters you find in these titles).
- Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier
- Special shout-out: Eisner Award-winner author Telgemeier writes in graphic novels Ghosts a moving and insightful story about the power of family and friendship and how it gives us the courage to do what we never thought possible.
- Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson
- The Witch Boy by Molly Knox Ostertag
- Redwall by Brian Jacques
- The Call of the Wild by Jack London
As you can see from the many, many texts above that cover a variety of subjects and perspectives, there will be no shortage of books to meet our students’ demands.
Speaking of demands, these days in a visual culture that demands visual literacy, everything that exists in one form, like say the Harry Potter series, changes to meet the demands of other genres: See Harry Potter and the Cursed Child stage play. See the Harry Potter 8-film movie series. See the Harry Potter board and videogames. See Harry Potter illustrated edition books.
And how about classic texts read in English classes that have been adapted into graphic novels, classics made more accessible? This can be a great way to scaffold for students, a great reading supplement, even a great illustration assignment (give them a few pages from the gn version and have them illustrate and write the prequel or what comes next using the best textual evidence they can find).
Here are a few of the graphic novel adaptations of classic novels available on Amazon:
- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle
- The Odyssey adaptation by Gareth Hinds
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- The Road by Cormac McCarthy
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- Animal Farm by George Orwell
- Ann Frank’s Diary
- 1984 by George Orwell
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- The Giver by Lois Lowry
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet and Hamlet and MORE
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
See me appreciate the need to broaden our students’ horizons! This means we, too, might need to broaden our own horizons. I know that, for me, this is a blind spot in my reading, so I’ve been making efforts not only to bring more of them into the classroom but to read more of them myself. I’ve found that they are a perfect companion on independent reading days when I only have fifteen to twenty minutes to read while my students are doing the same.
So graphic novels new to you? That’s okay! Using the list above, you can find some good ones to start with and to share with your students, even if it’s just to encourage reluctant readers to pick up a book during independent reading time.
Fun Classroom Games for Building Relationships