Comics for the child who says they hate reading

Every pick is a series, not a single book, and every one leans on pictures. Of the 6 with a series page here, 6 are tagged funny. The line after each name below is how its series page describes reading it: none asks a reader to get through a long page of plain text before something happens.

• Dog Man, comic: Short speech bubbles in big comic panels, with a joke on most pages.
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid, part comic, part chapter book: A handwritten-looking diary with a cartoon on most pages: more words than a comic, in short entries.
• The Bad Guys, part comic, part chapter book: Big pictures and few words on a page, part comic and part chapter book.
• Hilo, comic: Bright comic panels with short speech bubbles, quick jokes and a bigger story that builds across the books.
• Captain Underpants, part comic, part chapter book: Short chapters with lots of cartoons and comic pages: a step up from a comic.
• The Last Kids on Earth, part comic, part chapter book: A novel with a big drawing on most spreads and a few comic pages.

The others on the list, Smile, Press Start! and Timmy Failure, don't have a series page here yet; the list names them with their authors.

A child who finishes one book in a series knows exactly what the next will feel like: the same characters, the same kind of jokes, a book about as long. That takes the risk out of picking up a book. Finishing is a good feeling, and a numbered series offers it again and again, with a checklist to show how far they have come.

Pictures carry part of the story, so a child who reads slowly still keeps up with what is happening. The words are short and sit right next to the face saying them. A page with three panels feels like a small job, not a wall. And a child who laughs on page two wants to see page three.

• Let them choose, even if it is the book you think is too easy.
• Read the first chapter aloud and stop at a good bit.
• Leave the next book in the series where they will find it.
• Say out loud, in front of them, that comics count as reading.
• Tick books off on the series page together, so the list grows.

A child who rereads the same comic five times is not stuck. Rereading builds speed and confidence, and they notice something new each time. A child who only wants comics this year may want something else next year. The kids' lists have more picks by age, mood and grade when that day comes.

Watch what they do read without being asked: game guides, the back of a cereal box, the captions on a video. Those are clues to what would pull them into a book, and the series pages say what each series is about.

If reading feels hard every time, not just boring, talk to your child's teacher, who sees them read every day.