The Cartoonists Club
by Raina Telgemeier & Scott McCloud
Graphix (Scholastic), 2025. 282 pages.
Review written October 9, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review
The Cartoonists Club is a collaboration between the wildly popular middle grade graphic novelist Raina Telgemeier and Scott McCloud, who wrote the book Understanding Comics that both my kids read and absorbed when they were approximately middle school age. Although they didn’t ever try to do it professionally, both of them made some comics of their own after reading that book.
It turns out that Raina Telgemeier also read the book when she was a teenager – and it encouraged her interest in making comics, which led to her tremendous success. (This is from an Author’s Note at the back.)
Well, Raina got to meet Scott McCloud in the comics community, and he was always encouraging. So she got the idea to work together to make a version of Understanding Comics that’s actually targeted for middle school readers. This book is the result.
And they succeeded wonderfully in their mission! This book is not nonfiction like the original. It tells the story of four kids in middle school who like making comics and who form a club. Along the way, with their knowledgeable staff sponsor, they learn about the basics of comics, they collaborate together, they learn to dare to share their work, and they even make and print their own mini-comics.
It’s a great story – the four kids are people we root for, each with different interests. And it also gives great information. There’s a link to a website with even more resources, scholastic.com/cartoonistsclub. I hope that lots of kids will form their own Cartoonists’ Clubs after being inspired by the example in this book.
scholastic.com/cartoonistsclub
goraina.com
Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/cartoonists_club.html
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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.
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