- Fantasy
- Hilda collection
- Ages 7–11
Hilda Graphic Novels
Part of the collectionHilda→The definitive Hilda experience: beautiful, strange, funny and folkloric graphic novels that grow from quiet adventure into darker, richer fantasy.
- Books6 / 6
- Arcs3
- Span2015–2021
- StatusComplete
The series
At a glance.
Hilda Graphic Novels are Luke Pearson's original six-book Hilda sequence, beginning with a girl in the wild encountering a troll and ending with the darker, more emotionally substantial Mountain King story. The books are among the most distinctive modern children's comics: clean design, muted colour, Scandinavian-inflected folklore, odd creatures, deadpan humour and a heroine whose curiosity repeatedly leads her into other beings' worlds. They are not action-heavy in a superhero sense, but they do contain eerie imagery, creature danger, family separation and increasingly serious questions about fear, prejudice and belonging.
The definitive Hilda experience: beautiful, strange, funny and folkloric graphic novels that grow from quiet adventure into darker, richer fantasy.
Primary themes
Overall tone
- Whimsical
- Adventurous
- Suspenseful
- Gentle
Read in publication order. The early books are more episodic, but Hilda's move to Trolberg and the later troll storyline build meaningfully across the sequence.
Three arcs
A series that changes as it goes.
- INarrative arcBooks 1–2 · 2015–2016Moderate sensitivity
Wild Hilda
Hilda begins in the wilderness, meeting trolls, giants and hidden neighbours before city life pulls closer.
The opening graphic-novel arc is the purest expression of Hilda's early wilderness life. Hilda and the Troll introduces her fearlessness, the strange calm of the landscape and the rule that odd creatures are usually more complicated than they first appear. Hilda and the Midnight Giant deepens the idea of hidden communities, scale, home and belonging. These books are the best route into the original comics for younger readers because the danger is folkloric and eerie rather than sustained.
- IINarrative arcBooks 3–4 · 2016–2017Moderate sensitivity
Trolberg and the Black Hound
Hilda adjusts to city life, strange festivals, loneliness and the eerie Black Hound mystery.
The middle Hilda arc moves the series from wild landscapes into Trolberg. Hilda and the Bird Parade is about loneliness, change and finding friendship in the city, while Hilda and the Black Hound is a stronger mystery with bigger folkloric danger and more frightening imagery. This is where Hilda becomes especially valuable for children negotiating change: the city is exciting but alienating, and creatures dismissed as threats may have their own logic and pain. The Black Hound material makes moderate sensitivity important.
- IIINarrative arcBooks 5–6 · 2018–2021Moderate sensitivity
Trolls, mothers and the Mountain King
The final graphic novels raise the emotional and peril stakes through trolls, family separation and prejudice.
The final Hilda graphic-novel arc is the richest and darkest part of the original sequence. Hilda and the Stone Forest brings Hilda and her mother into a more dangerous troll world, while Hilda and the Mountain King turns that danger into a larger story about fear, prejudice, children and parents on both sides of a divide. This is still children's fantasy, not YA, but it is much more emotionally and thematically substantial than the gentlest Hilda material. It is best after the reader has already come to trust the series' humane view of strange creatures.
Fit check
Right for your reader?
Where the series lands by age
- 1
- 3
- 5
- 7
- 9
- 11
- 13
- 15
- 17
- 19
- Best fit · 7–11
- Read aloud · 6–10
- Independent · 7–11
Reluctant-reader friendliness
High
Read-aloud quality
Strong
Adult crossover
High
Grows with the reader
Designed to
Sensitivity envelope
Moderate overall, and consistent.
Content notes
- Scary imagery
- Violence
Per-arc breakdown
In the same universe
Sister series.
Hilda Chapter Books are prose adaptations and tie-in fiction based on the Netflix Hilda series, written by Stephen Davies with illustrations by Seaerra Miller, …
Open series →SeriesHilda and TwigHilda and Twig is Luke Pearson's younger Hilda line, shifting the focus towards shorter, gentler adventures with Hilda and her deerfox companion Twig. These boo…
Open series →Where it sits
In conversation with other series.
About the author