📚 Book🧒 Little Kids · Ages 3–6Graphic Novels / Comics

Toon Books: Benny and Penny (2008)

About This Book

Mouse siblings Benny and Penny squabble, scheme, and stumble through short adventures that capture the texture of real sibling life with uncanny accuracy. The speech bubbles use simple, repetitive language designed for beginning readers, while the illustrations carry enough visual humor to keep pre-readers engaged. Each book in the series is a self-contained story short enough to finish in one sitting, giving new readers the enormous satisfaction of completing a "real" book.

Why It's a Classic

Geoffrey Hayes created Benny and Penny as part of the Toon Books line, which was founded by Francoise Mouly (the art editor of The New Yorker) specifically to bring real comics storytelling to the earliest readers. Hayes understood that young children need facial expressions and body language to carry meaning, so his panels are filled with physical comedy and exaggerated reactions that communicate the emotional beats even when a child stumbles over the words. The sibling dynamic between bossy older Benny and stubborn little Penny rings completely true; their arguments, truces, and reconciliations follow the exact rhythms that any parent of two children will recognize. The comics format teaches left to right reading, panel sequencing, and the connection between image and text in ways that traditional picture books do not. Hayes kept his page layouts clean and uncluttered, rarely using more than four panels per page, which prevents the visual overwhelm that more complex comics can create for new readers. The series won multiple Theodor Seuss Geisel Awards, recognizing its achievement in the field of beginning reader books.

Fun Fact

Francoise Mouly founded the Toon Books imprint in 2008 after years of watching her own children struggle to find comics that were simple enough for beginning readers yet genuinely well crafted. Geoffrey Hayes was the brother of the Caldecott winning illustrator Kevin Henkes's inspiration, and he had been creating children's comics since the 1970s. Hayes passed away in 2017, and the Benny and Penny series remains his most celebrated work.

Parent Note

The sibling conflicts in these books are very mild: arguments over toys, territory, and who gets to be in charge. There is nothing scary or inappropriate. The reading level is designed for kindergarteners and first graders, making these books ideal for that critical moment when a child wants to read independently. Parents of siblings will find the Benny and Penny dynamic hilariously familiar.