Your child wants a real story, the big kind with stakes and a world to fall into, but a page packed with words shuts them down before they start. This trail is built from graphic novels and lightly-texted books: sweeping, gripping stories that read fast because the pictures carry the weight. Any single one satisfies the whole idea, so start with whichever world your child can't resist.
Every book here obeys the same rule: the page must never look like a wall of text, and the story underneath must be big enough to be worth turning the page for. They're loosely grouped from the most cinematic and emotionally biggest to the gentlest, but pick by the world your child can't resist: a snatched-away brother, whole worlds at risk, souls being stolen, a cardboard kingdom. The pictures keep the reading light throughout, so a child gets to feel like they're tackling something grand without the sentence-by-sentence slog that usually stops them.