Let's Keep an Eye on These Comics Publishers

Image courtesy of Amy Laughlin

Amy Laughlin works as a youth services librarian at the Ferguson Library in Stamford, CT. She served on the Notable Children’s Books committee in 2017 and 2018, and co-wrote a column for School Library Journal from 2014-2018 titled, “Mix it Up.”

It’s likely that I’m the only librarian who attended New York’s Comic Con this year to scout for Geisel-eligible comics and graphic novels (was anyone else there also asking editors about emergent readers like I was? Show yourself!).

Did I see a plethora of amazing comics? Yes. Did I meet many incredibly talented #ownvoices comics creators and artists? You betcha. Did I walk away thinking, “I’m looking at a book that could absolutely be a Geisel winner/honor title!”?

Well, not exactly.

What I did leave thinking was this: there is an astounding quantity of extraordinary comics and graphic novels being published right now for young readers. Of those, a small number target emergent readers. An even smaller number of those rise above when specifically considering the Geisel criteria.

At every comic booth I visited I would pepper the staff with questions, including, “What’s the youngest reader you target with your comics?” Editors are listening to librarians and educators, and many are making a concerted effort to create original content aimed squarely at our youngest readers. Testimony to that is the fact that Geisel has already given honors and medals to a number of exceptional comics/graphic novels.

One comics publisher that has created Geisel medal and honor books already is TOON Books. This year, their book A Trip to the Top of the Volcano with Mouse by Frank Viva serves as a sequel/companion novel to 2012’s A Trip to the Bottom of the World with Mouse, and could certainly be a Geisel contender. Bright, punchy colors and a simple paneled layout help guide young readers along, though a few tricky words (“conduit,” for one) may be tough for some readers.

Could there be a Geisel coming for Mouse?
Image from toon-books.com. 

Another comics publisher striving to create works specifically for young readers is Lion Forge. Founded in 2011, Lion Forge has #WeNeedDiverseBooks embedded in their identity, as founders David Steward II and Carl Reed are deeply committed to publishing “titles that reflect the diversity of the world in the characters, the creators, and the Lion Forge team.” Their imprint, Cubhouse, aimed at introducing children 8 and under to the world of comics, has an impressive roster of books aimed at the youngest comics and graphic novel enthusiasts. 

Oni Press is yet another notable comics publisher to keep an eye on. Having published Katie O’Neill’s Eisner Award-winning Tea Dragon Society (based on her webcomic of the same name) in 2017, it’s easy to consider that Oni could have some Geisel contenders in the works. It’s worth noting that Oni Press and Lion Forge merged earlier this year, and time will tell how the merger will impact future published works.

Tea Dragon Festival, the 2019
follow up to
Tea Dragon Society
Image from onipress.com

Two other comic giants to keep on the radar are Dark Horse Comics and the KABOOM! imprint from BOOM! Studios. Most of their current offerings are aimed at young elementary and would not necessarily be considered crossover titles that are suitable for Geisel readers—but that could change. Dark Horse and KABOOM! are ones to watch.

Could this KABOOM! comic/graphic novel be a Geisel?
The look and feel of it are perfect for an emergent reader,
but sadly it’s too long (at 208 pages).
Image from i1.wp.com

Gathering Kid Feedback

Image of Jackie Partch sitting 

with a pile of books. Courtesy 

of Jackie Partch.

Today's post comes from Jackie Partch. Jackie is a School Corps Librarian at Multnomah County Library, where she does outreach to K-12 students. She was a member of the 2012 Geisel committee. 

The first time I met with my Geisel committee, I was delighted to find out that kid appeal was something we could consider (unlike some children’s literature awards). The Geisel criteria note that, “Subject matter must be intriguing enough to motivate the child to read” and “The book is respectful and of interest to children.” The manual further encourages committee members to “‘Adopt’ a kindergarten or first grade class and observe how children learn to read.” 

In the fall, once we had a good number of books to consider, I started looking for second grade classes to work with (second graders are often reading well enough to tackle most of the books under consideration). As an outreach librarian to K-12 schools, I had lots of teacher connections, and I finally chose two classrooms. One (Mrs. K’s class) was conveniently located at my child’s school, where most of the children were meeting state reading benchmarks. The other was with Mrs. B, a teacher in another part of town who had really impressed me in previous visits. Her school had 40% English language learners, with more than 20 different languages spoken at home. 

I delivered new tubs of books to each classroom every month. In retrospect, it would have been better if I had been more specific about the kind of feedback I needed. The two teachers shared the books with their students in different ways: Mrs. K usually read them aloud, and Mrs. B added them to her students’ reading tubs for them to read on their own. The latter approach worked better for me, since I was interested in whether the students liked the books on their own (without the benefit of an enthusiastic adult reader) and whether they were at an appropriate reading level. 

In both classrooms, I made regular visits to get the kids’ opinions, working with either the whole class or in small groups. They always wanted to tell me what was funny and what their favorite parts of the books were. The kids would usually tell me the books were too easy or just right, but the teachers would let me know which ones had been challenging for their students. 

The feedback from kids was invaluable. Sometimes the stories I found most humorous fell flat with them, while other times I was surprised that a book that had underwhelmed me was a favorite of theirs. The classroom visits were some of my favorite parts of my Geisel year. I formed a particularly strong bond with Mrs. B’s class, who sent me a video greeting while the committee was meeting at Midwinter and later gave me a bound notebook of thank you letters like this gem. If you’ve served on the Geisel committee and have tips on getting feedback from kids, please share your comments! 

Thank you note for Jackie. Courtesy of Jackie Partch. 

What Kids Say - October 2019

Welcome to our second post in this year’s What Kids Say Series. This series is meant to mimic an important part of Geisel Committee members’ experience: observing while kids read Geisel contenders out loud. Unlike some kid lit awards, kid appeal and a successful reading experience are part of the criteria and definitely a part of the discussion for committees. In fact there’s a section in the award manual that encourages committee members to “Take an active role and become immersed in the world of beginning readers” [p.19] followed by a list of possible ways to achieve this goal including, “‘Adopt’ a kindergarten or first grade class and observe how children learn to read” [p.19]. 

This series attempts to achieve a similar goal, but in a blog format. Each month I send a list of three or four contenders to a half dozen of our guest contributors that are caregivers of or regularly work with K-2nd grade students. I do my best to select a variety of levels and topics for readers at different stages of the learning to read process. While each of the titles highlighted in this post will be covered by guest contributors at some point this year, the focus of this series is on the experiences and observations from kid readers and their grown-up contributors. 

Image of two children reading Fox + Chick: The Quiet Boat Ride and Other Stories by Sergio Ruzzier. 

Image courtesy of Jayce Senter. 

This month over 100 kids in Kindergarten through 2nd grade participated nationwide. Most read just one or two titles. Contributors can record feedback in any format, however I do provide them with a couple feedback templates (Bookmark, kid feedback sheet, grown up feedback sheet). A big shout out to Jamie Chowning, DaNae Leu, Samantha Marino, Stacey Rattner, Amma Romero, and Jayce Senter for all their hard work sharing, observing, and collecting feedback from the kids in their lives.  

And now, let’s get to the books and what kids have to say about them! 

I Will Race You Through 

This Book! by Jonathan 

Fenske book cover

I Will Race You Through This Book by Jonathan Fenske 
In her recent post, Kahla Gubanich writes that this book “calls back to both the endearing fable of the tortoise and the hare as well as the rich history of metafictional children’s literature, while still standing strong on its own (speedy) legs.” Let’s see what nearly fifty 1st and 2nd graders who read this title had to say. 

Many kids liked that the rabbit broke the fourth wall to talk directly to the reader. One child said, “It’s like you can talk to him!” The racing element was much discussed by kids. One wrote that they liked, “that the bonee wos raceing [sic}.” and another wrote that they liked “that we won.” Some kids loved the cheating bunny, others weren’t so sure, “I did not like thet the bune chedid [sic].” Most kids loved the “funny bunny”, but one kid just wrote “winey!” when asked what they didn’t like about the book. 

Most found the book interesting and easy to read and follow, but a few found it confusing and uninteresting. Unfortunately, none of them shared any comments about what they thought was lacking. “Through”, “now”, “even”, and “readers” were called out as difficult and one child wasn’t sure how to navigate “Wow” as a verb, but otherwise it seems the rest of the kids breezed through the text. 

One grown up contributor wrote, “In my experience, kids this age really like to feel smarter than the book and enjoy humor that plays off of the characters knowing they're in a book, so this was right in their zone.” 

Will this book win the Geisel race? We’ll have to wait to find out! 

Fox + Chick: The Quiet Boat Ride 

and Other Stories by Sergio 

Ruzzier book cover

Fox + Chick: The Quiet Boat Ride and Other Stories by Sergio Ruzzier 
The second title in Ruzzier’s Fox + Chick series (book one received a 2019 Geisel Honor) was read by twenty 1st and 2nd graders. It really seemed to shine for these kids, who all said they enjoyed the book and would read another in the series. In addition to enjoying the book, the kids found it easy to follow and easy to read. The speech bubbles were a particular hit with a few children. 

A few kids thought the book was long and one kid specifically pointed to the yellow water as something they didn’t like. Most kids only needed help 1-5 times. The following words were called out as difficult by various children: 

• Received 
• Shipwreck 
• Stressful 
• Plunder 
• Captain 
• Still 
• Pirate 
• Quiet 
  

Chick was the most talked about character in this book. Here are a few kid comments (written exactly as kids wrote them): 

• That chick did’in whant to opne the box 
• Wen chic found the choclet cake 
• Wen cick gode on the botride 
• Chik was so silly 
• How chik kepe asking qestens 
  

Overall, it seems that despite some difficult vocabulary, that kids enjoyed the book enough to stick with it. Will that page turning dynamic equal a Geisel nod? 

Harold & Hog Pretend for 

Real! by Dan Santat and

 Mo Willems book cover

Harold & Hog Pretend for Real! by Dan Santat and Mo Willems 
In her review, guest blogger Sylvie Shaffer writes that this book “is the brain-bending story of Gerald and Piggie reading the story of Harold (an elephant who looks quite a bit like Gerald) and Hog (a pig resembling Piggie) pretending to be Gerald and Piggie, who are reading the book Harold and Hog Pretend for Real.” Over eighty 1st and 2nd graders read this title. Let’s see what they had to say. 

A majority of the kids were able to read the book through without needing help sounding out words, although a handful needed help with 1-5 words, and another handful needed help 6-10 times. “Pretend” and “Real” were difficult words for one child, however the word that seven kids struggled with was “Carefree.” 

The kids who found the book easy to read and follow also found the book interesting. On the flip side, of the dozen kids who found the book a challenge to read also found it to be confusing, uninteresting or both. 

Unsurprisingly, the humor was a big hit with kids. One child wrote, “It is funny. It makes me happy. It is joyful.” The characters were much loved and written about by kids. Notably the characters pretending to be other characters, but also specific moments. Here are a few answers to the question, “What did you like about this book?” (again, written exactly as the kids wrote them): 

• Its when Harold and Hog asked pigi to drive the bus. 
• Harold and Hog looked so realistik. 
• When Harold tride to fly. 

It’s hard to deny the power of Elephant & Piggie. Will they have another brush with the Geisel Award? We shall see… 

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So that’s what kids have to say this month! What are your kids saying about these books? Let us know in the comments. We also invite you to share kid feedback on any of the titles we blog about via the comments.

School of Fish by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Mike Moran

Photo courtesy of Tanya Prax

Tanya Prax is a Youth Services Librarian with Arapahoe Libraries in Colorado and has been with the library for 2.5 years. She is from Minnesota and is a lover of the lakes, mountains, sports, and adventures. Her favorite thing about working in libraries is opening people up to the possibilities that libraries can provide. 

Image from School of Fish by Jane Yolen,
illustrated by Mike Moran

Jane Yolen and Mike Moran give us a fabulous new book in the form of an early reader with School of Fish. The rhyming text and colorful illustrations tell the story of a young fish’s first day of school. He is nervous but excited! He is dealing with all the things a child would go through on their first day of school: shiny, new school supplies, how to ride the school bus, missing his parents, and bothersome classmates. He is feeling lonely until he finds another little fish who is just as overwhelmed as he is, and he starts to feel much more confident.

Image from School of Fish by Jane Yolen, 
illustrated by Mike Moran

This book is targeted towards kids ages 4-6 and I think that is just right. Kids will be able to relate to the story as they may be starting school and are often stepping into the unknown. The illustrations are bright and eye catching. They do a great job of showing little fish’s emotions as he navigates his day. The text is bold and brief on each page, with plenty of white space. The text also rhymes throughout the entire story making for an energetic reading experience. The characters include a variety of sea creatures that kids will have fun recognizing. My one concern is that the book does introduce a few words that kids may not know yet, such as “fingerling” and “electric” but for the most part the text is simple. The “new” words could contribute to a learning experience for the reader.

Photo courtesy of Tanya Prax

I was able to read this book with a 5-year-old girl that I was babysitting for the weekend. Right when I pulled it out she saw the cover and said, “OOH, is that about a fish in school?” The cover alone made her excited for the story and gave clues to what it was going to be about. She said her favorite part was when the fish was figuring out that the scary shark was just the school bus. In her words, “Oh, the shark just wants to take him to school! How cute!”

Overall, I think that Jane Yolen and Mike Moran’s School of Fish is a great contender for the Geisel Award with its fun illustrations, relatable and intriguing story, and simple and straightforward text.

Beginning Readers, Diversity and Reading Motivation

Gigi Pagliarulo

This week's guest contributor is Gigi Pagliarulo, a librarian for the Denver Public Library. Gigi is especially interested in youth services, early literacy, and issues of diversity and multiculturalism within children's literature and programming, has served on the steering committee of Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy, and the CLEL Bell Picture Book Award Selection Committee.

Hello, and welcome to another edition of Guessing Geisel + #WeNeedDiverseBooks = #WeNeedDiverseBeginning Readers! Over the last few years, I’ve written for Guessing Geisel about a variety of issues related to diversity and beginning readers, including why we need diverse beginning readers, #EverydayDiversity and #OwnVoices.

Learning to read isn’t an easy or natural process for humans. While we evolved to talk and communicate orally, reading and writing require existing neural pathways to be repurposed in order to connect several different areas of the brain. Children need to connect how a word looks with how it sounds and what it means and then do it over and over again, stringing words into sentences and sentences into paragraphs. This is hard work and requires that children have the motivation to persist through the inevitable struggles and discomfort of the process of learning how to read. 

This reading motivation comes from several areas, including choice and personal relevance. Kids who can self-select books that reflect their interests and life experiences demonstrate more reading motivation. This is where diversity and equity in beginning readers come into play. When we review Rudine Sims Bishop’s essential piece that outlines children’s need for books to be both windows and mirrors, we can understand that seeing oneself reflected in the pages of a book (or conversely never or rarely seeing oneself reflected while reading) could strongly affect children’s reading motivation. As the International Literacy Association writes in a 2018 Literacy Leadership Brief, “For students to recognize their own communities in the books they are taught or self-select is critical to the personal engagement that drives deeper literacy.” That personal engagement is the foundational factor in reading motivation. 

The more choices available to children of diverse, self-reflective and high-quality books available, the greater the likelihood that more children will find the reading motivation they need to support their developing literacy. Unfortunately, as my prior blogs have discussed, research and experience has shown a continued paucity of children’s literature by and about people of color, people with disabilities and LGBTQ+ folks. There are but a few published each year, so here are recommendations for all the diverse, high-quality beginning readers published in 2019. If you find more, please post them in the comments. And as always, I want to remind the publishing industry that #WeNeedMoreDiverseBeginningReaders by #OwnVoices authors, and I need your help! 

Here are three ways to take action to let publishers know you want more diverse and #OwnVoices titles: 

• Going to a library conference? Stop by publisher booths and ask a rep for their favorite upcoming diverse and #OwnVoices titles. 
• If you do any purchasing at your library, contact your vendor and publisher reps and ask specifically for diverse and #OwnVoices. 
• Use social media to cheer on publishers who put out diverse and #OwnVoices titles, and let them you know want more. 

Andrew & Ana series by Christine Platt, illustrated by Sharon Sordo*

Charlie & Mouse Even Better by Laurel Snyder, illustrated by Emily Hughes

Corduroy series by Don Freeman and Allison Inches, illustrated by Allan Eitzen

Garden Day! by Candace Ransom, illustrated by Erica Meza

Katie Woo series by Fran Manushkin, illustrated by Tammie Lyon

Katie Woo’s Neighborhood by Fran Manushkin, illustrated by Laura Zarrin

King & Kayla series by Dori Hillestad Butler, illustrated by Nancy Meyers

Sadiq series by Siman Nuurali*

Yasmin series bt Saadia Faruqi, illustrated by Hatem Aly*

*#OwnVoices author/illustrator

Topics I’d like to See Covered in Beginning Reader Books

Anna Taylor

Today's guest contributor, Anna Taylor, is the Head of Youth Services for Darien Library in CT. She currently serves on ALCT's Cataloging of Children's Materials Committee and is active in ALSC and YALSA.

Think about your top circulating beginning reader books. What do they have in common? Perhaps it’s a funny story about a fly, or an adventure with a sparkly fairy, or maybe a superhero who doesn’t like to wear pants. Young readers love these books. They check them out by the handfuls and read them over and over and over again. It’s amazing! Even the most reluctant of readers are drawn to these books. I don’t care what anyone else says, if a book makes a child love reading, then I’m a fan. Yes, even those books written by a daisy. 

I know. I know. Some of these books are seen as “formulaic” and not “quality” literature. Parents can see the cover and automatically ask the child to find something more “appropriate” and less “silly”. How do you meet them in the middle?

I would like to see beginning reader books that have the following things:

• Flashy cover (glitter, texture, metallic)
• Cartoon-like art throughout
• Relatable and diverse characters
• Everyday topics and issues
• No numbered series

Kids judge a book by its cover (you know you do, too) and they are much more likely to pick a mediocre book with a flashy cover than an amazing book with a basic cover. Can we mesh the two? The I Survived series does a pretty good job at this pairing: exciting cover, great historical story. Let’s read about bullying and divorce and kindness and other cultures in a Geronimo Stilton format with flashy text and color illustrations.

I want to give a beginning reader a book that I know they will not only want to read but, after they read it, will learn something about themselves. Going on adventures with animals and fairies is a blast but I want a 15 year old to come up to me with a beginning reader book and say “this book changed me” while clutching it to their chest in a hug.

Snail & Worm: All Day by Tina Kügler

Snail & Worm: All Day 

by Tina Kügler book cover

After taking home a Geisel honor in 2018 for Snail & Worm Again, the duo of invertebrates are at it again in their third adventure. 

As with the previous titles, Snail & Worm: All Day is comprised of three stories. In the first story, Snail is having a terrible day, but still proclaims to Worm that it’s the “Best Day Ever” because their friends have all accomplished great things. The second story begins with Snail encountering a dark and spooky cave that houses a scary dragon. Although readers, along with Worm, will quickly realize it’s a turtle shell and a turtle, not a cave and a dragon. It’s all too much for Snail, who ends the chapter with a nap. In the final story Snail asks Worm for a bedtime story, a request that turns out to be far from simple, but still heartwarming in its conclusion. 

The all-dialogue text uses mostly short, single syllable words bolstered by helpful visual context clues. Every so often a longer word will creep into, but not so often as to be off putting. Even though there aren’t any speech bubbles, it’s always clear who is speaking thanks to thoughtfully layouts and page design. The line breaks are especially clean and crisp. 

A two page spread from Snail & Worm: All Day  by Tina Kügler. On the left hand page, Caterpillar climbs over a leaf while Worm and Snail watch. On the right hand page, Snail and Worm watch Bird feed her chicks in a tree. 

The full page illustrations, created with acrylic on pastel paper, collage, and digital media, use a bright autumnal palette to bring the natural settings to life. They also provide just enough visual context clues to set the scene, a perfect match for the level of text complexity. Although background colors change throughout the book, which occasionally makes the text a little difficult to decipher, all in all the text placement is well done. 

A two page spread from Snail & Worm: All Day  by Tina Kügler. On the left hand page, Worm and Snail make a plan to tell a story together. On the right, Snail worries that the story won't be good enough. Worm tells them not to worry.

In a classic comedy set up, Worm plays the straight man (er, worm) to Snail’s comedic foil. Readers love to be smarter than the characters, and Snail gives them a reason to feel clever at least once a chapter. 

A two page spread from Snail & Worm: All Day  by Tina Kügler. On the left hand page, Snail encounters Turtle. On the right, Snail is convinced Turtle is a dragon, but all Turtle wants to do is nap. 

Personally, this is my favorite Snail & Worm title of the bunch. It’s witty, it’s silly, it’s intentionally designed to support new readers. Is the third time the charm for Snail & Worm? Tell us what you think in the comments?