MOWMT: Fun Hybrid Formats by Bonnie Kelso
- rateyourstoryweb
- Mar 7
- 4 min read
March 8, 2025
[Note: Click on Titles to Buy Books]
Fun Hybrid Formats: PB + GN, Best Friends Forever!
It’s true! Picture books have mutated into graphic novels! Graphic novels have body-snatched picture books! Comic techniques, sound effects, panels and more have edged their way into reading formats for children as young as 3. Poetry, full color flat-style art, and matte paper stocks have spread into the world of graphic novels for kids of all ages. The results are, well… magical! Unless, perhaps, you are a librarian and you are having mental breakdowns over deciding which shelf to place these unicorns on. Categories aside, I hope you will enjoy these mentor texts that boldly straddle parallel universes and find inspiration to dabble in your own creative lab of possibilities.
Embrace the charm of Sunday comics.
The Umbrella, Harper Collins, ©2023, created by Beth Ferry and Tom Lichtenheld, is a fun example of how graphic novel sensibility can ooze into a 10x10 picture book format. The sparse rhyming text screams picture book, but the pencil rendered illustrations have all the charm and theatrical curiosity of a graphic novel. The sparse use of color, only purple and yellow, is delightful as a Sunday comic. In this example spread, you can see the way Lichtenheld uses the page design to emphasize the action. Vignettes link together with flying bits of shredded yellow umbrella. This creative duo also published the popular Stick and Stone series, also worthy of study.
Plot your action scenes with panels.
In Beep and Bah, Carolrhoda Books, ©2012, by James Burks, the comic style is used liberally. Burks uses panels to show action scenes making this picture book look more like an oversized graphic novel for kids. (Panels are the black outlined rectangles with art inside that you see predominately in graphic novels). Also, note that this book was published in 2012, indicating that the picture book / graphic novel hybrid has been around for a while now.
Let your picture book size illuminate classic comic themes.
Another popular mentor text picture book (and Caldecott Honor Award Winner) that embraces the comic style seen in graphic novels is Mr. Wuffles, Clarion Books, ©2013, by David Wiesner. With very few words this story relies heavily on action scenes shown through panels. Weisner’s narrative weaves in tiny aliens speaking their own language through small word balloons. What could be more reminiscent of a comic than that? But, this had to be a picture book, because too many key details would have been lost in a smaller format.
Let your wordplay shine with graphic novel style imagery.
Cece Bell is a popular graphic novelist, but she also has a few funny picture books that will have little ones laughing as they learn the intricacies of the English language. In You Loves Ewe!, Clarion, ©2019, Bell keeps the focus on the wordplay with enlarged illustrations and giant word balloons. Her expressive comic characters keep the humor tight and effective.
Go bubble-crazy with balloons!
My book, Sleepy Sea, the sequel to Sea Smiles, releases today! The main story is told entirely in word balloons, just like you might find in a comic or graphic novel. I created this series with the intention of maintaining the attention of my readers, by eliminating all dialogue tags. This alters the pacing of the story, and leaves the reader with the obvious option of reading the sidebar text or ignoring it completely. My hope is that the main text will stimulate a child’s curiosity enough that they will want to check out the sidebar text, but if it doesn’t, then I’m still okay with it, because I’ve potentially encouraged a reluctant reader to follow a story from beginning to end.
I hope you are encouraged to look more closely at similarities between graphic novels and picture books. Play around with creating your own hybrid versions. Consider your audience and how you can draw from each genre to fulfill their needs while still having your theme effectively delivered.
PRIZE: Bonnie Kelso will be giving away a 20-Minute Ask Me Anything or Custom Kidlit Portrait!
Bonnie Kelso is the author illustrator of Sea Smiles and Sleepy Sea, both published by Gnome Road Publishing. She loves everything in the ocean, except the pollution. She is represented by Liz Nealon at Great Dog Literary. You can learn more about her and her work online at:
Website: www.BonnieKelso.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bonniekelso
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bonnie.kelso/
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Thanks for your great post on this hybrid format. I'm very interested in GNs and love mentor texts on it. Congratulations on Sleepy Sea, Sea Smiles, and Dexter the Stand Up Dog. I follow you on X, Instagram and Bluesky.
Love how the hybrid format will reach more readers! I’ve requested these books from the library - thank you for a wonderful post!
So much creativity! Love these unicorns! Thank you, Bonnie!
Thank You! I love the way A Sleepy Sea is written and formatted . I've got to srudy this one. I can see why kids will want to read on!
Bonnie, first congratulations on Sea Smiles. Second, thank you, thank you, thank you! This was the post I needed! Great mentor text suggestions. I followed you on Instagram and Bluesky. Hot Dog by Doug Salati is another wonderful picture book with graphic elements. P.S. Can’t figure out what’s going on with the underlining!