While there are a lot of graphic novels for children being published these days, Kazu Kibuishi’s The Amulet definitely stands out from the rest. With striking illustrations, well-developed characters, and a magical world full of imaginative surprises, The Amulet is a book that both parents and children will enjoy.

Opening with a dramatic scene where the main character, Emily, and her mother are forced to watch as Emily’s father plunges over a cliff after a terrible car accident, readers immediately feel connected to Emily. With her father dying from the fall, Emily, her mother, and her younger brother Navin are left to find their own way in the world.

Two years after her father’s death, Emily’s mother takes her and her brother to live in the country in an old house she inherited from her grandfather. It is at this decrepit and strangely foreboding house that the adventures in The Amulet really begin.

With a plot reminiscent of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings mixed with C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, Emily walks into the library that once belonged to her great-grandfather and discovers an amulet. Not knowing the power or danger that the amulet possesses, Emily puts the amulet around her neck and swears her brother to secrecy. Read the full story