Title: A Parent's Guide to the Best Kids' Comics Books: Choosing Titles Your Children Will Love
Authors: Scott Robins, Snow Wildsmith
My Rating System: 5 stars out of 5 = I Love It
My Summary Statement: Fantastic Book List Book for Graphic Novels - I Wish It Was Available When My Kids Were Younger
I've been saying we need a book or at least a website that provides this information for years, so I am thrilled that this book has been published. Comics and graphic novels are not all for very young readers - even though the youngest of kids is drawn to them - and with so many graphic novels on the market now parents, teachers, and librarians can use help figuring out which are appropriate for different aged readers.
This book provides a two page spread on each featured book with the left side being a summary description, if it is part of a series, possible controversial issues called "heads up" (i.e. name calling, violence, etc.), and educational tie-in themes. Similar books are briefly noted. The right side facing page is a full page color reproduction from the book which gives us a sense for the type of art or size of font or the tone of the book.
The book is divided into sections by grade level: pre-k-1, 2-3, 4-5, and 6-8.
This book covers mostly newer American books but there is a sprinkling of some of the tamest Japanese manga that has been translated to English and the oldie Adventures of Tintin.
This is a reasonably priced book for the high quality glossy paper and full color on every page book. Compared to other reference books used by librarians and teachers this is a bargain. Its affordability makes it easy for parents to access also.
When purchasing Japanese manga there is a rating system on the back cover to indicate what age range the book is intended for. Since American books do not have such a rating system, this guidebook is necessary.
I highly recommend that parents use this reference guide when trying to find graphic novels and comics for their children to read. This is very well done and better quality than I would have expected. I am grateful to Scott Robins and Snow Wildsmith for writing this excellent guide.
Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from Amazon.com's Vine program for the purpose of reviewing it on the Amazon.com site. I was under no obligation to blog the review or to review it favorably. I was not paid to write this review.