By Kazu Kibuishi
A cinematic, full-color fantasy quest that pulls in even reluctant readers, though it opens with the father's death and carries that loss the whole way.
The first pages are the hardest. Emily is in the car when it goes off the road, and she watches her father die, unable to pull him free. Two years later her mom moves her and her younger brother Navin into a strange old house that belonged to a late relative. On the first night, a creature with far too many legs drags their mother down through a door beneath the basement. Emily finds a glowing amulet that talks to her, and the two children climb down after their mom, into a whole world below full of robots, elves, and a house that walks on mechanical legs.
It's the book I hand a child who swears they hate reading but will happily sit through a two-hour movie. It reads like one, with huge full-color panels and barely any words on a page, but the story underneath is a real fantasy with a genuine quest and genuine danger. They'll go through almost 200 pages in a sitting and feel like they got away with something. And if your child loves it, there are eight more books waiting.