World Kid Lit Month 2026: Explorer Challenger: 7-12: Graphic Novel or Comic

  

The ribbon skirt.

Written and illustrated by Cameron Mukwa.

Graphix, an Imprint of Scholastic Inc., 2024.

Graphic novel.

Ten-year-old Anang wants to make a ribbon skirt, a piece of clothing typically worn by women in the Anishinaabe tradition, for an upcoming powwow. Anang is two-spirit and nonbinary and doesn't know what others will think of them wearing a ribbon skirt, but they're determined to follow their heart's desire. Anang sets off to gather the materials needed to make the skirt and turns to those around them - their family, their human and turtle friends, the crows, and even the lake itself - for help. And maybe they'll even find a new confidence within themself along the way.

A joyful story of acceptance, in many guises – and the importance of role models. I love that Anang’s grandparents are so accepting and matter-of-fact. As are the friends and mentors from the non-human world. And some humans.

World Kid Lit Month 2026: Explorer Challenger: 0-6: The Americas

  

Being home.

Written by Traci Sorell.

Illustrated by Michaela Goade.

Kokila, 2024.

On a day filled with anticipation, a young Cherokee girl bids farewell to her familiar city life and documents the changing landscape through drawings as her family moves to their ancestral land and embraces their new home.

From my article for World Kid Lit: 

A joyous return to Home, through the point of a view of a child. This book works against the stereotype of ‘Rez’ life as sub-standard and lacking. It also is an antidote, a reversal, of the times First Nations citizens were forcibly moved.

Traci Sorrell is a Cherokee Nation citizen who lives within her tribe’s reservation in northeastern Oklahoma. Michaela Goade is a member of the Tlingit Nation and grew up in her ancestral homelands along the southeast coast of Alaska.

World Kid Lit Month 2026: Explorer Challenger: 0-6: Oceania

 

White Sunday and Filo's butterflies

Written by Litea Fuata.

Illustrated by Myo Yim.

Bright Light / Hardie Grant Children's Publishing, 2022 and 2025.

Picture book.

Australian.

Sina loves White Sunday, it's special Samoan day to celebrate kids. And this year is going to be the best one ever, Complete family , lots of food and adventure."

Filo is going to dance at his aunties' Samoan wedding! He's been rehearsing the steps for his first siva fa'ataupati for weeks, but now there are butterflies dancing in his belly. As the day goes on, the butterflies grow bigger and bolder. Will they stop him from performing the siva and having a good time?

Sina and Filo are related – they appear to share relatives. Particularly the aunties who are married in Filo’s story.

Filo’s story is more multicultural, as one of the aunts is of European-descent.

World Kid Lit Month 2026: Explorer Challenger: 0-6: Oceania

  

The goodbye tree.

Written by Pip Harry.

Illustrated by Christina Booth.

Walker Books Australia, 2026.

Picture book.

Australian.

One summer morning, Nick and his family wake up early, and gather precious things to take with them. Today, they will plant a tree – a tree that will reach towards the sun and bring shade to those who rest beneath it. Together they will sow the seeds of a living memorial to someone who has gone before them, but will never be forgotten.

A gentle, and quietly moving, story.

The only hint this is set in Australia is the kookaburra in one spread.

This shows the reality of a colonised land – the majority culture is not Indigenous to the land – or to Country.

World Kid Lit Month 2026: Explorer Challenger: 7-12: Asia

 

Electric birds of Pothakudi.

Written by Karthika Nair.

Illustrated by Joëlle Jolivet.

Tate Gallery, 2025.

First published in French by Hélium / Actes Sud 2022.

Sophisticated picture book.

Inspired by a true story about a family of birds nesting in a village's streetlamp, this poetic picture book is a moving exploration of community, solidarity, ecology, and the preservation of wildlife.

Sparked (sorry) by a true story – this is a community and nature centric story which is solidly (and magically) set in rural India.