Great graphic novels: Genre finding new fans in children’s literature

As a kid, there was nothing better than my dad driving my sister and me to a magical place in our Illinois river town: Caldwell's Used Books and Comics, where the wooden floors creaked and the penny candy counters beckoned as loudly as the comics. As we walked out with our brown paper bags filled with sugary fun, my dad's mantra echoed at the cash register, “As long as they're reading …”

Back then, comics were purely entertainment with the staples being Marvel, DC, Archie, and Richie Rich. Fast-forward to today where “comics” have elevated to a blossoming genre in both adult and children's literature from recasting the classics, introducing new novels, and even holding a place in non-fiction with memoir and biography.

The Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of the American Library Association whose mission is to expand and strengthen library services ages 12 to 18, posted its 2014 Great Graphic Novels for Teens Nominations recently at Ala.org/yalsa/ggnt/nominations.

Among those on the list are:

“Relish: My Life in the Kitchen”

This graphic memoir by Lucy Knisley (First Second, 2013, $17.99, ages 14 and up), looks back at her life, arranged by vivid “taste-memories,” and asks us to also “remember a time you tasted something that would shape you for years to come.” In a life shaped by her foodie parents' divorce, a childhood move from the cemented streets of Manhattan to a country home in the Hudson Valley where she viscerally experienced where food comes from, and her own inevitable evolution to becoming a foodie herself, we are allowed to share in that life conveyed by her art, stories, and several pictorial recipes that will encourage the most easily-intimidated cooks. Among these recipes are roast lamb, fresh pesto, carbonara, homemade sushi rolls, easy pickles, and more. This book will make you hungry and want to cook.

“Calling Dr. Laura: A Graphic Memoir”

“Calling Dr. Laura: A Graphic Memoir” (Mariner Books, 2013, $16.95, ages 14 and up) is also written by a young woman - Nicole J. Georges - with a raw honesty certain to be appreciated by coming of age teens who might be grappling with revealing their true selves to the ones they love. Georges examines her early childhood and the frightening father figures therein, growing up with the belief that her father died when she was a baby. As the memoir unfolds, a family secret unravels, intertwined with Georges' journey to finding the courage necessary in telling her mother that she is gay, as well as finding a way to forgive her mother's monumental parental mistakes.

“Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas”

Written by Jim Ottaviani and illustrated by Maris Wicks “Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas” (First Second, 2013, $19.99, ages 12 and up) celebrates three pioneering women in the field of biology who followed their passion for chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans, respectively. Privy to never-seen-before social interactions between the once-mystical primates, these courageous, intelligent women amazed the world and provided valuable insight into our hominid lineage. Although Goodall and Fossey initially lacked academic credentials, their mentor and benefactor, the famous British archaeologist Louis Leakey, believed that women made the best naturalists due to their inherent patience, generous spirits, and nonthreatening natures. Ottaviani admits to fictionalizing parts of this pseudo-biography being that “real lives don't behave like stories, complete with tidy beginnings, middles, and ends.” He has done a masterful job showing the emotional and physical strength, sacrifice, and dedication of these phenomenal women and Wicks' art compliments perfectly, helping to capture emotions, drama and humor.

Not on the YALSA list, but one I also enjoyed was Matt Phelan's “Bluffton” (Candlewick Press, 2013, $22.99, ages 9 and up). Set in 1908, this tribute to old vaudeville is a fictitious mix of an invented main character, a boy named Henry, paired with the silent screen star and genius comedian, Buster Keaton, when he was a boy. Set in Muskegon, Mich., over three magical summers, Henry lives for the vaudeville performers' return to The Actor's Colony of Bluffton that the Keatons created and where they actually summered from 1908 to 1938. Playing baseball with Buster and watching Buster's physical stunts that earned him the title of “the human mop” takes small-town Henry beyond the doldrums of his reality and into the captivating world of show biz; yet, ironically, Buster loved nothing more than his small-town summers in Bluffton.

Wendy Henrichs is a children's author living in Iowa City.