Graphic Novels: Hildafolk Series, Luke Pearson

Graphic Novels are always fun, especially when they're nice kid-safe ones that can help reluctant readers.

The series titles in order, all by Luke Pearson:

Hilda and the Troll (HC re-issue of originally-titled Hildafolk from 2010)
ISBN: 9781909263147

Hilda and the Midnight Giant
ISBN: 9781907704253

Hilda and the Bird Parade
ISBN: 9781909263062

Hilda and the Black Hound
ISBN: 9781909263185

Basically, Hilda is an explorer and an adventurer.  She's spunky, curious, and is constantly finding new peoples to learn about and new places inside and around her city (some real, some perhaps less real, some not exactly congruent with reality) to have interesting adventures.

The map on the first spread of Hilda and the Troll is very useful, otherwise the adventures all end up in a sort of placeless muddle (not that there is anything wrong with that, either) but I always like having a good solid map to reference, and this is a good one.  Sadly, neither the map or the vivid endpapers make it into the other three volumes of the set, which is a disappointment, to be perfectly frank.

However, the stories inside are worth it, and they are frankly, weird as all get-out.  I love them.

The Midnight Giant has some great musings about size and friendship and realizing what's important, and not judging people by appearance, all mixed in with a funky story dealing with teeny people and giant people, all sharing the same space (honestly, rather badly).

Hilda and the Bird Parade hits on the differences between life in the country and the city, how hard it is to integrate with a new group of friends (or even if you want them as friends) the importance of not getting lost, and of being empathetic towards others (especially if they turn out to be a giant magical Thunderbird) and most importantly, the benefits of having positive expectations, which is a great lesson, even if it's really hard to live up to sometimes in actual life.

Hilda and the Black Hound has an exultant Hilda joining a Scouting group, and showing off her ability to get badges because she used to live out in the country.  This goes about as well as one might imagine, with bonus hijinks created by the various magical creatures all up everywhere.  The underlying lessons touch on racism, parental pressures to excel, and preconceived stereotypes.

Very European, truly awesome, hope there are more to come!