The Cardboard Kingdom

I picked this up for my 9 year old thinking it was just a cute book about kids playing pretend. But when I heard her talk to her grandma about parents fighting, I had to give it a look. And what I found was amazing.

Kids need a language to be able to express their feelings, and I love that Cardboard Kingdom gives them that. There are so many talking points in this. There are so many things in here for kids to see and connect to their own lives. I cannot rave about this enough.

There were two stories I barely made it through without crying. “The Gargoyle” was by far one of the most heart breaking stories I’ve ever read, and I finished it with tears in my eyes. The story about the robot also brought tears because I can see my loved show more ones in it. show less

holy heck 5/5.

great if you love lumberjanes, nimona, she-ra and the princess of power. a precious middle grade graphic novel where all the kiddos made characters out of cardboard. much representation! challenging of gender roles via evil witches and mad scientists.

precious precious precious i love.

The Cardboard Kingdom is, in my opinion, one of, if not the, best middle grade graphic novels out this year. While the entire novel was drawn and organized by Chad Sell, each of the different chapters was written by a different author. This could be a very jarring way to write any kind of book, but these stories flow so well from one to the next. The imagination, movement, and dialogue used is one hundred percent kid. There is also great diversity, not only racial, but in gender and identification. I look forward to reading the next project Chad Sell puts together.

Liked this well enough. The story lines with the bully kinda bugged me, but otherwise they were all pretty great. I was especially impressed by the diversity of art (while still keeping very consistent colors and character designs!) in general, great compilation.

Ok, I couldn't always keep track of who in costume was who irl, or what was always going on. But I was still absolutely delighted at the joy, charm, and inclusive representation. And there's a sequel? So, even though it's not perfect, since I do want to read the next book, I'm rounding my rating up to four stars.

There is nary a cell phone or screen in sight in this exuberant work about neighborhood kids creating a fantasy kingdom out of cardboard boxes and leveraging their imaginations to the hilt. Nicely balancing the rowdy chaos are smaller moments of truth: the fighting parents, a bully's loneliness, a grandma's stinging criticisms, the boy who dresses as a sorceress. Bright colors full of KAPOW! action will draw readers to this one.

The creation of the Cardboard Kingdom happens in the neighborhood over summer break. It spreads as each of the characters are developed and introduced. Many of the chapters are contributed by different graphic novelists.
The individual stories explore different topics within from bullying to inclusion to making friends to playing with gender roles within fairy tales. Characters appear within other character's stories. Starting with light text, the stories start to build together to tell a charming story of summer fun, inclusion, acceptance, and an epically fun final battle between good and evil.