2025 FOLD Kids Challenge - July - The FOLD

2025 FOLD Kids Challenge — July

A comic by an author from a Marginalized Community

By Monika Trzeciakowski

This month we’re reading a comic by an author from a marginalized community! Comics are one of my favourite formats for reading books and they have great benefits. Comics are a great format for reluctant readers, but they’re also great for any reader who wants to improve their visual literacy. Looking at the images in a comic helps readers to figure out the context of a scene and catch small details about characters, their relationships, and their personalities. What can you learn from reading our suggestions below?

Book cover of Wallpaper by Thao Lam. Cover features a young girl surrounded by flowers and birds.
Wallpaper by Thao Lam (Picture Book)

This wordless picture book uses comic book panels to tell the story of a young girl whose family moves into a new house. Outside, she can hear other kids playing, but she’s too shy to say hello. So she picks at the old wallpaper in her room—revealing an entryway to a fantastic imaginary adventure world behind the walls.

There, she runs between the vibrant and varied environments—surrounded by birds, swimming in a frog pond, in a herd of art-deco sheep—as she finds herself chased by a monster. He is frightening at first, until it becomes clear he simply wants to be her friend. When it comes time to go back to reality, the girl feels inspired with the courage to approach the other kids and say hello.

 

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Book cover of Gamerville by Johnnie Christmas. Cover features a young Black boy looking over his shoulder.
Gamerville by Johnnie Christmas (Middle Grade)

A video gamer’s championship aspirations are dashed when his parents send him to Camp Reset, where electronics are forbidden and you’re forced to socialize, eat healthy, and spend time outside. Gamerville is a timely and vulnerable exploration of the importance of human connection and what it means to run in a pack, brought to you by award-winning author Johnnie Christmas.

Max Lightning is howling at the moon—he’s finally qualified for Gamerville, a championship where players compete to be top dog in the multiplayer video game Lone Wolf of Calamity Bay. But his dreams of domination are doomed when his parents send him to Camp Reset. Gone are the long nights of downing energy drinks and getting copious amounts of screen time. They’ve been replaced with fresh air and group activities under the hot sun—a shock to the system for a lone wolf like Max. Can Max escape Camp Reset and level up at Gamerville, or has he finally played his last match?

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Book cover of Belle of the Ball by Mari Costa. Cover features three teens sitting on the bleachers.
Belle of the Ball by Mari Costa (Young Adult)

High-school senior and notorious wallflower Hawkins finally works up the courage to remove her mascot mask and ask out her longtime crush: Regina Moreno, head cheerleader, academic overachiever, and all-around popular girl. There’s only one teensy little problem: Regina is already dating Chloe Kitagawa, athletic all-star…and middling English student. Regina sees a perfectly self-serving opportunity here, and asks the smitten Hawkins to tutor Chloe free of charge, knowing Hawkins will do anything to get closer to her.

And while Regina’s plan works at first, she doesn’t realize that Hawkins and Chloe knew each other as kids, when Hawkins went by Belle and wore princess dresses to school every single day. Before long, romance does start to blossom…but not between who you might expect. With Belle of the Ball, cartoonist Mariana Costa has reinvigorated satisfying, reliable tropes into your new favorite teen romantic comedy.

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