Early Graphic Novels & Illustrated Books for Beginning Readers

Graphic novels are a great way to capture the attention and interest of new readers and help them build their reading confidence and abilities. With fun illustrations, simple storytelling, and often plenty of humour, the following titles are sure to appeal to early and emerging readers, and can help transform reluctant readers into avid book lovers. Bonus – most of the titles included below are the first book in a series, to help readers continue their journey.

Hoopla is like having your public library at your fingertips.
Anytime. Anywhere.

This page has been updated to reflect the Hoopla Borrowing Limits effective May 1 2025.

Cape Breton Regional Library offers 3 hoopla borrows per month.

Learn More about Hoopla with our Video Tutorial

Try hoopla today by downloading the “hoopla digital” app on your Apple, Android or Kindle device.

You can also access Hoopla from a desktop computer or laptop by going to the hoopla website: hoopladigital.com.

Hoopla: What you need to know

• You can borrow up to 3 titles a month. Limits reset on the first day of each month. Unused checkouts do not rollover to the next month.
• Items will be automatically returned when the loan period is over so there are never any fines.
  • Movie and TV content is available for 3 days.
  • Music albums are available for 7 days.
  • Audiobooks, eBooks and comics are available for 21 days.
• There are no holds or wait lists.
• You can return an item early but this does not allow you to borrow more than 3 items per month.
• In addition to monthly borrowing limits, the library has a daily budget cap on Hoopla that resets at midnight. If you try to borrow something after the daily budget cap has been reached you will see the following error message: ‘The collective daily borrow limit set by your library has been reached and will reset at midnight.’ Browse and add titles to your favourites so that you can easily access content when the daily cap resets.
• Content can be streamed from the internet or, if using the hoopla app, downloaded for offline use.
• Streaming from hoopla uses your data. A regular-length movie uses about 1GB; an album uses about 35 MB of data.
• A Kids Mode is available with content that hoopla has selected for children up to age 12. Once you are logged in, go to your settings in the right hand of the screen and select Kids Mode.

Setting up a Hoopla Account:

From hoopladigital.com select Get Started or Sign Up:

• Enter your email address and create a password.
• Choose Cape Breton Regional Library
• Enter Your Library  Card Number without any spaces and enter your PIN (by default the PIN is the last four digits of your phone number)
• If you don’t have a Library Card you can sign-up for one online.  Please note it can take up to 48 hours to process online library card applications.

Need More Help? Visit hoopla’s help page.   Or email info@cbrl.ca for questions about your library card.