Graphic novels can build strong reading skills when children are encouraged to think beyond the pictures. Experts in children’s literacy share practical ways to support this growth, from letting children choose stories to pairing comics with prose. Simple questions about images, language, and story events can turn every panel into a learning opportunity.
- Let Children Choose Their Stories
- Ask What Images Reveal
- Pair Comics With Prose
- Extend Stories Beyond Panels
Let Children Choose Their Stories
As a parent, I usually start by asking what kind of story they feel like reading rather than pointing them to a specific book. Sometimes I’ll ask, “Do you want something funny, adventurous, or a little mysterious?” and let them bring a few books over.
We also have a simple rule that they only need to read the first few pages before deciding whether to continue. If they’re not interested, that’s completely fine, we put it back and try another one. I’ve found that taking away the pressure to make the “right” choice has made my child much more comfortable trusting their own taste and choosing books independently.
Ask What Images Reveal
My sons (age 9 and 11) devour comics and graphic novels—from “Calvin and Hobbes” and “FoxTrot” to “Wings of Fire” and “Warriors”. Over time, I realized that the best comics and graphic novels are much denser texts than we give them credit for.
Kids reading graphic novels are doing two jobs at once: reading the words and connecting them to the image, and then quickly analyzing how the two relate. Often, the most important information isn’t in the dialogue at all. It might be a character’s expression, subtle background clues, or the relationship between image panels. That’s inference, and it’s actually the same skill a long novel demands.
So the routine I use is simple. Every so often, when we’re curled up with a graphic novel, I’ll ask one of my sons: “What do you notice on this page that the words don’t say?”
Kids are surprisingly good at this. They’ll catch a character looking guilty while claiming innocence, or a detail that foreshadows a scene three pages later. What they’re really practicing is reading closely and between the lines, which is exactly what they’ll need when there are no pictures to help.
When we made our own graphic novel, “Fallacy Hunters”, we built it around that idea. Logical fallacies are abstract, and can be difficult to grasp from a definition alone. But when kids see a scene with a colorful character dodging a question, they’ll understand a red herring in a way a dry textbook just can’t deliver.
I believe good graphic novels aren’t a shortcut around reading. They teach kids to notice what isn’t said out loud, and that’s a skill for any book they’ll ever pick up.
—Jane Petito
Pair Comics With Prose
I normalize graphic novels as real reading that trains visual attention, sequence, and emotion—skills that transfer to prose. Framing for parents and teachers: “This is storytelling with two tracks—art and words—working together.” Pair a comic with a related short prose chapter on the same theme so kids feel the bridge without a demotion story (“now the real books”).
A simple home/school routine: comics for the settle-in (5-10 minutes), then one prose page or short chapter while the story energy is warm. Confidence grows because they already care about the characters or world. In my children’s mindfulness work, pictures carry feeling; words carry naming—together they build the stamina longer texts need, without treating comics as a shortcut.
Extend Stories Beyond Panels
As a children’s author, it’s important to let the graphic novels and comics become their storyline by asking them what is happening in the book. Then, ask them to imagine what happened before the first panel or what happens when the story ends. Confidence and comprehension are built through being able to attach words to their imagination. That result then carries on into the classroom.