The Cute Girl Network by Greg Means and M.K. Reed

Jane has just moved to town when a skateboard accident turns into a date with the cute guy who sells soup on the corner. Jack and Jane get along great; they're both young, broke, and enjoying a laid-back lifestyle. But Jack has dated a lot of the women that Jane knows, and their bad experiences with Jack lead them to form the Cute Girl Network, which is dedicated to spreading the word about Jack and his many shortcomings. Will Jack shape up for Jane? Will Jane take her friends' advice? Will Jane and Jack break up? Living life according to yourself is hard to do, but sometimes it's necessary.

Appeal: adult relationships, friendship, good female characters

Art: Black and white, smooth lines

Text: Conversational, casual

Other: M.K. Reed writes the webcomic About A Bull.

Awards: M.K. Reed's Americus was a YALSA Great Graphic Novel for Teens in 2012.

Means, Greg. Reed, M. K. Flood, Joe. The Cute Girl Network. New York : First Second, 2013 . Print.

Elmer by Gerry Alanguilan

On one ordinary day more than 20 years ago, all at once, every chicken on Earth gained sentience and human-level intelligence. This is Filipino chicken Elmer's story, told from a journal left to his son, Jake. From those first hellish days hiding from furious humans, to the fight for human rights, to his middle years trying to provide for his family, Elmer dealt with traumatic experiences and tried his best throughout his life. This story is so real you can feel the heat of the fires and hear Elmer's panic during the burning of the slaughterhouse where he gained sentience.

Appeal: Stories about discrimination, chickens, realistic, racism

Art: Black and white, realistic, grounded

Text: Narrative, argumentative

Other: The story was inspired by the chickens that wandered the streets of Gerry Alanguilan's hometown of San Pablo City during his childhood. Elmer was originally published in the Phillippines, and was released in English and French in 2010.

Awards: Elmer won the Prix Ouest-France Quai des Bulles and the Prix Asien de la Critique ACBE in 2011.

Alanguilan, Gerry. Elmer: A Comic Book. San Jose, CA : SLG Pub. ; 2010. Prin

Pregnant Butch: Nine Long Months Spent in Drag by A.K. Summers

Pregnant Butch: Nine Long Months Spend in Drag

When A.K. Summers first decided to get pregnant, she was worried about pregnancy's effect on her identity as butch: pregnancy is strongly tied to femininity, ties which Summers has worked her whole life to break. This is the exploration of the outside and internal pressures on her gender identity that being a pregnant masculine female creates, as well as being a universal pregnancy story. Summers asks big questions and doesn't always find the answers:

"Does it matter if pregnancy is a wrong state for me? So what if I don't find it deeply satisfying to get in touch with my essential womanhood? Isn't it all right to permit some disjuncture to intrude on one's sense of self?"

Appeal: memoir, pregnancy, lesbians, gender

Art: impressionistic, black and white, stereotyped

Text: Narrative, vernacular

This is Summers' first full-length graphic novel. She has previously published comics online through Activate Comix.

Summers, A. K. Pregnant Butch: Nine Long Months Spent in Drag. Berkeley, CA : Soft Skull Press, 2014. Print.

Johnny Hiro: Half-Asian, All Hero by Fred Chao

Johnny Hiro: Half-Asian, All Hero

Johnny Hiro loves his girlfriend Mayumi and tolerates his job at a sushi restaurant, but the monster that breaks through their apartment and takes Mayumi sort of puts a cramp in his style. So do the ninjas that try to steal the fine lobster he scored from the fish market. And the ronin that accost Johnny and Mayumi at the opera. Johnny's style consists mostly of frantically trying to survive, whether his current problem is assassins, rival restaurateurs, or his doubts about life in the big city. Through all of this Johnny and Mayumi lean on each other for support, and get a little help from the ubiquitous Mayor Bloomberg.

Appeal: Adult, adult life, kaiju, making it in the big city, humor, adult relationships

Art: Black and white, fine detail, dynamic

Text: Narrative, philosophical

Other: Johnny Hiro was included in The Best American Comics 2010.

Chao, Fred. Johnny Hiro: Half-Asian, All Hero. Richmond, Va. : AdHouse Books, 2009. Print.

Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong by Prudence Shen and Faith Erin Hicks

Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong

Charlie captains the basketball team, tries to hide from his cheerleader ex-girlfriend, and avoids his mom's phone calls. His next door neighbor Nate leads the robot club, drives Charlie crazy, and tends to bite off more than he can chew. When the cheerleaders pit an unknowing Charlie against Nate in the race for class president, the competition escalates until it all ends in disaster for both the robot club and the cheerleaders: as punishment, the principal takes away all funding for both groups. Now the robotics club and the cheerleaders must team up to reach their goals, and they drag a reluctant Charlie along for the bumpy ride. It is available online at nothingcanpossiblygowrong.com.

Appeal: Humor, high school, good female characters, friendship, robots, cheerleaders

Art: Bold lines, expressive postures, gray scale

Text: Conversational, dramatic. Teenager dialogue, lots of arguing.

Other: Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong was originally serialized online, and was printed in 2013.

Awards: Faith Erin Hicks won a Joe Shuster Award for Favorite Creator - English Language Publication in 2008 for her work Zombies Calling.

Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang and Lark Pien

Boxers & Saints

Little Bao's village is terrorized by Westerners claiming to be missionaries working for God, who steal and rob the Chinese peasants. Little Bao is inspired by his own visions of Chinese gods and legends to stand up to the Westerners, and to fight back.

Four-Girl was born doubly unlucky as the fourth girl in her family: the number four is bad luck, and her family has no use for yet another daughter. Her home life is miserable, so when Christian missionaries working in China give her a safe place to belong, she converts and goes to live with them. Visions of Joan of Arc guide her in her new life.

Four-Girl's and Little Bao's lives take very different paths, intersecting twice and ending the same way, governed by religious and political wars, conflict, and intolerance. Readers who enjoyed American Born Chinese will find value in this book as well.

Appeal: history, China, religion, war, high school and up

Art: Bold, definite, fantastical, symbolic

Text: Elements of traditional Chinese storytelling, mostly narration.

Other: Gene Luen Yang has also written American Born Chinese, Level Up, and The Eternal Smile: Three Stories. American Born Chinese wong the 2007 Michael L. Printz Award, the 2007 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album, and the 2006 Reuben Award for Best Comic Book. It was an ALA Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens in 2007.

Awards: Boxers & Saints had a starred review in Kirkus Reviews and Publisher's Weekly. In 2013 it won the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Young Adult Literature and was a Booklist Top Ten Religion and Spirituality Book for Youth.

Bake Sale by Sara Varon

Bake Sale by Sara Varon

Cupcake runs his own bakery and plays drums in a band with his friends, but lately he's been feeling like he's stuck in a rut. When his friend Eggplant invites him along on a trip to Turkey, Cupcake is motivated to work extra hard to earn the money for a plane ticket. His extra work interferes with band practice, though, and he is replaced by an avocado. Then Eggplant loses his job and can't go on the trip. Cupcake has to decide what to do, and what will make him happiest. Several of Cupcake's recipes are included in the book. Readers who enjoy this book might enjoy Varon's other works with similar themes, such as Robot Dreams and Odd Duck.

Appeal: Food, cute, kids, working hard, friendship

Art: Bright and cheery, anthropomorphic

Text: Simple, conversational

Other: Bake Sale was recommended by the ALA in 2012 as part of any library's core collection of graphic novels.

Awards: Sara Varon won a Parent's Choice Silver Honor Award in 2006 for her work Chicken and Cat.

Babymouse: Dragonslayer by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm

Babymouse: Dragonslayer

Babymouse is having trouble in math. None of the numbers make sense and even her big imagination isn't helping. Then her math teacher recruits her for the mathletes team, figuring that a little competition and some encouragement from her teammates will help Babymouse succeed. Together they learn about math, and come competition time, Babymouse uses her new skills along with her copious imagination to overcome the dragon that is mathematics.

Appeal: Imagination, good female characters, animals, math, overcoming obstacles in school

Art: Monochromatic, exaggerated, anthropomorphic

Text: Dramatic, fantastical

Other: Jennifer Holm was a television producer before she began writing children's books. Her other series the Stink Files, Squish, and Boston Jane.

Awards: Jennifer Holm has won three Newbery Honor Awards, for Turtle in Paradise, Our Only May Amelia, and Penny From Heaven.

Holm, Jennifer L. Holm, Matthew. Babymouse: Dragonslayer. New York : Random House Children's Books, 2009. Print.

Little Mouse Gets Ready: A Toon Book by Jeff Smith

Little Mouse Gets Ready: A Toon Book

Little Mouse's mother is going to take him and his siblings to play in the barn, but first Little Mouse must get ready! He works hard to put on all of his clothes correctly. The underwear's tag goes in back; make sure you match up buttons to the right buttonholes; and put on socks before shoes. Once he's all dressed, Little Mouse's mother surprises him with a reminder: mice don't wear clothes!

Appeal: Animals, getting dressed, kids, beginning readers

Art: Beautiful lines, bright color

Text: Instructional, simple

Other: Part of the Toon Book series, which introduces the comics format to young readers. The series

Awards: Was a Theodore Seuss Geisel Award Honor Book in 2010.

Smith, Jeff. Little Mouse Gets Ready: A Toon Book. New York : Toon Books, 2009. Print.

Drama by Raina Telgemeier

Drama

Callie loves theater-- her singing is terrible, but she has great ambitions for the sets onstage her middle school play. When two cute brothers become involved in the drama club, Callie finds herself in a whirl of crushes, misunderstandings, and confusing feelings. Callie likes one of the brothers, but does he like her back? Is one of the brothers gay? Why won't one annoying boy leave Callie alone? And how can she make the prop cannon work in the third act? This is a funny and light-hearted look at middle school drama that nonetheless treats the characters' troubles as important and worthy of consideration.

Appeal: Middle school, theater, good female characters, queer representation

Art: Bright, enthusiastic, expressive

Text: Simple, conversational. Almost no narration.

Other: Raina Telgemeier attended the School of Visual Arts, and has worked on graphic novels such as the Baby-Sitters Club series and X-Men: Misfits.

Awards: Raina Telgemeier won an Eisner Award and was honored by the Boston Globe-Horn Awards for her previous work, Smile.

The Action Bible: God's Redemptive Story by Sergio Cariello and Doug Mauss

The Action Bible: God's Redemptive Story

More than 200 stories adapted from the Bible into full-color comics, with an emphasis on drama. The stories are straightforward, told in a combination of contemporary and traditional Biblical language. The story of Elijah is particularly compelling, following his life as a prophet through difficult times (being blamed for a drought) and good times (ascending to heaven on a fiery chariot).

Appeal: Christianity, the Bible, history, short stories

Art: Colorful, realistic, cinematic

Text: A mix of traditional King James text and contemporary speech. The builders of the Tower of Babel exclaim "We rule!"

Other: An update of The Picture Bible. Sergio Cariello read The Picture Bible throughout his youth in Brazil. Cariello has illustrated for DC and Marvel, and attended the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art and the Word of Life Bible Institute.

Awards: In 2011 The Action Bible won the Evangelical Christian Publishers Christian Book Award in its children's category.

Cariello, Sergio and Doug Mauss.The Action Bible: God's Redemptive Story. Colorado Springs, Colo. : David C. Cook, 2010. Print.

Prince of Cats by Ron Wimberly

Prince of Cats

Romeo and Juliet is re-imagined in a futuristic, Afro Samurai-like Brooklyn, where the fashions are radical and the gang wars are fought with swords. Tybalt is the main character in this adaptation and the plot follows his role in the larger story, his part in the conflict between Montague and Capulet. The cast is largely black and the dialogue is occasionally, wittily, adapted to the setting.

Appeal: Classics, Shakespeare, action, black representation

Art: Chaotic, colorful, graffiti-like, with manga influences

Text: A stylized synthesis of the original Shakespeare and urban slang.

Other: Ronald Wimberly has also adapted Something Wicked This Way Comes into a graphic novel. He lives in Brooklyn.

Wimberly, Ronald and Ray Bradbury. Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes: The Authorized Adaptation. New York : Hill And Wang, 2011. Print.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Persepolis

The first volume is the author's memoir of her childhood in Iran, just before and after the revolution in the 1980s. Marji was a little girl during the Iranian Revolution, living through several years of war, watching as her freedom to play and learn was curtailed by the religious government. Her family was educated and liberal, and constantly discussed current events, feeding her interest in politics, social class, gender, and religion. Marjane leaves Iran for Austria at the end of the first volume. In the second volumes, she details her disappointing years in Europe, used by a boyfriend, abused by her landlady, alienated by Western culture, and her later return to Iran. Humorous, heartfelt, and biting.

Appeal: History, Iran, female narrator, humor

Art: Dark black and white cartooning, subtly expressive

Text: Political, sharp, reminiscent

Other: Persepolis was originally written in French,  Marjane Satrapi has written another comic about her adult life in Iran, Embroideries, as well as a fairy tale comic, The Sigh. Satrapi wrote and directed the animated film adaptation of her comic in 2007.

Awards: Satrapi has won three Angouleme awards for Persepolis, the Coup de Coeur, the Prize for Scenario, and the Best Comic Book Award, in 2001, 2002, and 2005, respectively. The animated film won several awards of its own.

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. New York : Pantheon Books, 2003. Print.

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis 2: The Story Of A Return. New York : Pantheon Books, 2004. Print.

T-Minus: The Race to the Moon by Jim Ottaviani, Zander Cannon, and Kevin Cannon

T-Minus: The Race to the Moon by Jim Ottaviani, Zander Cannon, and Kevin Cannon

This is the space race between Russia and the United States from the early 1900s until the moon landing, thoroughly researched and distilled into a gripping 60-year story. The story skillfully depicts triumphs and tragedies of scientific breakthroughs and failures. Sidebars add extra information, and suspenseful countdown tells the reader how much time is left until the big moment: first in years, then in days, and finally in seconds. End matter includes some primary sources and and extensive bibliography.

Appeal: Science, the space race, Russia, history, United States. middle school plus

Art: Realistic, understated. Black and white with a rigid panel structure. 

Text: Dense, expository, informative

Other: Writer Jim Ottaviani has written several other non-fiction graphic novels, including Feynman, Wire Mothers: Harry Harlow and the Science of Love, and Suspended in Language: Niels Bohr's Life, Discoveries, and the Century He Shaped.  Artists Kevin Cannon and Zander Cannon have illustrated several other non-fiction graphic novels, including Evolution: The Story of Life on Earth and The Stuff of Life.

Awards: Ottaviani won a Xeric Foundation award in 1997 for his work Two-Fisted Science: Stories About Scientists.

Ottaviani, Jim, Zander Cannon, and Kevin Cannon. T-minus: The Race To The Moon. New York : Aladdin, 2009. Print.

Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas by Jim Ottaviani and Maris Wick

Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas

The intertwined stories of three primatologists recruited by Richard Leakey to study apes in the wild. Leakey recruited these woman based on their aptitude, interest, and gender, as Leakey thought that women made better field observers than men. The book covers parts of the careers of each primatologist: Jane Goodall observed chimpanzees in Tanzania, Dian Fossey studied gorillas in Rwanda, and Birute Galdikas learned about orangutans in Borneo.

Appeal: Primates, animals, historical, science, educational, women in STEM, middle school plus.

Art: Realistic, with depth and emotion

Text: Expository, narrative

Other: Jim Ottaviani has written several non-fiction comics on topics such as Richard Feynman, the space race, and Niels Bohr. Maris Wicks has illustrated children's books and the Adventure Time monthly comic.

Awards: Primates had a starred review in Publisher's Weekly, and won a National Science Teachers Association Award for Outstanding Science Trade Book in 2014.

Ottaviani, Jim. Wicks, Maris. Primates: The Fearless Science Of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, And Biruté Galdikas. New York : First Second, 2013. Print.

Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley

Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley

A memoir about the omnipresence of food in the author's life, from her earliest memories to her early adulthood. Knisley's parents worked as caterers, and she was raised in a variety of food-focused settings influenced by her father's gourmand tastes and her mother's back-to-the-earth lifestyle. The rich color enhances the humorous depictions of a life-long fascination with food. The story of Knisley's childhood vacation in Mexico with minimal parental supervision is particularly funny. Recipes illustrated as comics separate the chapters.

Appeal: Female narrator, mother-daughter relationships, food, cooking, memoir

Art: Bright, colorful, ligne claire

Text: Enthusiastic, conversational, descriptive, narrative

Other: Knisley was born in New York and graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has written another memoir, French Milk, about living in Paris with her mother.

Awards: Relish won an ALA/YALSA Alex Award in 2014. It had a starred review in Kirkus Reviews.

Knisley, Lucy. Relish: My Life In The Kitchen. New York : First Second, 2013. Print.