Summer reading fun for graphic novel fans

Graphic novels – glossy-paged books traditionally packed with action, fun and eye-catching colour illustrations – have long been a favourite with young readers and children’s publisher Puffin have a super-slick line-up of new series titles just waiting to be snapped up

Age 5 plus
Max Meow: Cat Crusader
John Gallagher

WELCOME to Kittyopolis where cats rule and science is cool! Billed as a fur-ociously funny, secret super-hero graphic novel series with serious cat-itude, these captivating books will see the fur flying when youngsters join (mad!) Max, the cat crusader, in his battle to save the day. Max Meow, with his fur-raising heroics, is the creation of artist John Gallagher, the co-founder of Kids Love Comics, an organisation devoted to using graphic novels to promote literacy, and here he conjures up all-action, gigglesome adventures perfectly pitched for new and reluctant readers. Max is just a regular cat in Kittyopolis, trying to make it big as a podcaster (Followers: 12). That is until he accidentally takes a bite of a radioactive space meatball at his best friend, human scientist Mindy Microbe’s secret lab. Then before you can say MEOWZA, Max becomes (drum roll)... The Cat Crusader! Being a super hero is fun (Super strength? Check! Flying? Yes!)... but not if you get so cocky, you forget your best friend! Will Max learn to listen? Will he and Mindy make up and together, can Max and Mindy save Kittyopolis from the evil Agent M and big boss?

Max Meow is the purrfect hero for youngsters... he can fly, has super-strength and his electric tail is just so cool, but he discovers that to be a true hero, he will need to learn to trust both his head and his heart. Fortunately for Max, he has Mindy as his science adviser and her common sense will help prepare him for all those cat-astrophes just waiting to happen. Written with both humour and heart, and brimming with gloriously anarchic colour illustrations, Max’s adventures are set to run and run... and if you’re already hungry for more, Max’s second outing, Donuts and Danger, in which our hero and Mindy are blamed for a plot to take over the world’s donut supply, is now on the shelves and ready to be consumed!
(Puffin, paperback, £9.99 each)

Age 7 plus
Blood City Rollers
V.P. Anderson and Tatiana Hill

FRIENDS come and go but a team is forever (especially if most of them are undead)! Roller derby meets the underworld in this sparkling paranormal graphic novel debut – packed full of vampires and adventure – created from the vivid imagination of V.P. Anderson from Upstate New York. Starring a human girl who finds herself thrown into the dramas and dilemmas of being part of a team of highly competitive vampires, this super-fun, supernatural new series gets extra zest and zing from the brilliant illustrations of artist Tatiana Hill. So skates on, fangs out, let’s roll. Ice-skater Mina is on a one-track path to Olympic gold and glory... well, until she totally wipes out at her biggest competition, and is kinda-sorta kidnapped by undead kids on roller skates. Sucked into the high stakes world of Paranormal Roller Derby, she finds herself ‘recruited’ by a squad of vampires who need a human player to complete their team, just in time to save the league from losing it all. Between learning to play derby well enough to kick butt on the track, crushing hard on the dreamy team captain, and navigating the spooky rules of the supernatural, how can Mina go from striving to be a ten alone, to becoming one of nine chaotic bodies forming a perfectly imperfect team? Forget being the best. Will she be enough to help her new friends survive the season? Anderson’s action-packed ‘team from hell’ captures all the warm vibes of friendship – however weird your friends might be – whilst exploring the challenges that come from trying to find your place in the world. Add on Hill’s atmospheric, high octane and intensely colourful illustrations and you have a series that is on the fast track to success.
(Puffin, paperback, £9.99)

Age 7 plus
Sweet Valley Twins The Graphic Novel: Best Friends
Francine Pascal, Claudia Aguirre
and Nicole Andelfinger

THE close bond between twin sisters faces more than a few challenges in the first of a delightful new graphic novel series which returns to adventures featured in the hit books, Sweet Valley High, which were created in the 1980s by Francine Pascal and written by Jamie Suzanne. Full of friendship, family and fun, Pascal’s iconic Sweet Valley twins spring to colourful life again thanks to this adaptation by Nicole Andelfinger and the gorgeous, emotive illustrations of Claudia Aguirre. Twins, Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield – born just minutes apart – have always been inseparable, but starting a new school means a chance for new beginnings. Elizabeth is excited to write for the school newspaper, but Jessica is more interested in joining the exclusive Unicorn Club whose members are the prettiest and most popular girls at their school. What will happen when the twins realise that they might not be as alike as they thought? With battles, break-ups and reconciliations – and plenty of those all-too-familiar growing pains – at every turn of the page, this is a twin delight for a new generation of youngsters.
(Puffin, paperback, £9.99)

Age 7 plus
Hilo: The Boy Who Crashed to Earth
Judd Winick

IMAGINE having a friend with superpowers? Every child who wanted an out-of-this-world pal to turn their school days into epic fun will be over the moon to get their hands on this first book in a full-on, entertaining graphic novel series for emerging readers. Friendship and adventure go to the top of the class as US screenwriter and award-winning cartoonist Judd Winick pits two ‘ordinary’ kids with one who most definitely isn’t! D.J. and his friend Gina are totally normal kids... until a mysterious boy comes crashing down from the sky and nearly blows up their club house! Hilo doesn’t know where he came from, or what he’s doing on Earth (or why going to school in only your underwear is a bad idea!) but he’s starting to think he might not be the only alien to have crash-landed on our planet. Can the trio unlock the secrets of his past, can Hilo survive a day at school and are D.J. and Gina ready to save the world? Perfect for youngsters who like their stories to come highly illustrated and packed with anarchic action, Hilo, D.J. and Gina’s joyful adventures – which might just include the occasional robot ant – are brought to vibrant life by Winick’s fast and furious illustrations and are a guaranteed win for your reluctant readers.
(Puffin, paperback, £9.99)