Guide
From adventures to wildlife: which books inspire first-time readers?
by Anna Sandner
Comic novels: 7 alternatives to Greg's diary
22/1/2025
Translation: machine translated
After the pre-reading age comes a tricky moment: how do you get your children to stick their noses between the covers of a book of their own accord? Comic novels à la Greg's diary successfully bridge the gap between the world of pictures and the world of letters.
Before Christmas, I was delighted to discover several books on my nine-year-old son's wish list. He's at an age where pretty much any book that can captivate him is a good book. I would have expected Greg's Diary, because there has been no getting past Greg at this stage of his childhood for many years.
The author Jeff Kinney's recipe for success is a humorous mix of text and drawings that illustrate the stories from Greg Heffley's life and divide them into manageable reading chunks. Greg is an anti-hero who scratches the teenage itch and is "surrounded by idiots" but always looks stupid himself. The stories develop a pull that gives many children the wonderful feeling for the first time of not wanting to put a book down until it has been read.
What works well is of course copied. The graphic novel has now become a genre in its own right, which can accompany children right up to the Harry Potter age and caters to a variety of tastes.
Tom beats Greg
My son likes Tom Gates, a series penned by British author Liz Pichon, better than the original. Also in diary form and illustrated with plenty of drawings, several volumes were on his wish list. In fact, he could hardly wait to read them with unusual perseverance. When asked what was more exciting about Tom Gates than Greg's diary, he gave a whole range of reasons:
The fact that Liz Pichon chose a boy as the main character may be a coincidence; she is said not to have read Greg's Diary when she started her series in 2011. There are now several comic novels with female title characters - and generally such a wide variety that most people can recognise themselves in them.
Lottie Brooks
The Lottie Brooks book series by Katie Kirby has been around since 2021. Lottie is just under 12 years old in the first volume and is therefore of interest to a predominantly female target group aged 10 and up. In Greg style, she writes a diary-like account of her disastrously embarrassing early adolescent life between family, new school, friendships and first love.
Dork Diaries
Another diary, another long-running favourite: since 2009, American author Rachel Renée Russell has been publishing the experiences of her 14-year-old main character Nikki Maxwell in Dork Diaries. Inspired by and named after her own daughter Nikki, who is responsible for the drawings. The family project is a huge success story that has sold over 55 million copies to date.
Planet Omar
The British author Zanib Mian is another creative woman behind the stories of the Muslim boy Omar, who has to make friends at a new school and come to terms with his siblings and a neighbour full of prejudice. The book series is recommended for ages 8 and up and broadens the cultural horizons of children who previously only knew the turbulent adventures of the Gregs and Toms of this genre.
Jimmy Fox
The comic novel series Jimmy Fox was not penned by a British or American author, but by German author and illustrator Nico Sternbaum. His Jimmy is also in the fifth grade and, as expected, doesn't have it easy and records his experiences with his terribly nice family in diary form. His father is a talentless magician, his mother is a pilot and his grandmother is an inventor - plenty of material for amusing experiences that will delight young readers aged 8 and up.
Miles & Niles
Really wicked
Do you have any more (ex)drawn reading tips? I'm grateful for any ideas and look forward to your comments.
Michael Restin
Senior Editor
Michael.Restin@digitecgalaxus.chSimple writer and dad of two who likes to be on the move, wading through everyday family life. Juggling several balls, I'll occasionally drop one. It could be a ball, or a remark. Or both.
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