Children's Book Suggestions | Graphic Novel Hybrids

What do you do with a kid who loves graphic novels but struggles with the transition to text-based chapter books? Try some graphic novel hybrids! These books use a mix of traditional text passages and comic-style illustrations. This helps kids build up their stamina for longer passages of text and harnesses the power of sequential art in reading comprehension.

Graphic novel hybrids aren't the only strategies for engaging readers who struggle with long blocks of text. Additional strategies include:

  • Novels in verse pair plenty of white space with age-appropriate topics, making complex stories with rich vocabularies more accessible to striving readers.
  • Digital audiobooks from Libby can be paired with print books (with narration slowed to match the reader's speed if necessary) or with fidgets, crafts, or coloring for kids whose concentration benefits from a kinetic focus.
  • For readers who thrive with the support of dyslexia-friendly fonts, our Libby e-books can be read with OpenDyslexic.
Updated July 25, 2025
LINCC (Libraries in Clackamas County) Oregon City Public Library
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Diary of a wimpy kid : Greg Heffley's journal
Kinney, Jeff
Paper Book
Boys don't keep diaries--or do they? The launch of an exciting and innovatively illustrated new series narrated by an unforgettable kid every family can relate to It's a new school year, and Greg Heffley finds himself thrust into middle school, where...

The O.G. graphic novel hybrid that proved this format was a winning formula for engaging young readers! Greg Heffley chronicles his sixth grade year in this mix of text and cartoon illustrations about the highs and many, many lows of middle school. (Children's Fiction Grades 3-5)

Locker hero
Russell, Rachel Renée.
Paper Book
Meet Max Crumbly in this series from #1 New York Times bestselling Dork Diaries author Rachel René​e Russell! Max Crumbly is about to face the scariest place he's ever been: South Ridge Middle School. There's a lot that's great about his...

A formerly homeschooled middle schooler uses his favorite superheroes as inspiration while dealing with bullying and other challenges during his first year of public school. (Children's Fiction Grades 3-5)

Dragonbreath
Vernon, Ursula
Paper Book
It's not easy for Danny Dragonbreath to be the sole mythical creature in a school for reptiles and amphibians'especially because he can't breathe fire like other dragons (as the school bully loves to remind him). But having a unique family comes in handy sometimes, like when his sea-serpent cousin...

Humor and mythological monsters come together in this hybrid graphic novel about the antics of an elementary school-aged dragon and his friends. (Children's Fiction Grades 3-5)

Invisible Emmie
Libenson, Terri
Paper Book
Perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier and Jennifer L. Holm, Invisible Emmie is a humorous and surprising debut graphic novel by Terri Libenson, creator of the internationally syndicated, Reuben Award-winning comic strip The Pajama Diaries. This is the story of two totally different girls--...

Two middle schoolers, one popular and the other painfully shy, navigate loneliness and first crushes in the first book of the Emmie & Friends series. (Young Teen Fiction Grades 5-7)


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