I started reading graphic novels many years ago, after noticing flocks of students making a beeline for the 741.5 section of my school library. Graphic novels pulled kids in during recess and tempted them to make quick library pit stops before heading home—even (maybe especially) the kids who supposedly “didn’t like to read.” My brain got an interesting workout as I learned this new way of reading, and soon I was hooked.
It was a thrill to be among the jury members who selected Gengoroh Tagame’s graphic novel series My Brother’s Husband, translated from Japanese by Anne Ishii, for the inaugural Global Literature in Libraries Initiative Translated YA Book Prize, as well as one of the judges who chose Harmony Becker’s Himawari House as the winner of the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers’ Literature in 2022. Formal awards, after all, can help confer legitimacy on a format that’s already won a place in readers’ hearts.
Each year, the selection of YA graphic novels seems to grow richer and more compelling. These 2024 titles use the format in intriguing ways to tell engaging stories.
Two titles that delve into family relationships with sincerity are Agnes Lee’s 49 Days (Levine Querido, March 5) and Rosena Fung’s Age 16 (Annick Press, July 2). Lee’s debut is a strikingly original, exquisitely expressive meditation on grief that follows a deceased Korean American girl through the Buddhist liminal space called bardo, as well as the loved ones she’s left behind. In Fung’s first work for teens, she skillfully uses color to show three women in a family—in 1954 Guangdong, 1972 Hong Kong, and 2000 Toronto—whose lives are movingly intertwined as they grapple with internalized misogyny and generational trauma.
Many teens find catharsis in reading books that explore difficult times and offer a message of hope. They won’t go wrong with Ernesto Saade’s Just Another Story: A Graphic Migration Account (Graphic Universe, April 2) and Our Beautiful Darkness, written by Ondjaki, illustrated by António Jorge Gonçalves and translated by Lyn Miller-Lachmann (Unruly, July 23). Saade’s heartfelt portrayal of his aunt’s and young cousin’s dangerous journey from El Salvador to the U.S. is filled with both desperation and moments of touching human connection; it also shows their post-migration lives with great nuance. Our Beautiful Darkness is a work of tremendous lyricism—one that features poetic text by an Angolan author and an American translator, with bold illustrations by a Portuguese artist—in which two young lovers discuss matters both profound and quotidian during a blackout.
The visual nature of graphic novels makes them ideally suited to portraying the powerful human experience of the natural world, as demonstrated in Adam de Souza’s The Gulf (Tundra Books, March 5) and Jen Wang’s Ash’s Cabin (First Second, Aug. 13). In de Souza’s evocative, enticing work, three disaffected Vancouver teens set off for an island commune; their journey requires them to navigate interpersonal tensions, inclement weather, and a wild and varied landscape. Acclaimed graphic novelist Wang’s gut-wrenching story introduces readers to lonely Ash, who seeks solace by attempting to live off the land in their beloved late grandfather’s cabin in the ruggedly beautiful California wilderness.
Laura Simeon is a young readers’ editor.
