Grab a Graphic Novel: Whimsical Wonder
We’re highlighting our graphic novel collection by exploring tried-and-true cartoon classics, as well as fresh-off-the-press new releases. Pick up a graphic novel today!
Our Grab a Graphic Novel blog series presents our latest reads from the aforementioned collection. Available at all five libraries, the collection encompasses comics, manga and, of course, graphic novels — anything that uses pictures as an intrinsic part of the storytelling process.
This month, we’re highlighting graphic novels that offer a sense of whimsy. Whether it be through their light and cheery artistic style or their inspired storylines, these graphic novels will brighten your day and make you think about life, love and your place in the world.
Junior and Young Adult Graphic Novels
Lint Boy by Aileen Leijten
Description: Lint Boy and Lint Bear live in their cozy dryer home, carefree and happy–until the day Lint Bear is snatched away by a cruel woman with a vendetta against dolls! Can Lint Boy unite a group of lost dolls to vanquish the villain and save his brother? This magical story is showcased in the stunning full-color art of this young graphic novel. A gently gothic, age-appropriate blend of Roald Dahl and Tim Burton, Lint Boy is a compelling tale of good vs. evil that will leave readers spellbound.
Newsprints by Ru Xu
Description: Blue is an orphan who disguises herself as a newsboy. There’s a war going on, and girls are expected to help the struggling economy by selling cookies. But Blue loves living and working at the Bugle, the only paper in town that tells the truth. And what’s printed in the newspapers now matters more than ever.
Bluffton: My Summers with Buster by Matt Phelan
Description: The year is 1908, and a troupe of vaudeville performers has arrived in sleepy Muskegon, Michigan to spend the summer. Young Henry Harrison is fascinated with the animals and performers, but mostly with a slapstick performer his own age named Buster Keaton, who is also a master prankster and loves to play baseball.
Kodi by Jared Cullum
Description: Katya and her Meema are spending another normal summer at their cottage in Alaska, when a chance accident leaves Katya face-to-face with the biggest creature she’s ever seen… an enormous Kodiak bear, soon to become her closest friend. But when Katya must suddenly return home to Seattle, the two are torn apart, leaving Kodi to do whatever it takes to reunite with his fragile human friend. It’s a wild adventure packed with breathtaking views, new companions, and danger around every turn.
Long Tail Kitty by Lark Pien
Description: Meet Long Tail Kitty and his friends and neighbors: a bee who’s friends with the flowers (at least the nice ones); Good Tall Mouse, who likes ice skating; and a family of aliens who drop in for one night of fun. The warmth and visual wit of these stories are sure to win over young readers, who will want to return again and again to Long Tail Kitty’s house, by the hill, by the meadow, by the lake, by the river, by the town, by the bridge on the street where he lives.
Peanut by Ayun Halliday & Paul Hoppe
Description: Nervous about starting her sophomore year at a new high school, Sadie decides to make herself more interesting by claiming to be allergic to peanuts, but her lie quickly spirals out of control.
Watersnakes by Tony Sandoval
Description: Mila is a solitary teenager ready to put another boring summer vacation behind her until she meets Agnes, an adventurous girl who turns out to be a ghost. And not just a regular ghost, but one carrying the essence of an ancient fallen king and a mouth full of teeth that used to be his guardian warriors.
Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker
Description: Nova Huang knows more about magic than your average teen witch. She works at her grandmothers? bookshop, where she helps them loan out spell books and investigate any supernatural occurrences in their New England town. One fateful night, she follows reports of a white wolf into the woods, and she comes across the unexpected: her childhood crush, Tam Lang, battling a horse demon in the woods. As a werewolf, Tam has been wandering from place to place for years, unable to call any town home. Pursued by dark forces eager to claim the magic of wolves and out of options, Tam turns to Nova for help. Their latent feelings are rekindled against the backdrop of witchcraft, untested magic, occult rituals, and family ties both new and old in this enchanting tale of self-discovery.
Garbage Night by Jen Lee
Description: In a barren and ransacked backyard, a dog named Simon lives with his two best friends: a raccoon and a deer. The unlikely gang spends their days looting the desolate supermarket and waiting for the return of the hallowed garbage night but week after week, the bins remain empty. While scavenging one day, the trio meet Barnaby, another abandoned dog who tells them about the other town where humans are still rumored to live. Spurred on by hunger and the promise of food, the trio joins up with Barnaby and set off into the unknown. With echoes of post-war, derelict places, Garbage Night explores how animals may internalize their changing environment and express their thoughts, fears and hopes.
I am not okay with this by Charles Forsman
Description: Sydney appears to be a normal, rudderless, suburban 15-year-old freshman. But she harbors a secret that threatens to overwhelm her.
The Phantom Twin by Lisa Brown
Description: Isabel and Jane are the Extraordinary Peabody Sisters, conjoined twins in a traveling carnival freak show–until an ambitious surgeon tries to separate them and fails, causing Jane’s death. Isabel has lost an arm and a leg but gained a ghostly companion: her dead twin is now her phantom limb. Haunted, altered, and alone for the first time, can Isabel build a new life that’s truly her own?
Adult Graphic Novels
Sensitive Creatures by Mandy Ord
Description: Wonderfully off-beat, Mandy Ord’s stories reveal with poetic power the intimate, mundane and extraordinary moments in everyday urban life.
The Squirrel Mother : Stories by Megan Kelso
Description: While a young girl thoughtlessly destroys a dress her mother spent hours sewing for her, a squirrel mother, trapped by the household chores she does for her children, decides to abandon them. This is the opening story in Kelso’s newest collection of graphic short stories.
Go To Sleep (I Miss You): Cartoons from the Fog of New Parenthood by Lucy Knisley
Description: Lucy Knisley is one of the great memoirists of the graphic novel format. Following the completion of her pregnancy memoir Kid Gloves (and the birth of her baby), Lucy embarked on a new project: documenting new motherhood in short, spontaneous little cartoons, which she posted on her Instagram, and which quickly gained her a huge cult following among other moms.
Octopus Pie by Meredith Gran
Description: Follow the adventures of two Brooklynites–Eve, a nerdy acerbic twentysomething, and her room-mate Hanna, a long-lost friend who’s blossomed into happy-go-lucky stoner. Crazed childhood rivals, art world hipsters, Eve’s meddlesome mom, and romances past and present crowd their odd yet ordinary lives.
SP4RX by Wren McDonald
Description: Set in a future where a class system has emerged, the world is divided into four levels, with the elite ruling from the extravagant top level. SP4RX, a young hacker who lives off grid, hacks into corporations and sells stolen data to wealthy buyers on the black market– just your average thief. Mega corporation Structus Industries introduces a welfare program called the Elpis Program, which allows the working class to apply for Cybernetic implants to make workers more efficient. On the surface, it seems like a program to empower the poor and allow them to rise to the ranks of the elite. But SP4RX soon discovers all is not as it seems as he and Structus are set on a collision course with the fate of humanity at stake.
We Are Here Forever by Michelle Gish
Description: What if humans were replaced by something nicer? The human race has vanished, replaced by innocent, playful, purple creatures called the Puramus. But are they as harmless as they seem?
As we talk about different graphic novels, we can only feature a fraction of the awesome works within our collection. We’d love to hear from you as well! What is your favorite manga graphic novel? Leave a comment with your own recommendation!
For more reading suggestions, check out the posts in our Plano Reads tag. We also have several virtual Book Clubs to appeal to any kind of reader.
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