Great Graphic Novels for Teens
Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol
Anya’s Ghost “offers something that is still too rare in comics: a realistic, contemporary teenage girl’s story,” that also includes diversion from reality in the form of a main character who is an apparition (Engberg, 2011, p. 38). After skipping school and falling down a well, Anya encounters the ghost of a teen named Emily, who decides to follow Anya into her everyday world. Brosgol carefully mixes dashes of Anya’s normal teenage life in with a mild horror story about Anya’s imaginary friend-turned-tormenter, EmilyBrosgol’s novel is a YALSA Great Graphic Novels Top Ten 2012 winner and is on the Library Media Connection’s Getting Graphic: Best of the Best 2011 list.
Engberg, G. (2011). Anya's ghost. Booklist, 107(14), 34.
Evolution: The Story of Life on Earth by Jay Hosler
Evolution: The Story of Life on Earth is a YALSA Great Graphic Novels Non-fiction 2012 award winner, and a “fun, funny, and authoritative” explanation of the theory of evolution (Setton, 2010, p. 35). Gorman (2011) states that even though “an incredible amount of scientific data is covered in 150 pages, it never feels like information overload” and credits this easily digestible quality to the author and illustrators’ use of comic relief throughout the book (p. 20).
Setton, D. (2010). Evolution. Natural History, 119(3), 35.
Gorman, M. (2011). Getting graphic. Library Media Connection, 30(2), 20.
Page by Paige by Laura Lee Gulledge
Gulledge’s Page by Paige introduces the reader to Paige, a typical teenager who is trying to find her voice and her place in the world after moving with her family from Virginia to Brooklyn. She finds catharsis in drawing her feelings and emotions in her sketchbook, and as Paige “opens up in her drawings---pouring out her doubts and insecurities---she slowly but surely begins to face them” (Auger, 2011, p. 148). Page by Paige is a YALSA Great Graphic Novels Award-winner for 2012, and is on Library Media Connection’s Getting Graphic: Best of the Best 2011 list.
Auger, T. D. (2011). Page by Paige. Horn Book Magazine, 87(4), 148-149.
Stitches: A Memoir by David Small
Winner of YALSA’s Best Books for Young Adults 2010 in the non-fiction category, Stitches is the autobiographical account of David Small’s tumultuous childhood and adolescence. Goldsmith (2009) describes the book as “evocative and beautifully detailed” and says that “teens will identify with the rigors of growing up in a household of angry silences, selfish parents, feelings of personal weakness, and secret lives” (p. 193).
Goldsmith, F. (2009). Stitches. School Library Journal, 55(9), 193.
The Arrival by Shaun Tan
The Arrival is a wordless, unpaged novel depicting “the displacement and awe with which immigrants respond to their new surroundings” (Abbott, 2007, p. 225). It is the story of a man who has made the voyage to a new world with no family or friends, and the experience he has acclimating to this strange and fascinating new world and creating a life for himself. Because there are no words in the book, other than the strange alphabet of the new land, many may assume that this book is targeted to young readers. But this is a novel rich in symbolism and depth perfect for high school students.Tan’s novel is noted as one of the YALSA Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults (2008) and as a Booklist Editors' Choice in the Books for Youth category (2007).
Abbott, A. (2007). The arrival. School Library Journal, 53(9), 225
Level Up by Gene Luen Yang
In Level Up, Yang delivers the story of an Asian-American teen with a familiar struggle: balancing his parents’ desire for him to become a doctor with his own passion for video gaming and the career possibilities that may await him in the gaming field. A YALSA Great Graphic Novels Fiction winner for 2012, and a selection for the Library Media Connection, Getting Graphic: Best of the Best 2011 list, Level Up is specifically appealing to male young adult readers who will find this story of family and pressures in life relatable.
I Love Him to Pieces by Evonne Tsang and Janina Görrissen
I Love Him to Pieces is the first novel in the My Boyfriend Is a Monster thriller- romance series of graphic novels. It is listed as one of YALSA’s Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults for 2012. As zombie stories continue to be a trend in young adult literature, this book will be popular with teenagers who will enjoy the opposites-attracting story of Dicey and Jack, and their joined mission to fight off zombies terrorizing their town.