“Dog Man” by Dav Pilkey
This is the literary equivalent of a sugar rush—and that’s okay. Dog Man is a half-dog, half-man police officer who fights criminals with a bone in his mouth. It’s silly, crudely drawn, and packed with flipping pages that create animation.
I know a librarian who calls it “the gateway book.” Kids who think they hate reading grab it for the jokes, then slowly graduate to Captain Underpants, then to real chapter books. Let them laugh. Let them flip. It counts.
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“Amulet” by Kazu Kibuishi
A graphic novel about a girl who enters a magical world to save her mother. The art is stunning—like a Studio Ghibli movie on paper. Even stubborn readers will be dragged in by the colors and action.
One mom confessed she read this one on the sly after her daughter went to bed. That’s the mark of a book that works for every generation.
