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Written by Kate Marchant and illustrated by CJ Joaquin, Float is a humorous graphic novel about teen drama. Float’s protagonist is Waverly Lyons, who lives in Fairbanks, Alaska, but is visiting her Aunt Rachel in Florida. According to Waverly, Aunt Rachel is a “weird, colorful, not super put together . . . but charming” artist (15). Waverly, who considers herself “bad at most things,” describes herself as “the anxious offspring of two brilliant scientists who could never agree on anything” (13). Eventually, her parents divorce, and for the past ten years, Waverly has felt like deadweight being tossed between the two. Florida might just provideRead More →

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With her graphic novel Free Piano (Not Haunted), Whitney Gardner uses her protagonist Margot to remind middle grade readers that self-worth cannot be measured by the number of followers a person achieves on social media platforms.  Furthermore, having followers doesn’t let you know if you’re good at something or not. Feeling abandoned since her mother works so much and her father is focused on his music career, Margot thinks if she’s famous, she’ll never have to be alone. When she finds a Prophet-5 synthesizer on the sidewalk, Margot decides to ask her dad to teach her how to play. However, he has determined that aRead More →

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Kane Lynch’s debut graphic novel, Reel Life examines the complex emotions held by young people, especially when their parents are experiencing relationship difficulty. In April, three tweens: Kyle, Galen, and Luna are engaged with their movie production plan when Kyle has an emotional outburst, causing him to walk away from the project and his friend group. By May, Galen’s dad is moving out. As Galen navigates visits between his dad’s new place and his mom’s home base, he begins to understand what Kyle has been going through. This is a relevant book for young people who might need the guidance when parents are divorcing. AnRead More →

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When Adele enters “womanhood,” she discovers that in addition to her monthly cycle, she has the family gift, or burden, depending on one’s perspective. She sees ghosts! Others in the family also share the ability to be a medium. Gram, who despises the gift, has painted her house an electric blue to ward off the ghosts and to avoid their invasive requests to tap into her power. She insists that ghosts are not welcome in her home and advises Adele to adopt her viewpoint. About the family gift, Gram tells Adele, “We have the power to stand in the middle, you see. Halfway between theRead More →

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Jules Bakes and Niki Smith collaborate on a graphic novel for middle grade readers, Sea Legs. Set in Florida and in various other water accessible communities, it tells the story of two twelve-year-old girls with different family dynamics who both live on boats. As readers follow the events in the lives of the pair, we discover not only the perils and the benefits of breaking out of one’s comfort zones but also that there are different ways to be friends. Our friends can make us feel better about ourselves as well as stretch us to be braver and smarter, inspiring us to try harder. PerhapsRead More →

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With their graphic novel Pearl, Sherri L. Smith and Christine Norrie bring readers a historical fiction account of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent response from the United States. In this version, Amy Hakata lives in Hawaii in 1941. However, when a family member in Japan grows ill and her parents are unable to travel, Amy flies to a country she has never visited. Once in Hiroshima, she sits with her sick Sōsobo. Here, only the food tastes familiar, but as Amy gets to know her grandmother, she learns of Grandma’s legacy as a pearl diver. However, everything changes in an instant, andRead More →

Cover image for the book Please Be My Star

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Please Be My Star by Victoria Grace Elliot captures the uncertainty of first love and the awkwardness of being a teenager in a beautifully illustrated graphic novel.  Erika’s status as a new student at school is awkward enough without her awareness that she is a ‘creep.’ Erika is aware that her tendency to draw cute boys she doesn’t know and to fantasize about boys that she does makes her more than a little weird. Something that is constantly being told to her by her imaginary inner self who looks like a vampiric alter ego. This alter ego is Erika’s most opinionated critic, verbalizing all ofRead More →

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With Tryouts, Sarah Sax writes and illustrates a graphic novel for middle school readers about the power of teamwork, self-advocacy, and voice. As a young athlete, Alexandra Olsen (aka Al) has played baseball for a rec league, but the baseball team at her middle school is for boys only. With the help of her friends Milo and Viv, Al not only discovers that “gender-inclusive teams have led the way in Brinkley sports history” (58) but that Title IX says she has to be allowed an equal chance to play if there is no equivalent girls’ team. Hoping for a fair shot to play, Al triesRead More →

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With her writing and illustrating for the graphic novel The Deep Dark, Molly Knox Ostertag takes readers on a journey into the psychology of dark thoughts and their potential to suck the life from us. Trying to survive senior year, Magdalena Herrera (aka Mags) is stuck in a small Southern California town under a mountain of responsibilities that include coursework, a part-time job, caring for her mostly bed-ridden abuela, and struggling with her gender and sexual identities. When her transgender childhood friend Nessa returns from college, Mags has a kindred spirit to help support her, and together they must make the choice to thrive orRead More →