The 10 coolest graphic novels to add to your reading list
No time to read lengthy fiction on top of your schoolwork, extra-curriculars and after-school job? Pick up a graphic novel! Books written and illustrated in the style of a comic strip, graphic novels are gaining in popularity as everyone from children and young adults to teachers and librarians discover them to be a neat and fresh way to tell stories. Below, the ones we can’t wait to crack open.
1. Around the World by Matt Phelan, $17.56 on amazon
The true story of three nineteenth-century travelers who, inspired by the novel Around the World in Eighty Days, embarked on their own solo around the world adventures.
2. Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgal, $14.06 on chapters.indigo.ca
Lonely, angsty teen Anya falls down a well and makes friends with a ghost. This makes her life a little more bearable but only for a little while.
3. Freshman: Tales of 9th Grade Obsessions, Revelations, and Other Nonsense by Corrine Mucha, $10.47 on amazon
Annie’s having a tough time as a high school freshman: she sucks at sports, is totally in love with her best friend’s older brother and can’t help wishing she were anyone else but herself. Then she gets cast in the school play as an ugly old lady which makes it official – high school is NOT at all what it’s cracked up to be.
4. Wandering Son, Books One, Two & Three by Takako Shimura, $15.92 on chapters.indigo.ca
A thoughtful coming-of-age trilogy about a boy who wants to be a girl and a girl who wants to be a boy.
5. The Many Adventures of Miranda Mercury V. 1: Time Runs Out by Lee Ferguson and Brandon Thomas, $21.40 on amazon
The galaxy’s greatest adventurer discovers that she only has one year left to live.
6. Ivy by Sarah Oleksyk, $15.12 on amazon
Ivy is a teenager who dreams of escaping her boring small town and becoming a painter. But it’s only after she leaves that she discovers an annoying truth: while she may be able to run away from home, she can’t seem to run away from herself.
7. Zahra’s Paradise by Amir and Khalil, $16.60 on amazon
Weaving together fiction and real events, this is the story of the search for young protester Mehdi, set in the aftermath of the 2009 Iran elections. Mehdi has disappeared into an extrajudicial twilight zone and his mother and brother set out to find him, using
tradition and modern technology to explore the void into which Mehdi has vanished.
8. The Last Dragon by Rebecca Guay and Jane Yolen, $20.79 on chapters.indigo.ca
A fantastical adventure story about a healer’s daughter and a would-be hero and their fight against dragons on the islands of May.
9. Excalibur: The Legend of King Arthur by Sam Hart and Tony Lee,$11.24 on amazon
Black magic, an evil sorceress, dark prophesies and malicious fairies – the magical legend of King Arthur in graphic novel form.
10. Page by Paige by Laura Lee Gulledge,$10.33 on amazon
Paige Turner has just moved to New York with her family and everything is new and scary. She has trouble adjusting to her new life in the big city and tries to make sense of it on the pages of her sketchbook.