Sloatsburg Library Teen Scene: Great Graphic Novels for Teens

All the world's a stage . . . but what happens behind the curtain is pure magic--literally! When Jory transfers to an all-boys private high school, he's taken in by the only ones who don't treat him like a new kid, the lowly stage crew known as the Backstagers. Not only does he gain great, lifetime friends, Jory is also introduced to an entire magical world that lives beyond the curtain. With the unpredictable twists and turns of the underground world, the Backstagers venture into the unknown, determined to put together the best play their high school has ever seen. James Tynion IV (Detective Comics, The Woods) teams up with artist Rian Sygh (Munchkin, Stolen Forest) for an incredibly earnest story that explores what it means to find a place to fit in when you're kinda an outcast.

Once they were heroes, but the age of heroes has long since passed. Banished from existence by a multiversal crisis, the old champions of Spiral City - Abraham Slam, Golden Gail, Colonel Weird, Madame Dragonfly, and Barbalien - now lead simple lives in an idyllic, timeless farming village from which there is no escape! But as they employ all of their super abilities to free themselves from this strange purgatory, a mysterious stranger works to bring them back into action for one last adventure! Collects Black Hammer #1-#6.

Jensen, a daydreaming artist obsessed with sunspots and NASA, navigates middle school, bullies and math!

A sarcastic teenager with the powers of cupid unleashes her preternatural matchmaking abilities on her school with hilarious and charming results. Jonesy is a self-described "cool dork" who spends her time making zines nobody reads, watching anime, and listening to riot grrrl bands and 1D simultaneously. But she has a secret nobody knows. She has the power to make people fall in love! Anyone. With anything. She's a cupid in plaid. With a Tumblr. There's only one catch--it doesn't work on herself. She's gonna have to find love the old-fashioned way, and in the meantime, figure out how to distract herself from the real emotions she inevitably has to face when her powers go wrong...  Written by Sam Humphries and illustrated by Caitlin Rose Boyle, this charming tale is sure to appeal to romantics and cynics alike.

Jonesy has the power to make people fall in love! Anyone. With anything.There's only one catch--it doesn't work on herself! She doesn't sling arrows, only attitude! The adventures of Jonesy, the teenage cupid with a penchant for plaid, continue here. Stuff still rules, High School still sucks, and getting anyone to fall in love with her is still impossible! Written by Sam Humphries (Guardians of the Galaxy, Green Lanterns) and illustrated by rising star Caitlin Rose Boyle.

Jonesy has the power to make people fall in love! Anyone. With anything.There's only one catch--it doesn't work on herself! She doesn't sling arrows, only attitude! The adventures of Jonesy, the teenage cupid with a penchant for plaid, continue here. Stuff still rules, High School still sucks, and getting anyone to fall in love with her is still impossible! Written by Sam Humphries (Guardians of the Galaxy, Green Lanterns) and illustrated by rising star Caitlin Rose Boyle.

Alfonso Jones can't wait to play the role of Hamlet in his school's hip-hop rendition of theclassic Shakespearean play. He also wants to let his best friend, Danetta, know how he reallyfeels about her. But as he is buying his first suit, an off-duty police officer mistakes a clotheshanger for a gun, and he shoots Alfonso.When Alfonso wakes up in the afterlife, he's on a ghost train guided by well-known victimsof police shootings, who teach him what he needs to know about this subterranean spiritualworld. Meanwhile, Alfonso's family and friends struggle with their grief and seek justice forAlfonso in the streets. As they confront their new realities, both Alfonso and those he lovesrealize the work that lies ahead in the fight for justice.In the first graphic novel for young readers to focus on police brutality and the Black LivesMatter movement, as in Hamlet, the dead shall speak'and the living yield even more surprises.

Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller Winner of the 2018 Eisner Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium Octavia E. Butler's bestselling literary science-fiction masterpiece, Kindred, now in graphic novel format.   More than 35 years after its release, Kindred continues to draw in new readers with its deep exploration of the violence and loss of humanity caused by slavery in the United States, and its complex and lasting impact on the present day. Adapted by celebrated academics and comics artists Damian Duffy and John Jennings, this graphic novel powerfully renders Butler's mysterious and moving story, which spans racial and gender divides in the antebellum South through the 20th century.    Butler's most celebrated, critically acclaimed work tells the story of Dana, a young black woman who is suddenly and inexplicably transported from her home in 1970s California to the pre-Civil War South. As she time-travels between worlds, one in which she is a free woman and one where she is part of her own complicated familial history on a southern plantation, she becomes frighteningly entangled in the lives of Rufus, a conflicted white slaveholder and one of Dana's own ancestors, and the many people who are enslaved by him.   Held up as an essential work in feminist, science-fiction, and fantasy genres, and a cornerstone of the Afrofuturism movement, there are over 500,000 copies of Kindred in print. The intersectionality of race, history, and the treatment of women addressed within the original work remain critical topics in contemporary dialogue, both in the classroom and in the public sphere.   Frightening, compelling, and richly imagined, Kindred offers an unflinching look at our complicated social history, transformed by the graphic novel format into a visually stunning work for a new generation of readers.

A graphic memoir of eating disorders, abuse andrecovery. Like most kids, Katie was a pickyeater. She'd sit at the table in silent protest, hide uneaten toast in herbedroom, listen to parental threats that she'd have to eat it for breakfast. But in any life a set of circumstance cancollide, and normal behavior might soon shade into something sinister, somethingdeadly. One day you can find yourself being told you have two weeks tolive. Lighter Than My Shadow is a hand-drawnstory of struggle and recovery, a trip into the black heart of a taboo illness,an exposure of those who are so weak as to prey on the weak, and an inspirationto anybody who believes in the human power to endure towardshappiness.

oWhen a cuddly Canadian comes to call, Yaichi-a single Japanese dad-is forced to confront his painful past. With his young daughter Kana leading the way, he gradually rethinks his assumptions about what makes a family. Renowned manga artist Gengoroh Tagame turns his stunning draftsmanship to a story very different from his customary fare, to delightful and heartwarming effect.o -Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home Yaichi is a work-at-home suburban dad in contemporary Tokyo, married to wife Natsuki, father to young daughter Kana. Their lives are suddenly upended with the arrival at their doorstep of a hulking, affable Canadian named Mike Flanagan, who declares himself the widower of Yaichi's estranged gay twin, Ryoji. Mike is on a quest to explore Ryoji's past, and the family reluctantly but dutifully takes him in. What follows is an unprecedented, revelatory look at and journey into the largely still-closeted Japanese gay culture- how it's been affected by the West, and how the next generation has the chance to change the preconceptions of and prejudices against it. (With black-and-white illustrations throughout; part of the Pantheon Graphic Novel series)

A Junior Library Guild Selection 2017 Amazon Top Twenty Children's Book of the Year 2017 Amazon Best Book of the month December 2017 Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2017 Texas Maverick Graphic Novel 2017 Northern California Indie Bookseller Association Long-List Title Priyanka Das has so many unanswered questions: Why did her mother abandon her home in India years ago? What was it like there? And most importantly, who is her father, and why did her mom leave him behind? But Pri's mom avoids these questions--the topic of India is permanently closed. 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? To learn the truth, Pri must travel farther than she's ever dared and find the family she never knew. In this heartwarming graphic novel debut, Nidhi Chanani weaves a tale about the hardship and self-discovery that is born from juggling two cultures and two worlds. This title has Common Core connections.

Three years ago an event destroyed the small city of Poughkeepsie, forever changing reality within its borders. Uncanny manifestations and lethal dangers now await anyone who enters the Spill Zone.The Spill claimed Addison's parents and scarred her little sister, Lexa, who hasn't spoken since. Addison provides for her sister by photographing the Zone's twisted attractions on illicit midnight rides. Art collectors pay top dollar for these bizarre images, but getting close enough for the perfect shot can mean death--or worse. When an eccentric collector makes a million-dollar offer, Addison breaks her own hard-learned rules of survival and ventures farther than she has ever dared. Within the Spill Zone, Hell awaits--and it seems to be calling Addison's name.