Comic Book Literacy for Kids

Comic books are especially good for children learning to read and there are a lot of good comic books available for kids, at nearly all reading levels. Comic collections in soft or hard cover interest children and add to a good reading program. Getting an issue by subscription in the mail is extremely exciting to a child.

Marvel Comics seemed to have abandoned children as an audience decades ago. They've recently released some titles in "all ages" versions but, despite the lack of blood and overt sexual discussion, they're still adult plots, adult jokes and too much adult innuendo and concerns. One exception has been a series of one-shot stories featuring Franklin Richards, son of the Fantastic Four's Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Girl. Franklin Richards is a sort of ne plus ultra super-genius "Dennis the Menace," accompanied on improbable and funny adventures by his robot sidekick, H.E.R.B.I.E., who Franklin made himself, of course. Test issues were very well received by an informal control group of 3rd and 6th graders. Franklin Richards is not a monthly Marvel title, just occasional one-short or short runs. Here's to a regular monthly title!

In January 2008, Top Shelf Comics released Owly #4, "A Time to Be Brave," by Andy Runton. Back issues of this were on the website at Powell's Books and may be available at local comic stores. Owly looks great, likeable characters, very sweet art and stories that younger readers will enjoy and understand.

My daughter (a kindergartner) got a gift of two Phonics Comics from Powells Books. They may also be available directly from the publisher, Innovative Kids. I hated the content of the two comics she got (which shall be title-less here) and found them to be insultingly sexist and insipid BUT the reading level was completely correct for my little beginning reader and she liked them. They definitely made her want to read more so I went looking for more Phonics Comics in the hope that they'd be better and they were: we found a large selection of all kinds of stories and available in graduated reading levels. They interest the beginning reader, they're content appropriate and appropriately challenging.

The legendary Tin-Tin is the classic boy's adventure comic, good for boys and girls but for competant (not beginning) readers, beginning at about second or third grade level. Tin-tin's creator, Georges Remi, wrote Tin-Tin under the pen name Herge' for 50 years, beginning in 1929. Tin-tin, the brave boy reporter, travels the world with his white terrier, Snowy, capturing criminals, foiling sabatoge and spies, from China to the Moon. Herge' himself traveled the world to create Tin-tin, giving a snapshot of exotic places and the people in them. One small warning: these stories were written between the 1930s and the 1970s and they weren't always very politically correct - Africans have big lips, Asians have slanted eyes, native Americans have big noses BUT they all behave like people and not awful stereotypes. I have never met a child who didn't like Tin-tin. Tin-tin is available in over-sized soft cover and hardcover collections, at Powell's Books and probably through local book and comic stores.