My seven-year-old daughter hasn’t gotten into chapter books yet, even for bedtime stories, but she absolutely loves graphic novels. One of her favorite authors / cartoonists is San Francisco native Raina Telgemeier, whose graphic novels have become my go-to for bedtime reading after she invariably loses interest in whatever book I wanted to read after about the second chapter. Another big success for bedtime reading was Scott McCloud‘s seminal work Understanding Comics, which is essentially a graduate-level class in the medium and art of comic books disguised as a comic itself. This surprised me since it’s not at all written for a young audience, but my daughter was fascinated even as I explained foreign concepts like closure, iconography and the relationship between an author and reader.
So I was thrilled when I discovered that Raina and Scott have collaborated on The Cartoonists Club, which from the description sounds kind of like Understanding Comics for the younger crowd. And now that we’ve read it I can say it is all that and more, and it’s delightful. You can really see the mix of Raina and Scott’s styles shine through, with both the natural-feeling childhood relationships and the hilarious breaking of the fourth wall in the Magic of Comics chapter. In the end it manages to both tell a compelling story about kids coming together around a hobby and convey practical knowledge young aspiring comic book writers can really use to start their journey, all taught by two maters of the craft. [Scholastic]
