Grab a Graphic Novel: Back to School
11 mins read

Grab a Graphic Novel: Back to School

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, as everyone heads back to school, we’re taking a look at some of our favorite schoolyard adventures! From superheroes juggling villains and mid-terms, to monstrous lunch ladies, these graphic novels will help you and your favorite young reader get back into the swing of school life!

Junior Graphic Novels

Marvel super hero adventures: Captain Marvel, first day of school!

Place Hold

Description: EARTH’S MIGHTIEST HERO TEAMS UP WITH SPIDER-MAN IN A BRAND-NEW ALL-AGES ADVENTURE! Carol Danvers is one of the most powerful super heroes on Earth. She’s led Alpha Flight and the Avengers, and prevented more alien invasions than you can count. But she’s about to hit big trouble — and even the mightiest heroes need help sometimes! Good thing there’s a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man swinging around! Meet Captain Marvel before she hits the big screen — and find out what happens when two very different heroes have to work together!


Just Beyond: Scare School

Place Hold

Description: Surviving middle school is hard enough but when Jess, Josh, and Marco encounter a strange and deadly creature wandering the halls of The Scare School, it leads them to a sinister secret in the boiler room…


School for extraterrestrial girls. 1, Girl on fire

Place Hold

Description: Tara Smith’s parents are super strict with all their rules and routines, and Tara is a dutiful daughter. Rule #1: No friends her own age. Rule #2: keep her bracelet on, or else. But when she breaks her routine—and then loses her bracelet—she’s in trouble.


Animal Academy: Hakobune Hakusho, Volume 1

Place Hold

Description: After being rejected from every high school she tried to enroll in due to her bad grades, Neko is finally accepted by a mysterious school called Morimori. Now Neko must pretend to be a magical cat and not allow any of the other students to find out her secret.


New Monster in School

Place Hold

Description: Being the new kid at school is never easy, especially when you’re a monster! Luckily, in Transylmania, the other kids are monsters too.


Buffy the Vampire Slayer. New School Nightmare

Place Hold

Description: Buffy Summers is just like any other student…except for the part where she’s also a secret vampire slayer. In every generation, one girl is granted great strength to stand against the forces of darkness. Of course, power doesn’t matter when it comes to eating lunch alone, getting picked on by the popular kids, or having way too much homework.


Middle School Misadventures

Place Hold

Description: Newell is always getting into trouble–whether it’s showing up tardy for most of the year, or mocking his teachers while authoritarian Mr. Todd is standing right behind him. When disaster strikes and Newell finds himself on track to summer school, he’s given one last minute option to get out of it–participating in the upcoming Talent Show. The only problem is that he doesn’t technically have a talent to show. Yikes.


Young Adult Graphic Novels

Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors

Place Hold

Description: Welcome to Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors, a top secret academy for the children of the world’s greatest super villains to learn the trade. Join us as Kid Nefarious, Mummy Girl, Martian Jones, Ghost Girl, and the infamous Skull brothers unearth the School’s and their parent’s hidden past.


Yu-gi-oh GX

Place Hold

Description: Considered a slacker by his peers, Jaden battles teachers and students alike to make his mark in the Duel World. Can he bring his low-level dorm, Slifer Red, to the top of the deck? Or will the champions in the Obelisk Blue dorm hang onto their winning hand?


Attack on Titan Junior High

Place Hold

Description: A spin-off series to the number one bestseller in Japan. Eren and Mikasa enter a new school– Titan Junior High! However, Eren’s hated Titans for years– can he get along with his new (harmless?) classmates? Featuring all of the characters from the main series as you’ve never seen them before, this series is sure to delight fans of Attack on Titan with a human vs. Titan volleyball match, a Titan rock band, and much more!


Generation X, Vol. 1: Natural Selection

Place Hold

Description: The Xavier Institute for Mutant Education and Outreach has opened its doors, and is ready to foster the next generation of heroes and diplomats! But this time around, the X-Men recognize an unfortunate truth: not all mutants are created equal. Some mutants are just not made to fight Sentinels or serve as ambassadors on behalf of their kind. Some mutants will be lucky just to survive another day in a world that hates and fears them. These are the students who should be kept out of harm’s way when the Purifiers target the campus! And who better to mentor mutantkind’s lovable losers through life out of the limelight…than perpetual sidekick Jubilee! But will her Generation X survive the experience?!


Girl Got Game

Place Hold

Description: Enjoy a comedy romance graphic novel from the popular Tokyopop collection. See what happens when a girl is disguised as a boy so she can play on a famous boys’ basketball team. Kyo may want to date a boy instead of becoming one, but she’s not entirely unhappy when she also becomes roommates with her rival on the courts!


Negima! Magister Negi Magi

Place Hold

Description: Ten-year-old prodigy Negi Springfield, has just graduated from magic academy. He dreams of becoming a master wizard. Instead he’s sent to Japan to teach English . . . at an all-girls high school! All the students are delighted with their cute new teacher-except for Asuna, who resents Negi for replacing the teacher she secretly has a crush on. Although he is forbidden to display his magical powers, sometimes Negi can’t resist. And when Asuna discovers Negi’s secret, she vows to make his life as difficult as possible- just the thing to prepare Negi for the challenges of life as a master wizard!


Bart Simpson Breaks Out

Place Hold

Description: Bart and his pals are holding nothing back! First, the sons of The Legitimate Businessman’s Social Club (aka the Mafia) take over Springfield Elementary, and they have their sights set on recruiting Bart as their newest member. And when Lisa applies her study habits to the art of pranking, she gives Bart a healthy dose of competition for the title of “Class Clown.” Then, Bartman tangles with an eight-baby-wielding villain named Dr. Octuplets. Also, Martin Prince makes a move up the social ladder, Homer offers Maggie the moon, and Principal Skinner resorts to desperate measures to contain the force that is . . . Bart Simpson!


Adult Graphic Novels

Deadly Class, Volume 1: Reagan Youth

Place Hold

Description: It’s 1987. Marcus Lopez hates school. His grades suck. The jocks are hassling his friends. He can’t focus in class. But the jocks are the children of Joseph Stalin’s top assassin, the teachers are members of an ancient league of assassins, the class he’s failing is “Dismemberment 101,” and his crush has a double-digit body count. Welcome to the most brutal high school on earth, where the world’s top crime families send the next generation of assassins to be trained. Murder is an art. Killing is a craft. At Kings Dominion School for the Deadly Arts, the dagger in your back isn’t always metaphorical.


Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei 1, The power of negative thinking

Place Hold

Description: Nozomu Itoshiki is depressed. Very depressed. He’s certifiably suicidal, but he’s also the beloved schoolteacher of a class of unique students, each charming in her own way: The stalker. The shut-in. The obsessive-compulsive. The girl who comes to class every day with strange bruises. And Kafuka, the most optimistic girl in the world, who knows that every cloud has a silver lining. For all of them, it’s a special time, when the right teacher can have a lasting positive effect on their lives. But is that teacher Itoshiki, a.k.a. Zetsubou-sensei, who just wants to find the perfect place to die?


The Last of Us: American Dreams

Place Hold

Description: Nineteen years ago, a parasitic fungal outbreak killed the majority of the world’s population. In one of the few remaining quarantine zones, thirteen-year-old Ellie begins her new life as a ward of a military boarding school, where a friendship with fellow student Riley leads to her first trip into the outside world. Beyond the walls of the regimented civil order they know, Ellie and Riley are soon confronted with the violent way of life of the insurgent group the Fireflies–and with the monstrous victims of infection!


Ender’s Game: Command School

Place Hold

Description: Ender Wiggin may be the only hope that humanity has against an alien race that threatens Earth with annihilation. He’s been given his own army, and now commands 40 soldiers in a series of war games in preparation for invasion… and he’s only nine years old! The classic sci-fi story heads to its incredible conclusion as Ender takes control of Dragon Army. But Ender is quickly realizing that the aliens may not be his true enemy in Battle School… his Teachers are.

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 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.

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *