Kids Core List
As a staff, we’ve considered nominations, voted, and created a series of recommended core title lists. These are the titles and series that we believe belong on all library shelves. Some are the most popular, others classics of the format, and some the most engaging titles for both fans of graphic novels and new comics readers.
Check out our top titles in this age range by clicking on the button below, or browse through them all!
A Wrinkle in Time
The world already knows Meg and Charles Wallace Murry, Calvin O'Keefe, and the three Mrs?Who, Whatsit, and Which?the memorable and wonderful characters who fight off a dark force and save our ...
Amulet
After the tragic death of their father, Emily and Navin move with their mother to the home of her deceased great-grandfather, but the strange house proves to be dangerous. Before long, a ...
Arrival
The Arrival is a migrant story told as a series of wordless images. A man leaves his wife and child in an impoverished town, seeking better prospects in an unknown country on the other side of a ...
Avatar the Last Airbender
As the world heads toward another devastating war, Aang's friendship with Zuko throws him into the middle of the conflict!
(Publisher Description)
Avatar the Last Airbender
By Gene Luen ...
Babymouse
Meet Babymouse—Her dreams are big! Her imagination is wild! Her whiskers are ALWAYS a mess! In her mind, she's Queen of the World! In real life…she's not even Queen of the lunch table. It's the ...
Ballet Cat
Ballet Cat and Sparkles the Pony are trying to decide what to play today. Nothing that Sparkles suggests--making crafts, playing checkers, and selling lemonade--goes well with the leaping, ...
BerryBrook Middle School Series
Cardinal rule #1 for surviving school: Don't get noticed by the mean kids.
Cardinal rule #2 for surviving school: Seek out groups with similar interests and join them.
On her first day at her ...
Big Nate
Big Nate is taking it from the top—the top of the troublemaker's list!
Nate Wright is eleven years old, four-and-a-half feet tall, and the all-time record holder for school detentions in ...
Binky
Binky is a space cat - at least in his own mind. He's really a house cat who has never left the family "space station." Unlike other house cats, Binky has a mission: to blast off into outer ...
Bird & Squirrel
Squirrel is afraid of his own shadow. Bird doesn't have a care in the world. And Cat wants to eat Bird and Squirrel. Of course, he'll have to catch them first, and that's not going to be ...
Bone
After being run out of Boneville, the three Bone cousins -- Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone -- are separated and lost in a vast, uncharted desert. One by one, they find their way into a ...
Calvin and Hobbes
This is the first collection of the classic comic strip that features Calvin, a rambunctious 6-year-old boy, and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes, who comes charmingly to life. Filled with a mix of ...
Cardboard Kingdom
Welcome to a neighborhood of kids who transform ordinary boxes into colorful costumes, and their ordinary block into cardboard kingdom. This is the summer when sixteen kids encounter knights and ...
Cleopatra in Space
When a young Cleopatra (yes, THAT Cleopatra) finds a mysterious tablet that zaps her to the far, REALLY far future, she learns of an ancient prophecy that says she is destined to save the galaxy ...
Comics Squad!
Wowza! Calling all kidz! Do you like comics? Do you like laughing till milk comes out of your nose?! Look no further—do we have the book for you! All your favorite comic creators are right here ...
Courageous Princess
Princess Mabelrose may not be the fairest of the land, but she has enough brains and bravery to fend for herself in a fantasy world of danger and adventure! From a mighty dragon with an army of ...
Dog Man
George and Harold have created a new hero who digs into deception, claws after crooks, and rolls over robbers. When Greg the police dog and his cop companion are injured on the job, a ...
Drawing Lesson
For the first time ever, drawing instructor and graphic novelist Mark Crilley brings his easy-to-follow artistic instruction to aspiring artists in the form of a comic book, providing you with a ...
El Deafo
Starting at a new school is scary, especially with a giant hearing aid strapped to your chest! At her old school, everyone in Cece’s class was deaf. Here, she’s different. She’s sure the kids ...
Elephant and Piggie
Gerald is careful. Piggie is not.
Piggie cannot help smiling. Gerald can.
Gerald worries so that Piggie does not have to.
Gerald and Piggie are best friends.
Today, I Will Fly! is the funny ...