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.

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.