38 Totally Brilliant Comics for Your Homeschool Reading List
September 25 is National Comic Book Day, but don’t wait until then to add these comics to your homeschool reading list. These graphic texts stand up as literature in their own right.
The first graphic novel was (probably) published in 1978, but it’s really only over the past three decades that comics have found their rightful place as “real literature” on library shelves, thanks in part to groundbreaking graphic novels like Maus, Sandman, and Persepolis. (In case you’re wondering, a graphic novel is, basically, a book-length comic, and the terms can be used interchangeably.) To celebrate National Comic Book Day and the storytelling power of books and art, we’ve rounded up some great graphic novels for your homeschool shelf.
Chi’s Sweet Home by Konami Kanata
It’s pretty much impossible to resist these stories about a stray cat who finds a home with a kind family in a no-pets-allowed Tokyo apartment building. Elementary
Binky to the Rescue by Ashley Spires
Space cat Binky ventures out the window and into “outer space” to rescue his stuffed mouse after a misadventure strands him outside. Elementary
Little Mouse Gets Ready by Jeff Smith
A little mouse gets gussied up one piece of clothing at a time — until his mother reminds him that mice don’t actually wear clothes. Elementary
The Secret of the Unicorn by Hergé
In Tintin’s first adventure, the young journalist tracks down a secret hidden in a model ship. Elementary
The Adventures of Polo by Régis Faller
A little dog sets out to explore the world with his boat, his backpack, and his umbrella. Elementary
Hamster and Cheese by Colleen Venable
In the first book of the Pet Shop Private Eye series, Sasspants the guinea pig teams up with Hamisher the hamster to solve the mystery of the missing sandwiches. Elementary
You Can't Take a Balloon into the Museum of Fine Arts by Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman
This book highlights the collection at Boston’s best-known art museum. Grandma loses a green balloon, which causes a series of artistic mishaps around the city. Elementary
Bone: Out from Boneville by Jeff Smith
The Bone cousins are determined to find their way home to Boneville, which means navigating a wilderness filled with monsters and potential friends. Elementary
Into the Volcano by Don Wood
Talk about drama: Two brothers on a mission to recover their family’s long-lost treasure find themselves trapped inside an erupting volcano. Elementary
Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
The students have always wondered what their lunch lady does when she’s not dishing out lunch in the cafeteria — turns out, she’s serving up justice against bad guys, including a nefarious substitute teacher. Elementary
Babymouse: Queen of the World! by Jennifer Holm and Matthew Holm
The first book in the Babymouse series is a perfect introduction of what’s to come: A sassy little mouse with big dreams tries to navigate life as schoolmouse. Elementary
Luke on the Loose by Harry Bliss
A pigeon leads a boy on a chase through New York City, from Central Park across the Brooklyn Bridge, through an upscale restaurant, and into the sky. Elementary
Sticky Burr: Adventures in Burrwood Forest by John Lechner
In this whimsical tale, a little burr who feels like an outsider in his community sets out on an adventure with his nature journal in hand. Elementary
The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi
Siblings Emily and Navin must rescue their mother from a strange alternate world in this first book in the Amulet series. Middle grades
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Eric Shanower and L. Frank Baum
Eric Shanower’s graphic adaptation of Dorothy’s adventures in Oz is one of the great examples of how a graphic novel can bring fresh life to a classic story. Middle grades
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
The only thing creepier than Gaiman’s original novel about a girl who finds a wonderfully terrible world behind a secret door in her new house is this deliciously eerie graphic adaptation. Middle grades
Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke
Get ready to meet the bold and imaginative heroine you’ve been waiting for: Spacegirl Zita just wants to save her pal from an alien doomsday cult, but she discovers she’s kind of a hero. Middle grades
Foiled by Jane Yolen
Aliera may be a fencing star, but she’s a nobody at school. So when her cute lab partner asks her on her first date, the last thing she needs is to deal with a bunch of magical creatures determined to steal her new fencing foil. Middle grades
Bluffton: My Summers with Buster Keaton by Matt Phelan
In this nostalgic tale of old-fashioned summers, a traveling vaudeville troupe comes to Henry’s town and captivates Henry and his friends with its tightrope walkers and exotic animals—and with a kid performer named Buster Keaton, a.k.a “the human mop.” Middle grades
Smile by Raina Telgemeier
Telgemeier’s one-word-titled graphic novels (see also: Ghosts, Sisters, Drama) are the middle grades graphic novel gold standard. In this one, Raina reflects on her life in dentistry, which includes headgear, surgery, braces, and more. Middle grades
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
Shapeshifter Nimona teams up with a not-so-evil villain to take down a not-so-good hero in this delightfully fractured fairy tale. Middle grades
Ghostopolis by Doug Ten Napel
Garth Hale gets stuck in the world of spirits when a washed-out ghost handler accidentally zaps him to the netherworld. Being a human in the ghost world comes with certain superpowers — but an evil ruler wants to harness those powers to fulfill his evil scheme. Middle grades
Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong by Prudence Shen
Can Charlie and Nate’s friendship survive a student government election that features cheerleaders out for blood, killer robots, behind-the-scenes scheming, and (why not?) chainsaws? Middle grades
Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity by Dave Roman
Former space hero Hakata Soy just wants to be a regular kid — but with mean girls, a roommate who’s obsessed with sports, and a best friend who won’t return his calls, being a student at Astronaut Academy is harder than he expected. Middle grades
The Girl Who Owned a City by O.T. Nelson and Dan Jolley
When a virus kills off all the adults, a teenage girl becomes a reluctant leader, protecting her fellow survivors from starvation, danger, and the ruthless gangs who roam the city streets. Middle grades
Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword by Barry Deutsch
A dragon-fighting, bad guy-kicking Orthodox Jewish heroine? Yes, please. Thank goodness this one kicks off a series, because one dose of Mirka Herschberg just wouldn’t be enough. Middle grades
Best Shot in the West: The Adventures of Nat Love by Patricia C. McKissack and Frederick L. McKissack, Jr.
The only thing more fascinating than the story of a liberated enslaved person turned Wild West cowboy is the true story of a liberated enslaved person turned Wild West cowboy. Nat Love is one of those people who brings history to life. Middle grades
Runaways by Brian K. Vaughan, Adrian Alphona, Takeshi Miyazawa
When a group of teenagers discover that their parents are actually supervillains, running away from home seems like the only option. Then they discover that they have super powers of their own, which could be used for evil — or good. Think of it as coming of age story with heat vision. High school
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
This autobiographical account of a precocious kid with Marxist parents who lived through the Islamic Revolution in Tehran in 1979 is utterly riveting. High school
Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan
Remember that paperboy from Better Off Dead? These four papergirls would take him down in a couple of minutes. Lucky for the world, they’re on the case on Halloween in 1988, when a bunch of creepy aliens invade Earth. High school
The Encyclopedia of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg
When someone asks you what a graphic novel can do that a more traditional book can’t, point them to this dreamy, delicate story about stories. A boy from the North Pole falls in love with a girl from the South Pole. The catch? They can’t touch. So they set off on a journey around the world to find a solution together. The book reads like a series of folk stories passed down through hundreds of voices, and the whimsically tender illustrations have a voice of their own. High school
The Gigantic Beard that Was Evil by Stephen Collins
Just go with it: Dave’s an ordinary guy, living a normal life until one day when he grows a gigantic beard that swallows his whole town. This book is surreal, weird, and kind of wonderful. High school
Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona
Kamala Khan is just a typical teenage girl. Well, unless you count the fact that her strict Muslim parents won’t let her go to any parties in her New Jersey hometown. Oh, and that she’s got super powers, thanks to the effects of a weird mist. Kamala is smart, determined, and full of save-the-world pep. High school
This One Summer by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki
Definitely for mature readers (but in the best possible way), this is a coming-of-age story about two friends spending the summer together and figuring out the uncertain terrain between the safety of childhood and the freedom of adulthood. The Tamakis make a bold choice in letting Rose be unlikable, but the resulting book is stronger and more interesting because of it. Bonus: This book has the best graphic novel dance scene ever. High school
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and P Craig Russell
Not all beloved books translate to graphic format — but The Graveyard Book author knows a thing or two about what makes a great comic (see: The Sandman), and this adaptation delivers. Russell brings to vivid life the peculiarly creepy world where Nobody Owens grows up in a graveyard, raised by ghosts and creatures of the night. High school
Boxers by Gene Luen Yang
In 1898 China, peasants are bullied and abused by foreign devils—and Little Bao is sick and tired of it. Against all odds and with the help of the old Chinese gods, Little Bao builds an army of kung fu-trained peasants (called boxers) and kicks of a successful — and violent — revolution. High school
The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
This isn’t a light or simple story — it’s a story about surviving the Holocaust and about being the child of Holocaust survivors. It’s about war and the hard choices that shape us and the way that luck strikes without reason or justification. It’s powerful and difficult and totally worth reading. High school
Through the Woods by Emily Carroll
In this creepy Gothic horror comic, Carroll weaves five spine-tingling tales of the macabre with deliciously eerie illustrations. If you’re in the mood for something spooky, don’t miss this one. High school
This was originally published in the summer 2017 issue of HSL.
Need a new series for winter readaloud season? We have a few ideas.