Great Graphic Novels (#GGN2024) Featured Review: D&D Dungeon Club, Vol. 1: Roll Call by Molly Knox Ostertag and Xanthe Bouma

  • D&D Dungeon Club, Vol. 1: Roll Call
  • Molly Knox Ostertag and Xanthe Bouma
  • Publication Date: November 29, 2022
  • ISBN-13: 9780063039247

Jess Descheene is good at one thing and one thing only: building a story with her best friend (and Dungeon Master) Olivia in Dungeon & Dragons. When Olivia wants to start a D&D club at their middle school, Jess goes behind her back to undermine her. Will their friendship–and their long-running D&D campaign–survive Jess’ actions?

Dungeon Club: Roll Call beautifully conveys the importance D&D can have in students’ lives, especially those who may not be connected to school in other ways, like through academics and athletics. The intertwining of the D&D campaign and the real-world story helps raise the stakes in both worlds. The coming-of-age theme will resonate with anyone who had trouble fitting in in middle school, regardless of whether they play tabletop roleplaying games. Xanthe Bouma’s art shines, and their use of color is especially adroit. Both Jess and Olivia are POC characters, which provides both an important representation and reflection of students who play TTRPGs.

Fans of tabletop role playing games, like Dungeons & Dragons and Magical Kitties Save the Day will find a lot to love in this graphic novel, as will fans of play streams like Critical Role and Dimension20. Video game players who enjoy fantasy RPGs like Horizon: Forbidden West, Ni no Kuni, and The Legend of Zelda games may also enjoy this story. Lastly, this series starter is a must-buy for collections where Molly Knox Ostertag’s other comics circulate well, and where coming-of-age graphic novels like those by Raina Telgemeier and Jade Armstrong are in high demand.

-Ness Shortley

Other Nominated Titles

September 6, 2022
September 27, 2022
March 21, 2023
May 2, 2023

The Selected Lists teams read throughout the year in search of the best titles published in their respective categories. Once a book is suggested (either internally or through the title suggestion form), it must pass through a review process to be designated an official nomination.

Each week, the teams feature a review of one of the officially nominated titles. Additional titles to receive this designation are listed as well. At year’s end, the team will curate a final list from all nominated titles and select a Top Ten.

Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers Featured Review: The Truth About Everything by Bridget Farr

  • The Truth About Everything
  • by Bridget Farr
  • Publisher: Flux
  • Release Date: October 11, 2022
  • ISBN: 9781635830804

Lark’s off-the-grid, conspiracy-theorist parents claim to homeschool her but in reality, her education stopped long ago. Now she spends her days completing chores on their farm and hanging out with her only friend Alex. Her first period, with no previous knowledge of menstruation, leads her to secretly enroll in school and her worldview is soon blown apart. Lark quickly begins to question everything she has been taught and to engage with the world from which she has been shut away. But there are consequences for her actions back home.

Many teens are used to complaining about school so the idea of education not even being an option and the loss of everything that comes is eye-opening. Lark’s struggle to come to terms with the fact that her parents are wrong is difficult but something teens will face, though probably not to this extent. Lark is a naive and smart character who grows by leaps and bounds. Readers get to experience every self-doubt with her. These themes will be familiar with readers.

Readers who enjoy books about difficult families or unique family situations will enjoy this novel. Hand this to fans of We’ll Fly Away by Bryan Bliss and Smoke by Darcy Woods

-Cathy DeCampli

Other Nominated Titles

Release Date: January 3, 2023
Release Date: February 28, 2023

The Selected Lists teams read throughout the year in search of the best titles published in their respective categories. Once a book is suggested (either internally or through the title suggestion form), it must pass through a review process to be designated an official nomination.

Each week, the teams feature a review of one of the officially nominated titles. Additional titles to receive this designation are listed as well. At year’s end, the team will curate a final list from all nominated titles and select a Top Ten.

Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (#QP2023) Featured Review of These Deadly Games by Diana Urban

These Deadly Games

by Diana Urban

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Imprint: 

Release date: 

ISBN: 9781250797193

16-year old Crystal Donovan is laser focused on the upcoming Mortal Dusk gaming tournament, which she will be competing in with her e-sports team.  Suddenly everything changes when she begins receiving frightening messages on an app that mysteriously appears on her phone. Someone has kidnapped her sister Caelyn, and to get her back, Crystal will have to play the most dangerous game of her life. Although the tasks seem harmless enough at first, it becomes increasingly clear that they are aimed at hurting Crystal’s closest friends and teammates. Could the person behind the app be a Mortal Dusk competitor? Or could it have to do with an event that happened five years ago that Crystal and her friends swore to keep secret? 

Urban constructs a fast-paced, contemporary thriller. Although the twists in the story are slightly predictable, the plot remains engaging throughout. Flawed characters and complicated friendships between Crystal and her teammates are realistic and relatable. The focus on games and technology will also appeal to today’s tech-savvy and connected teens. Librarians should be aware that the title contains contents dealing with  death, domestic abuse, panic attacks, anorexia, and racism.

Fans of fast-past thrillers and suspense, who don’t mind a bit of violence will enjoy this book.  Hand this to teens who enjoyed Two Truths and a Lie by April Henry, Dead End Girls by Wendy Heard, The Wild by Owen Laukkanen, or Out of the Fire by Andrea Contos.

— Julianne Novetsky

Other Nominated Titles

Two Truths and a Lie by April Henry  (May 24, 2022)

Live, Laugh, Kidnap by Gabby Noone (May 20, 2022)

Trigger by N. Griffin (March 29, 2022)

Counting Scars by Melinda Di Lorenzo (August 16, 2022)

Jumper by Melanie Crowder  (June 21, 2022)

Gold Mountain by Betty G. Yee (April 5, 2022)


The Selected Lists teams read throughout the year in search of the best titles published in their respective categories. Once a book is suggested (either internally or through the title suggestion form), it must pass through a review process to be designated an official nomination.

Each week, the teams feature a review of one of the officially nominated titles. Additional titles to receive this designation are listed as well. At year’s end, the team will curate a final list from all nominated titles and select a Top Ten.

Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (#QP2023) Featured Review of Long Live the Pumpkin Queen by Shea Ernshaw 

Long Live the Pumpkin Queen

by Shea Ernshaw

Publisher: Disney Enterprises, Inc

Imprint: Disney Press

Release date: August 2, 2022

ISBN: 9781368069601

Sally finally has her happily ever after; she’s married to her love, Jack Skellington, and crowned Pumpkin Queen of Halloween Town. However, being Pumpkin Queen isn’t as easy as Sally imagined. When she discovers a doorway to one of the ancient realms, Sally inadvertently unleashes the long forgotten Sandman on both the holiday and the human worlds. With the Sandman hunting her across the worlds, Sally must find a way to reverse his sleeping spell on everyone before it’s too late. 

Continue reading Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (#QP2023) Featured Review of Long Live the Pumpkin Queen by Shea Ernshaw 

Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (#QP2023) Featured Review of Hometown Victory: A Coach’s Story of Football, Fate, and Coming Home by Keanon Lowe 

Hometown Victory: A Coach’s Story of Football, Fate, and Coming Home

by Keanon Lowe

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Release date: May 10, 2022

ISBN: 9781250807632

After the death of a former teammate, Keanon Lowe left his position coaching the San Francisco 49ers to return to his hometown of Portland, Oregon. Brokenhearted, he answered a Craigslist help wanted ad for a head coach of the Parkrose High School football program. Little did he know that rebuilding the team’s confidence would ultimately be an opportunity for his own healing.

Continue reading Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (#QP2023) Featured Review of Hometown Victory: A Coach’s Story of Football, Fate, and Coming Home by Keanon Lowe 

Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (#QP2023) Featured Review of In Harm’s Way: the Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Story of Its Survivors (Young Readers Adaptation) by Doug Stanton and Michael J. Tougias

In Harm’s Way: the SInking of the USS Indianapolis and the Story of Its Survivors (Young Readers Adaptation)

by Doug Stanton and Michael J. Tougias

Publisher: Macmillan Publishers

Imprint: Henry Holt and Company

Release date: February 8, 2022

ISBN: 9781250771322

The USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by the Japanese on July 30, 1945 killing hundreds on impact; however that was only the beginning of a four day ordeal of survival.  Thrown into the South Pacific Ocean with only life vests, a few rafts, and no supplies, nearly 1,000 sailors  had to endure dehydration, injuries, the sweltering sun, and the worst – the sharks that fed on them each night. 

Continue reading Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (#QP2023) Featured Review of In Harm’s Way: the Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Story of Its Survivors (Young Readers Adaptation) by Doug Stanton and Michael J. Tougias

Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (#QP2023) Featured Review of Hotel Magnifique by Emily Taylor

Hotel Magnifique

by Emily Taylor

Publisher: Razorbill

Release date: April 5, 2022

ISBN:  ‎ 9780593404515

Jani has always dreamed of Elsewhere. Her daily life, devoted to supporting her younger sister Zosa by working in a harsh tannery, is turned upside down when the Hotel Magnifique comes to town. The Hotel is magical not only in its marvelous enchantments, but also in its ability to appear in a new location every day. Jani and Zosa can’t afford to be guests at the Hotel, but they do apply for and receive coveted jobs that get them through the door. Once inside the Hotel Magnifique, though, Jani realizes that behind all the sparkly beauty, danger lurks.

Continue reading Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (#QP2023) Featured Review of Hotel Magnifique by Emily Taylor

Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (#QP2023) Featured Review of Cold by Mariko Tamaki

Cold

by Mariko Tamaki

Publisher: Macmillan 

Imprint: Roaring Brook Press

Release date: February 8, 2022

ISBN: 9781626722736

Todd is dead and now watches over his own naked corpse while trying to determine how he died. Georgia didn’t know Todd when he was alive, but is mildly obsessed with his death. Why does he seem so familiar to her? What do they have in common? 

Continue reading Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (#QP2023) Featured Review of Cold by Mariko Tamaki

Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (#QP2023) Featured Review of Horror Hotel by Victoria Fulton and Faith McClaren

Horror Hotel by Victoria Fulton and Faith McClaren

Publisher: Penguin Random House

Imprint: Underlined

Release date: February 1, 2022

ISBN: 9780593483480

Every YouTuber dreams of making it to that one million subscriber mark, including Chase. He is the impetus for the Ghost Group, a foursome of friends who make money off of going to haunted places in and around Las Vegas and searching out paranormal activity.  What makes this bunch of ghost hunters different is that they have Chrissy, who can see ghosts.

Continue reading Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (#QP2023) Featured Review of Horror Hotel by Victoria Fulton and Faith McClaren

Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (#QP2023) Featured Review of Mirror Girls by Kelly McWilliams

Mirror Girls by Kelly McWilliams
Publisher: Hachette
Imprint: Little, Brown and Company
Release date: February 8, 2022
ISBN: 9780759553873

After the death of their grandmothers, two biracial twins, one who appears black and one who has been passing as white, are reunited in Jim Crow Georgia. Nana’s dying wish is to be buried back home in Georgia so civil rights activist Charlie leaves Harlem to return to her familial roots, the place where her parents were killed. Magnolia was raised as a white southern belle but as her grandmother lies dying she reveals a family secret – Magnolia is biracial. As she learns the truth a powerful curse is unleashed and Magnolia can no longer see herself in mirrors.  Surrounded by the ghosts of dead slaves and murdered family members, the girls must break the curse that has the power to kill them and confront the racism that tries to tear them apart.

Continue reading Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (#QP2023) Featured Review of Mirror Girls by Kelly McWilliams