Amelia Rules

Too many graphic novel series have boys as their main characters. However, in Amelia Rules the tables are turned. The star of this series is snarky, sarcastic, and mischievous Amelia. Amelia is a city girl at heart. She lived in New York City until her parent's divorce caused her to have to move to a teeny tiny town in Pennsylvania with her (previous) pop singer aunt. Tanner (her aunt) becomes Amelia's ally, or confidant. Later she meets Reggie Grabinsky (a.k.a Captain Amazing - he's a little obsessed with super heroes) a weirdo who suckered Amelia and a bunch of other kids who I'm describing next into joining his club G.A.S.P (Gathering of Awesome Super Pals), Pajamaman who doesn't talk much (a.k.a Kid Lighting), and Rhonda Bleenie (a.k.a. Ms. Miraculous), Amelia's best frienemey who has a crush on Reggie. These four superheroes get into some serious trouble (principal five times) and pull off some serious pranks (trick Rhonda into a bet where she has to stay frozen in a game of freeze tag until somebody tags her... supposedly a year or so) but have a lot of laughs in between. As the series goes on, you watch Amelia and friends grow up, and you feel like you're growing up right along with her.  But the best part is, kids can relate to her. If you have friend problems, you can look in one of these books and she'll answer it without answering straight out, you know? I think that's one of the reasons the author wrote the series. Also, it's hilarious! You can't go a page without smiling to yourself or laughing out loud.

You'll like this if you like: Like I said with The Fault in Our Stars, there isn't really a book similar to this one. But I guess that this is a more "grown up" version of Ramona and Beezus.
Awards: 13 Eisner Awards!! (the equivalent of the Oscar in the comic world) Harvey award, and eighty trillion more. (I'm not exaggerating.)
Ages: 9+
                                         Interested in this book? Click on the link below:
                                                    Amelia Rules Book 1

Bone

Let me just start by saying that these were my first graphic novels. What about Tintin? you ask. (See The Adventures of Tintin, post number one). Tintin was my first comic, not graphic novel. There's actually a difference. Comics are usually more like short stories. Like superhero comics. If you ever read comics, you would know that it's mixed tales of his adventures, not one big story.Graphic novels on the other hand, are usually more like narratives. A single story.

Anyway, what you've been waiting for: This series is about... no, no, wait a second. This is one of those series where if you say one tiny little thing about the plot, you kinda ruin it. So I'm going to try to be careful here. Okay, here we go: Three cousins, Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone are stranded in a desert. (I can't tell you why for the reason listed above).  Fone Bone is more of our main character. Phoney is the oldest cousin, but certainly not the wisest. (He's smart, not wise. There's a difference). He's also greedy and always tries to find ways to make more money. Smiley? A quote from a character called Grandma Ben who I'll describe later says, "He has no brain whatsoever." It doesn't take brains to see that this is true. But Smiley is goodhearted in every way. While in the desert, the cousins get separated and Fone, near death of thirst, sees a valley. He walks on and encounters the "rat creatures" but comes out in one piece. Later, he meets up with a girl named Thorn who takes him back to Grandma Ben's farm, where she lives. Grandma Ben is tough, and refuses, at first, to allow him to stay. But finally, she decides that it couldn't hurt to keep him there, and later lets him stay. As the days pass, Fone's cousins miraculously find their way to the farm and all is well. But then, a secret is uncovered (actually more like discovered) and the valley will never be the same again.

This series is creepy the deeper you get into it, but I seriously think that this series is one of the best in graphic novel history. By the way, I'd like to give a shout out to Rowan who suggested I write a post about Bone. Good idea!

Ages: 8+
You'll like this if you like: Amulet
Awards: Eisner (the equivalent of the Oscar in the comic/graphic novel world)
Interested in this book? Click on the link below: (There are nine books total, not counting the prequel and sequel)
                                             Bone book 1