Graphica grows!

Just when you thought you had the kids' section figured out, we've changed it on you again. Slightly.

The graphic novel fans among you may recall the little bookcase that until recently held our Kids' Graphica section. Well, Kids' Graphica isn't so little anymore. Just in the past two months, we've had a number of new graphic novel releases that made it clear we need space to show off these books' covers. Our young customers have snapped up two new Big Nate books, a new Amulet book, Raina Telgemeier's Drama, and others. Now, thanks(!) to the help of several intrepid shelf-shifters, Kids' Graphica inhabits a much larger bookcase directly across from the Picture Book section. Besides letting us bring huge quantities of books out of overstock and onto the shelves, the change means that the oft-requested Tintin series is back in the kids' section.

In many ways, graphica works as a great equalizer. Lots of readers, many of them also avid readers of prose novels, love them for the adventure or the humor they offer, or in some cases, for their new ways of looking at familiar stories (did you know there's a graphic version of A Wrinkle in Time coming out this week?). But graphic novels don't really have reading levels, since so much of the "reading" comes from understanding the pictures. Got a reader who's learning English, or whose comprehension skills are ahead of his or her decoding skills? Graphic novels are a great way to practice and enjoy reading, and because the pictures are there no matter how old the intended readers are (most of these books have a really wide range), a sixth grader won't get stuck reading a book intended for, say, second graders.

The Odyssey in gorgeous watercolor. A troll-fighting 11-year-old Orthodox Jewish girl in Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword. The entire Bone series. Get in here.