Summer Reading 2021: Graphic Novels

Companion to: New Kid, by Jerry Craft. Eighth grader Drew Ellis recognizes that he is't afforded the same opportunities, no matter how hard he works, that his privileged classmates at the Riverdale Academy Day School take for granted, and to make matters worse, Drew begins to feel as if his good friend Liam might be one of those privileged kids and is finding it hard not to withdraw, even as their mutual friend Jordan tries to keep their group of friends together.

A graphic novel rendering of the Newbery Medal-winning novel follows the experiences of a young basketball star who confronts a difficult choice between athletics and his talent for rap music. Thanks to their dad, twelve-year-old twin basketball stars Josh and Jordan, are kings on the court. Josh narrates the novel in a combination of exciting play-by-play game details, insightful observations on middle school, and poignant meditations on sibling dynamics and familial love.

Sophomores Abby, Brit, Christine, and Sasha are fed up. Hazelton High never has enough tampons. Or pads. Or adults who will listen. Sick of an administration that puts football before female health, the girls confront a world that shrugs--or worse, squirms--at the thought of a menstruation revolution. They band together to make a change. It’s no easy task, but they have each other’s backs. That is, until one of the girls goes rogue, testing the limits of their friendship and pushing the friends to question the power of their own voices.

Miikwan (Anishinaabe) and Dez (Inninew) are best friends. Together, the teens navigate the challenges of growing up Indigenous in the city; they’re so close, they even completed their Berry Fast together. When Dez’s grandmother becomes too sick, Dez can’t stay with her anymore. With the threat of a group home looming, Dez can’t bring herself to go home and disappears. Miikwan is devastated, and the wound of her missing mother resurfaces. Will Dez’s community find her before it’s too late? Will Miikwan be able to cope if they don’t?

Omar and his younger brother, Hassan, have spent most of their lives in Dadaab, a refugee camp in Kenya. Life is hard there: never enough food, achingly dull, and without access to the medical care Omar knows his nonverbal brother needs. So when Omar has the opportunity to go to school, he knows it might be a chance to change their future . . . but it would also mean leaving his brother, the only family member he has left, every day.

After a terrible political coup usurps their noble house, Hawke and Grayson flee to stay alive and assume new identities, Hanna and Grayce, before joining the Communion of Blue, an order of magical women. As the twins learn more about the Communion, and themselves, they begin to hatch a plan to avenge their family and retake their royal home. While Hawke wants to return to his old life, Grayce struggles to keep the threads of her new life from unraveling, and realizes she wants to stay in the one place that will allow her to finally live as a girl.

Nimona is an impulsive young shapeshifter with a knack for villainy. Lord Ballister Blackheart is a villain with a vendetta. As sidekick and supervillain, Nimona and Lord Blackheart are about to wreak some serious havoc. Their mission: prove to the kingdom that Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin and his buddies at the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics aren't the heroes everyone thinks they are.

For Pri, her mother's homeland can only exist in her imagination. That is, until she find a mysterious pashmina tucked away in a forgotten suitcase. When she wraps herself in it, she is transported to a place more vivid and colorful than any guidebook or Bollywood film. But is this the real India? And what is that shadow lurking in the background?

Tweens Sanity Jones and Tallulah Vega are best friends who live on the space station Wilnik and spend their time causing mischief. When Sanity, a gifted scientist, creates a three-headed kitten named Princess Sparkle, Destroyer of Worlds without permission and Tallulah helps cover it up, their parents are none too happy. Even worse, the kitten escapes and their space station begins to break down, and the girls have to turn their home upside down to find her.

The scene: New York City. The dazzling lights cast shadows that grow ever darker as the glitzy prosperity of the Roaring Twenties screeches to a halt. Enter a cast of familiar characters: a young girl, Samantha White, returning after being sent away by her cruel stepmother, the Queen of the Follies, years earlier; her father, the King of Wall Street, who survives the stock market crash only to suffer a strange and sudden death; seven street urchins, brave protectors for a girl as pure as snow; and a mysterious stock ticker that holds the stepmother in its thrall, churning out ticker tape imprinted with the wicked words "Another ... More Beautiful ... KILL."

Her friends live in fancy houses and their parents can afford to send them to the best summer camps, but Vera’s single mother can’t afford that sort of luxury. There's only one summer camp in her price range—Russian summer camp. Nothing could prepare her for all the "cool girl" drama, endless Russian history lessons, and outhouses straight out of nightmares!

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina's monstrous winds and surging water overwhelmed the protective levees around low-lying New Orleans, Louisiana. Eighty percent of the city flooded, in some places under twenty feet of water. Property damages across the Gulf Coast topped $100 billion. One thousand eight hundred and thirty-three people lost their lives. The tale of this historic storm and the drowning of an American city is one of selflessness, heroism, and courage -- and also of incompetence, racism, and criminality. Don Brown's kinetic art and as-it-happens narrative capture both the tragedy and triumph of one of the worst natural disasters in American history.

Nathan Hale, the author's historical namesake, was America's first spy, a Revolutionary War hero who famously said "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country" before being hanged by the British. In the Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales series, author Nathan Hale channels his namesake to present history's roughest, toughest, and craziest stories in the graphic novel format.

A true daughter of the fearsome O'Malley clan, Grace spent her life wishing to join the fight to keep Henry VIII's armies from invading her homeland of Ireland -- only to be told again and again that the battlefield is no place for a woman. But after English conspirators brutally murder her husband, she can no longer stand idly by. Grace O'Malley takes to the seas and gains a reputation as the Pirate Queen of Ireland and confronts the most powerful woman in England: Queen Elizabeth I.

It's 1953 and the Cold War is on. Communism threatens all that the United States stands for, and America needs every patriot to do their part. So, when a Russian boarder moves into the home of twelve-year-old Jake McCauley, he's on high alert. What does the mysterious Mr. Shubin do with all that photography equipment? Jake's mother says that Mr. Shubin knew Jake's dad, who went missing in action during World War II. But Jake is skeptical; the facts just don't add up. And he's determined to discover the truth--no matter what the risks.