Comic Book Day

It’s probably not often that we associate comic books with younger children – after all, surely a comic book for little ones is just a picture book? But there are actually a few subtle distinctions between them in both form and function that make comic books an entirely separate form of literary media for little ones.

While both comic books and picture books follow stories via images, the key differences between the two are the number of images included on one page, the amount of text, and the relationships between characters and events. In comic books, there are multiple panels on one page featuring different sequential images, all of which trace an invisible thread of story, whereas picture books tend to feature a core image on each page alongside an anchor line (or lines) of text. Characters in comics are linked to one another and to events via speech bubbles and sound effects, as opposed to paragraphs of continuous text.

Comics are a vibrant and diverse art form, marrying storyboard visuals with snippets of language – from onomatopoeic sound effects to speech that links scenes and characters – to create an engaging visual story. Due to this structure, they can be a simple and effective way of communicating complex information.

Comic books – and their more grownup counterpart, graphic novels – have the capacity to engage more reluctant readers because of the low volume of text and the speed at which the story travels. But this needn’t affect the complexity: primarily pictorial, there are many opportunities to play around with symbolism and ‘show-not-tell’ approaches that can positively impact the children’s comprehension of implicit meaning and, in future, their writing skills.

Despite being assumed ‘easy reads’ because of the general lack of text, comic books often contain complex ideas and structures that may be difficult for little-little ones to follow. Therefore, you’ll find that most are targeted at children aged three years and older. This doesn’t mean, however, that you should discourage children younger than three from picking up one if they want to look at it! There’s a lot to be gained from children working out the order of the images and discussing what they’re depicting with others.

So, to celebrate Comic Book Day (3 May), we’ve collated some top-tier comic books for you to enjoy at your setting below.

It’s worth noting that reading age and interest age don’t always tally up, so an online search may give a reading age different to what’s provided here. This online suggested reading age is for children reading the books independently as opposed to group or paired reading with an adult, so please don’t discount any on that basis as they may instead be perfect for sharing together.

As always, you know the children in your setting and are the best judge for what is appropriate. Enjoy!

Aesop’s Fables:

Bumble and Snug series by Mark Bradley

Brownstone’s Mythical Collection by Joe Todd-Stanton: 

The Discover Graphics: Global Folktales series: