Educational graphic novels for kids

Rosen Publishing has a huge series of Graphic Nonfiction books covering many historical, scientific, and educational topics, each in "graphic novel" story format.  This is a GREAT way to get your visually-oriented or easily-bored readers thoroughly engaged in a topic.  They're not to be used as primary source material, but as a supplement, but a great one!  Book sets in this series include:

• Grammar Ray: A Graphic Guide to Grammar – grade 2-5: Adjectives, Adverbs, Nouns & Pronouns, Prepositions, Punctuation & Sentences, Verbs
• Graphic Battles of the Civil War – grade 4-5: Antietam, First Bull Run, Gettysburg, Shiloh, Wilderness, Monitor vs. Merrimac
• Graphic Battles of World War II – grade 5: D-Day, Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Midway, The Bulge
• Graphic Dinosaurs – grade 4: 18 books, each profiling one dinosaur species in story format
• Graphic Discoveries – grade 5: Ancient Treasures, Fantastic Fossils, Incredible Space Missions, Medical Breakthroughs, Spectacular Shipwrecks, The History of Flight
• Graphic Forensic Science – grade 5: 6 books, each profiling one aspect of forensic science in story format
• Graphic Mythology – grade 4-5: 6 books exploring the mythology of ancient cultures
• Graphic Natural Disasters – grade 5: 6 books
• Graphic Nonfiction Biographies – grade 4-5: Abraham Lincoln, Christopher Columbus, George Washington, Harriet Tubman, Hernan Cortes, Sitting Bull, Alexander the Great, Cleopatra, Elizabeth I, Julius Ceasar, Richard the Lionheart, Sartacus, Bob Marley, Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammad Ali, Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks
• Jr. Graphic American Legends – grade 2-3: Casey Jones, Jim Bowie, Paul Bunyan, Davy Crockett, Johnny Appleseed, Daniel Boone
• Jr. Graphic Biographies – grade 2-3: Sitting Bull, Hernan Cortes, Harriet Tubman, George Washington, Christopher Columbus, Abraham Lincoln
• Jr. Graphic Colonial America – 6 books, grade 2-3, telling famous stories of America’s history
• Jr. Graphic Founding Fathers – grade 2-3: , each profiling one of America’s founding fathers in story format
• Jr. Graphic Mythologies – 5 books, grade 2-3, exploring the mythology of ancient cultures
• Mandrill Mountain Math Mysteries – 10 books, grade 2-3, solving adventurous mysteries through math and logic
• Superheroes on a Medical Mission – 12 books, grade 5-8, exploring medical conditions

You may also be interested in a similar series, the Interactive History Adventure books, which I reviewed in an earlier post.

Interactive History Adventure books

I discovered these books at my local library, and I'm so glad I did! They're a series of 35 "Interactive History Adventure" books (think "Choose Your Own Adventure") by Capstone Publishers. Most of the history topics covered pertain to American history, but there are quite a few from early World history as well. What a perfect way to get a child excited about learning history! And I can think of no better way to learn history than to experience it firsthand and discover for yourself what the consequences of various choices are - after all, isn't that why we study history in the first place? Ds9 loves them, and I highly recommend them! Note: I would estimate that these books would hold the interest of little boys and girls anywhere from 8-13.

UPDATE 8/30/2012:
There are now (39) books in this list, not counting the survival series.  Below are corrected, updated links.  There are 8 "Era" adventure books are for grades 3-7, covering  the ancient cultures of China, Egypt, Greece, Rome, colonial America, the Great Depression, and the Middle ages.  There are 26 "History" adventure books, also for grades 3-7, covering topics mainly having to do with battles, wars, exploration, immigration.  There are 5 books in the "Warriors" series, same grade level: Gladiator, Knight, Ninja, Samurai, Viking. There are also 8 books in the "Survival" series (think "Bear Grylls for kids").  :)

Sylvan workbooks - vocab and spelling

I recently discovered Sylvan's line of workbooks, while looking for a new vocabulary workbook. The vocab workbook we had was super simple and streamlined - A Word A Day. I figured it would be easiest to cover vocab that way, since a) ds9 had a fairly good vocabulary to begin with, and b) we had so much else on our homeschool plate. But my theory backfired. Our vocab book was SO simple and SO streamlined, that ds9 found the new vocabulary words completely uninteresting, and thus had difficulty retaining what he had learned. Knowing my ds9, I should have known. :) Then I found Sylvan's vocabulary workbook. The word lessons are not only very well-organized by categories that obviously should be learned together, but the workbook is just CHOC FULL of games and puzzles and challenges that are interesting, exciting, and truly creative. Vocab has gone from one of ds9's best subjects, to one of his worst, to one of his most favorite subjects - and he no longer is having any trouble retaining the new words he's learning - AT ALL. And even though it's a regular workbook with pages for ds9 to complete, it's taking hardly any time out of our homeschool day - one page a day is all it takes (would only take a page every OTHER day had we started at the beginning of the year, even!), and he whips through them like they're CANDY. :D

This got me thinking... What ELSE does Sylvan have up its' sleeve? Turns out, they also have workbooks in their same very fun yet very logical approach, in the subjects of Math (K-5), Reading Skills for 2nd grade and below, Reading Comprehension for 3rd grade and up, and Spelling (1-4). While the math and reading books appear to be really neat, I think I'm still happier with the Math and English workbooks we're using by Bob Jones University Press. However, Sylvan's Spelling workbook has caught my eye, and I just might give that a try next year. It meets and masters all 3 of my criteria in a Spelling curriculum: 1) the words are sorted by similar spelling types or tactics - *check*, 2) there's emphasis on spelling rules and tips/tricks to make spelling easier - *check*, 3) there's fun (super fun!) games and puzzles and challenges to hold ds9's interest and aid in retention - *check*! I'm gonna have a hard time choosing between Sylvan's Spelling, BJU's Spelling, and Purposeful Design's Spelling next year. Ultimately, I'll probably let ds9 pick - whichever he thinks is "funnest" based on the sample pages. We'll see. :)