The Young Adult Library Services Association announced the picks for the 2016 Great Graphic Novels for Teens earlier this week. There are lots of great fiction and nonfiction titles on the list this year — too many to list here, so here are the ones that are currently available at CA Library:
Nonfiction
Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans by Don Brown — A graphic account of the events of Hurricane Katrina and its effects on the city of New Orleans and its people, detailing the selflessness, heroism, and courage, while also noting the incompetence, racism, and criminality.
Macbeth by Gareth Hinds — Shakespeare’s classic story of dark ambitions, madness, and murder springs to life in a masterful new graphic novel by Gareth Hinds.
March, Book Two by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell — Congressman John Lewis, one of the key figures of the civil rights movement, continues his award-winning graphic novel trilogy with co-writer Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell, inspired by a 1950s comic book that helped prepare his own generation to join the struggle.
The Other Side of the Wall by Simon Schwartz — Simon Schwartz was born in East Germany to political dissidents in 1982. This striking graphic novel memoir chronicles the family’s difficult journey to get to the other side of the Berlin Wall.
Steve Jobs: Insanely Great by Jessie Hartland — Told through a combination of black-and-white illustrations and handwritten text, this fast-paced and entertaining biography in graphic format presents the story of the ultimate American entrepreneur, the man who brought us Apple Computer, Pixar, Macs, iPods, iPhones, and more.
Terrorist: Gavrilo Princip, the Assassin Who Ignited World War I by Henrik Rehr — In 1914, a young Serbian named Gavrilo Princip assassinated the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria — a violent act that sparked World War I. Henrik Rehr’s riveting graphic novel imagines the events that led Princep to become history’s most significant terrorist.
Fiction
Ms. Marvel, Volume 2: Generation Why and Volume 3: Crushed by G. Willow Wilson — Ms. Marvel teams up with Wolverine, faces the Inventor, and struggles with her first crush.
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson — Lord Blackheart, a villain with a vendetta, and his sidekick, Nimona, an impulsive young shapeshifter, must prove to the kingdom that Sir Goldenloin and the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics aren’t the heroes everyone thinks they are.
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Crystal Chan, and Stacy King — Faithfully adapted by Crystal Chan from the original novel, this new edition features stunning artwork by SunNeko Lee which will give old and new readers alike a fresh insight into Nathaniel Hawthorne’s tragic saga of Puritan America.
The Sculptor by Scott McCloud — David Smith is giving his life for his art–literally. Thanks to a deal with Death, the young sculptor gets his childhood wish: to sculpt anything he can imagine with his bare hands. But now that he only has 200 days to live, deciding what to create is harder than he thought.
SuperMutant Magic Academy by Jillian Tamaki — Tamaki paints a teenaged world filled with ennui and uncertainty, but also with a sharp dose of humor and irreverence. Deftly playing superhero and high-school Hollywood tropes against what adolescence is really like, she introduces the SuperMutant Magic Academy, a prep school for mutants and witches where paranormal abilities take a backseat to everyday teen concerns.
I’ll update this post as we continue to add more graphic novels to the collection, and share updates on Facebook on Twitter.