Great Graphic Novels for Teens

Great Graphic Novels (#GGN2023) Featured Review of Radium Girls by Cy.

Radium Girls by Cy.
Iron Circus Comics
Publication Date: May 3, 2022
ISBN: 9781945820991

In 1918, lucky young women looking for work might be hired at the watch factories, where they were taught to use their lips to moisten the brush they used to paint the radium on watch faces to make them glow. They became “ghost girls”, glowing about town as the life of the party, but unknowingly ruining their health to the point of death with the radium infused paint they were using.

Great Graphic Novels (#GGN2023) Featured Review of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, vol. 1-4 by Kanehito Tamada and Tsukasa Abe

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, vol. 1-4
by Kanehito Yamada and Tsukasa Abe
VIZ Media
Publication Date: May 17, 2022
ISBN-13: 9781974727254

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, vol. 1-4 is the story of what happens at the end of an epic adventure. Elves in this world live much longer than humans and even dwarves. As the years pass after her world-saving adventure with Himmel the Hero, the corrupt priest Heiter, and dwarven fighter Eisen, Frieren watches her compatriots age and die, sending her on a literal and emotional new journey. Along the way, Frieren must grapple with the concept of mortality while letting new humans get close to her.

Great Graphic Novels (#GGN2023) Featured Review of Pixels of You by Ananth Hirsh, Yuko Ota, and J.R. Doyle

Pixels of You by Ananth Hirsh, Yuko Ota and J.R. Doyle
Amulet Books
Publication Date: February 8, 2022
ISBN-13: 9781419749575

Pixels of You is a futuristic story about two photographers completing an internship at an art gallery. Indira, a human girl with a cybernetically augmented eye, and Fawn, an AI who appears human, don’t get along when they first meet. When their conflict leads to a public argument, their mentor assigns their final project to be a cooperative gallery show. Forced to work together on their photography, this is a short but sweet enemies-to-lovers story.

Great Graphic Novels (#GGN2023) Featured Review of Far Sector by N.K. Jemisin, Jamal Campbell and Deron Bennet

Far Sector by N.K. Jemisin, Jamal Campbell and Deron Bennet
Young Animal / DC
Publication Date: November 16, 2021
ISBN-13: 9781779512055

Sojourner “Jo” Mullen is a new Green Lantern on a mission far from home, investigating a murder in The City Enduring, a sprawling metropolis that has known peace for 500 years due to the genetic suppression of all emotions. When one murder turns to two, Jo finds herself grasping for answers in a political, ethical, and corrupt quagmire. Can she stay one-step ahead of the forces blocking her path?

Great Graphic Novels (#GGN2023) Featured Review of Seven Secrets, Vol. 2 by Tom Taylor

Seven Secrets, Vol. 2 by Tom Taylor
Boom! Studios
Publication Date: November 2, 2021
ISBN: 9781684157396

Picking right up after the events of volume one, the members of The Order now find themselves surrounded by the chaos and destruction unleashed by the First Secret. The Keepers and Holders are forced to go into hiding in the Faerie realm, where Casper gets a chance to discover a hidden aspect of his complicated origins, and new leadership is chosen. With the change in command comes the further unraveling of The Order’s secrets and a new objective for the remaining members.

Great Graphic Novels (#GGN2023) Featured Review of Borders by Thomas King and Natasha Donovan

Borders by Thomas King and Natasha Donovan
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Publication Date: September 7, 2021
ISBN-13: 9781443460675

Six years after his older sister left the reserve to make a new life in Salt Lake City, a boy and his mom pack their car to drive south across the border to visit her. When his mom declares that they are not American or Canadian, but Blackfoot, they are denied entry and turn back toward home, only to face the same problem at the Canadian border. The two are then trapped in physical and legal limbo between Sweetgrass, Montana and Coutts, Alberta with dwindling food and supplies.

Great Graphic Novels (#GGN2023) Featured Review of Mao, vol. 1 by Rumiko Takahashi

Mao, Vol. 1 by Rumiko Takahashi
VIZ Media LLC
Publication Date: September 14, 2021
ISBN: 9781974720521

Nanoka Kiba is your average teenager except for a mysterious fatal car accident she had as a child. Curious and drawn to an abandoned shopping center, Nanoka finds herself spirited to the Taisho era, where she happens to be saved by a mysterious boy named Mao. When Nanoka returns to her time, she learns that she is not as normal as she first thought. Full of questions, Nanoka returns back to the Taisho era looking for answers but finds herself pulled into Mao’s mystical investigations. They realize they might share a supernatural connection as they look into these paranormal occurrences.

Great Graphic Novels (#GGN2023) Featured Review of When I Grow Up: The Lost Autobiographies of Six Yiddish Teenagers by Ken Krimstein

When I Grow Up: The Lost Autobiographies of Six Yiddish Teenagers by Ken Krimstein
Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication Date: November 16, 2021
ISBN-13: 9781635573701

When hundreds of autobiographical essays of Yiddish teenagers written just before the start of WWII were discovered hidden in a Lithuanian church in 2017, author and illustrator Ken Krimstein selected six to highlight in this nonfiction graphic novel. With a somewhat chaotic and unfinished illustration style that emphasizes the unknown future these anonymous teenagers face, Krimstein uses the original text of the essays to portray the struggles and triumphs of the universal teenage experience.

Great Graphic Novels (#GGN2023) Featured Review of The High Desert: Black. Punk. Nowhere by James Spooner

The High Desert: Black. Punk. Nowhere by James Spooner
Mariner Books / HarperCollins
Publication Date: May 17, 2022
ISBN-13: 9780358659112

“Punk rock is Black music.”

James Spooner’s coming-of-age graphic memoir shows him navigating life as a biracial teen in 1990’s rural California. Here he grapples with figuring out who he is, not who people — his clueless white mother, his absent Black father, and his mostly prejudiced classmates, teachers, and community members — think he should be. Finding punk music and other Black punks helps him get closer to his true self. Set against a backdrop of an isolated desert community, The High Desert shows a Black teen wrestling with identity, racism, young love, and finding your voice through an alternative community.

Great Graphic Novels (#GGN2023) Featured Review of Graceling: The Graphic Novel by Kristin Cashore and Gareth Hinds

Graceling: The Graphic Novel by Kristin Cashore and Gareth Hinds
Etch / Clarion Books
Publication Date: November 16, 2021
ISBN-13: 9780358250470

Celebrated illustrator Gareth Hinds adapts Kristin Cashore’s high-fantasy YA classic, Graceling! Katsa was born graced with lethal fighting skills, put to brutal use by her king from a young age. Out on a mission, she crosses paths with a mysterious fighter, the first to ever come close to beating her in combat. The fight changes her, and a series of related events work to unravel the mundane life of servitude and violence Katsa has always known.