Graphic Novels in my Collection

I was going through my library this week, trying to find some books to get rid of. I routinely have to sort through my books to find some that I don’t need to keep anymore, to make room for all the new books I get without thinking of my space constraints. I found a bunch of graphic novels that I’ve read over the years, so I compiled them into a fun little list. Here they are, ranked from my least to most favorite. (These may contain spoilers.)


5. Sunny Side Up by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm

This is a pretty popular graphic novel. It’s about a girl named Sunny and her visit to her grandpa, who lives in a complex in florida. We don’t find out why Sunny’s gone to see him until later in the book, when it’s revealed that her brother is struggling with substance abuse. My sister got ahold of this book once, and she really didn’t understand a lot of it. Personally, although I appreciate the attempt to teach children about the dangers of substance abuse, this book kind of fell flat for me.




This is Sunny moving into her grandpa’s apartment and meeting the neighbors. [Image found here]


4. Smile by Raina Telgemeier

Graphic novel biographies are getting more and more popular. This particular one is about the author, Raina, and a lot of problems she had with her teeth. While it’s mostly about braces, it also manages to include some lessons about growing up and friendships. Its sequel, Sisters, is also pretty good, and I’ve read both of them quite a few times. This is a picture of Raina, to illustrate (ha) the drawing style of the book.




[Image found here]

3. El Deafo by Cece Bell

This is another autobiography in graphic novel form. It relates the author’s journey with hearing impairment, starting when she contracted meningitis around the age of four. She spends a lot of her school years in search of a True Friend, while frequently trying different devices to help her hear better. I think this one is really cute, but also very interesting because of the real-life topics it deals with.



[Image found here]


The author chose to illustrate the characters as rabbit-like creatures instead of people, which I find very interesting. I think it helps the book to seem more childish.


2. The Giver by Lois Lowry (graphic novel form illustrated by P. Craig Russell)


It may just be because The Giver is in my top 10 favorite books of all time, but I really like this graphic novel. If you haven’t read it, the main concept of the book is that the world has transformed into a utopian society, but the downside is that everything is the same, everywhere. There is no weather, no self-expression, and no color. It’s very hard to visualize these circumstances, but the artist did a really great job. It’s definitely the most grown-up book in my graphic novel collection. This is an illustration of the scene where Jonas, the main character, discovers that something strange is going on.


[Image found here]


1. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

I think this book is technically a graphic novel, since it is mainly made up of beautiful, full-page pencil drawings. Here’s an example of the style of drawings in the book.



[Image found here]

However, the illustrations are often interspersed with chapters of text. The author prefers to alternate images and text instead of using speech bubbles, which seems like a very sophisticated approach. This is my favorite in the collection, because the pictures are amazing and the plot is really good as well. It also has one of my favorite book endings ever. If you’ve never read this before, I definitely recommend that you check it out.