All Brains Welcome: Why Graphic Novels Matter for Neurodivergent Readers

1. Why did you become a youth literacy advocate?

Books and reading have always been a constant hum throughout my life. At times they have been quiet background noise (ie. during those sleep deprived years when my kids were babies), while other times they have been a roaring ocean (ie. when I was in school and now!) but reading and books have always been there. So honestly, since it was a constant, reading wasn’t something I thought much about… until my children were in grade school and one-by-one they were each diagnosed with dyslexia.

Then I watched my children fight for this skill. They missed favorite activities and fun playdates for tutoring sessions and shed many tears after particularly hard school days or during long nights of homework. My stance on reading quickly changed as I was smacked in the face with what a privilege it is to take reading for granted.

Then I was diagnosed with dyslexia myself as a 35-year-old adult. I looked back on my life and realized all the many, many ways I have compensated over the years. That’s when I knew that championing children’s books and lifting up readers (dyslexia and not) was my purpose. And I haven’t looked back.

Typical prose novels have pages and pages with blocks of text. For a dyslexic or reluctant reader, facing that many words at once can feel daunting and overwhelming. A common challenge for dyslexic readers (and neurotypical readers, some studies suggest) is reading stamina, which is the ability to read independently for an extended period of time without losing focus or comprehension. For a newly independent reader with dyslexia, it takes a great deal of effort to read a few lines of text, so being confronted with a whole book of dense prose can make them feel like giving up before they even begin.

The creators of graphic novels do a fantastic job of making their pages a vibrant and engaging mix of illustration and text. This blend of media offers dyslexic readers added context to support decoding the words. This dual coding helps to reduce the cognitive load of reading, offering a great bridge for reluctant readers. Since graphic novels often don’t include heavy sections of text, they feel more approachable and accessible for newly independent readers.

My oldest daughter was becoming an independent reader before the widespread popularity of graphic novels. Due to her reading delays caused by dyslexia, she was reading short, thin chapter books while her neurotypical peers were reading much more advanced and longer, thicker books. Although most were kind and encouraging, she felt a deep sense of embarrassment and shame that her books were so “skinny” which often led her to not want to read them at school.

A handful of years later, when my dyslexic son was advancing to reading independently, graphic novels were everywhere. Despite his reading delays, he had the benefit of being able to read the same books as his peers. This might sound like a small thing but in his world it was huge. He took such pride in carrying around the “fat book” he was reading which wouldn’t have been possible if that book hadn’t been a graphic novel.

For children with dyslexia, reading is often something they see everyone around them do, while it feels out of reach for them. So, achieving moments when they feel like a reader is invaluable. I believe that graphic novels help give dyslexic and reluctant readers these moments. Another benefit of the graphic novel format is that unlike early readers or chapter books, graphic novels continue to age-up content wise with readers. This means that a child who loves graphic novels can continue to read them as their tastes and preference levels mature, even into young-adult and new-adult.

I think neurodivergent readers love the same graphic novels as neurotypical readers. My son’s favorites were everything written by Dav Pilkey (who also has dyslexia) including the DOG MAN and CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS series.

My youngest daughter’s favorites were everything written by Raina Telgemeier including SMILE, SISTERS, GUTS, etc. She also loved the adapted BABY-SITTERS CLUB GRAPHIX series.

Personally, I am a big fan of the following graphic novels with dyslexia affirming characters and storylines.

MIXED-UP by Kami Garcia, Brittney Williams, and Tyler Smith that highlights a fifth grader who struggles with reading and keeping up with her friends in an online game.

WORDS APART by Aimee Lucido and Phillippa & Rachael Corcutt, which is a combined graphic and free verse novel that tells the story of two very different sisters, one who has dyslexia.

5. How can GN creators make their work more reader-friendly to neurodivergent youths? Are there specific adaptations to keep in mind for readers with dyslexia?

As we have already discussed the graphic novel format makes a great medium for dyslexic or reluctant readers, however there are some things that creators can help do to help make their work even more reader friendly.

The main thing to consider is the lettering. Dyslexic readers often have a hard time with crowding, which is where letters seem to blur together. Printing letters in all- capitalization or italics can make this harder. When letters are printed in all-capitalization, each letter looks like a rectangle, because the lowercase ascenders (b, d, h) and descenders (p,g,y) that help with word recognition are removed. Similarly, when text is written in italics, the slanted letters distort the visual form of words making them harder to distinguish.

Font choice is another thing to consider. Fonts with distinct letterforms such as Arial, Comic Sans, or Verdana are good standard choices. There are also specialized fonts such as OpenDyslexic or Dyslexie designed specifically for dyslexic readers. These fonts have weighted letter bottoms to help prevent readers from flipping or spinning letters in their minds.

Other formatting options such as limiting text-heavy speech bubbles and leaving adequate white space on the page are also helpful.

I love seeing classic stories adapted into graphic novels. This keeps these great stories with themes that have stood the test of time in circulation among younger generations.

A recent favorite of mine is Natalie Babbitt’s TUCK EVERLASTING adapted as a graphic novel by K. Woodman-Maynard. And although I haven’t read these others (yet!) there are graphic novel adaptations for FAHRENHEIT 451, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, 1984, etc.

I think any of these would serve as great classroom reads because they meet children where they are while still providing depth for critical thinking and discussion.

7. You have a picture book coming out in fall 2026 about neurodivergence. Can you tell us more about it and what kind of impact you hope the book will have? What was it like conducting research for this book?

My debut nonfiction picture book, ALL BRAINS WELCOME: Embracing ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia, and More, illustrated by the talented Olga Popova is publishing with Sourcebooks eXplore on October 6, 2026. It is a celebratory look at neurodivergence through a classroom of children introducing themselves and what makes their brains unique while throwing a brain party. It is currently available for preorder wherever books are sold.

As a proud neurodivergent author, I strive to write books that honor and validate the experiences held by myself and others. And beyond that, I want to celebrate these experiences. Over the past ten years, there has been a wealth of increased information about neurodivergence, but there is still so much work to be done to break long held stigmas and beliefs that differences somehow make
us less than.

For ALL BRAINS WELCOME, my hope is specifically that those with neurotypical brains see and those with neurodivergent brains feel seen.

For this picture book with sixteen spreads, I read around 50 books including other picture books, graphic novels, and adult nonfiction texts. I also conducted interviews. It was a lengthy process, and I worked hard to represent each neurodivergent condition with as much authenticity, complexity, and compassion as I could.

My research advice would be to read as much as possible from experts within the area of interest. Once you have a general handle on the information, seek out experts that you can interview. Doing initial research before interviews helps ensure that you don’t waste anyone’s time. It is also important to take good notes and keep track of your sources so that you can reference them when needed during the revision process.

Another part of the process that was critical for me was having sensitivity or expert readers. I had readers review my manuscript before I submitted to my editor and then my publisher, Sourcebooks, hired someone to review just the text and then review the text with the illustrations as a whole. Engaging a sensitivity or expert reader helps add another layer of protection to ensure that the books we are putting out in the world aren’t unintentionally inaccurate or harmful to any group of readers. This is helpful even if you are writing within your own identity but is an essential step if writing from outside your lived experience.

My hope is that ALL BRAINS WELCOME serves as an introductory starting point for readers to learn more about neurodivergence. Everyone’s personal experience is unique, and it would be impossible to represent everyone with a 40-page picture book. So, yes, in the backmatter of my book, I listed a few resources that were particularly helpful during my research process. But due to space constraints, I couldn’t list as many as I would have liked so readers are also directed to my website where additional resources will be posted.