Heather's Pick: The Cartoonists Club by Raina Telgemeier & Scott McCloud

Makayla is bursting with ideas but doesn't know how to make them into a story. Howard loves to draw, but he struggles to come up with ideas and his dad thinks comics are a waste of time. Lynda constantly draws in her sketchbook but keeps focusing on what she feels are mistakes, and Art simply loves being creative and is excited to try something new. They come together to form The Cartoonists Club, where kids can learn about making comics and use their creativity and imagination for their own storytelling adventures!

Very similar to Art Club by Rashad Doucet that I have reviewed before, this graphic novel The Cartoonist Club by Raina Telgemeier & Scott McCloud focuses on the realization that something you love, a hobby, can be a possible career path in the future.

The idea sparks in algebra class where McKayla and Howard are passing a note that includes a cartoon of their algebra teacher that Howard drew. Talking after class and getting in trouble with the teacher, McKayla and Howard soon realize that they can help each other out. It is easy for McKayla to come up with stories but she isn’t good at drawing, and Howard loves to draw but has a hard time coming up with stories.

With their library media specialist by their side, McKayla and Howard create The Cartoonist Club which now has two additional members, a place where each week they can learn and explore different types and elements of comics and how they are created. They also learn about story elements that they can use to create their own comic books. The members of the club help and encourage each other along the way since they all have their own strengths and share them with each other in order to create their own mini comics that they can sell at a local library’s comic convention.  

This graphic novel’s illustrations are a mix of realistic and whimsy, often illustrating what the characters are learning and talking about and often “break the fourth wall” with the characters jumping in and out of the pages. The characters are diverse and relatable and show how important and encouraging found friendship can be.

The authors do a great job of mixing fictional and non-fictional elements as the back of the book includes a Q&A with the authors, a glossary of literary terms used in the book, a list of different jobs a person could have in the making of a comic, a layout of how the book was made and other resources related to the book and it its content. 

This is a great book for anyone interested in comics or graphic novels and how they are created. I learned elements of the process that I had no idea about.  - Heather, Branch Manager