Excellent Graphic Novels for Teens

by Gene Luen Yang

This is one of the best graphic novels I've ever read and it's the one I always recommend to anyone skeptical about reading a graphic novel! You don't need to know or care about basketball to enjoy this one.

The story follows the real-life Bishop O'Dowd Dragons, a high school basketball team in Oakland. Over the years, the team came close to winning the California state championship but never brought home the trophy. After an intriguing conversation that the author has with the head coach, he decides to follow the team for a year and tell their story as the team tries once again to win the championship.

By Robin Ha

This is a phenomenal memoir! Robin grew up in Seoul, Korea with her single mother. Her childhood was happy and she was unaware of how difficult being a divorced woman in Korea was for her mother, so it comes as a shock to Robin when they go on "vacation" to Alabama and her mother announces that she's getting married and they will be staying in the United States. Robin has to get used to a new family, a new school, and a new language all at once.

By Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed

This National Book Award winner is a must-read graphic novel memoir for teens! Omar and his nonverbal younger brother have spent most of their lives in a refugee camp in Kenya separated from their mother and struggling to survive. So, when Omar gets the opportunity to go to school, he knows it's his chance to change both his own fate and his brother's.

by N.D. Stevenson

This is a favorite at our house. Not only have my teens read this at least ten times, they die laughing every time they talk about it!

Shapeshifters, villains, dragons, AND it's laugh out loud funny!

by Gene Luen Yang

These are two thought-provoking parallel stories about the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1899-1901. Boxers is told from the perspective of a peasant boy whose village has suffered after the arrival of Western missionaries. In Saints, the story is told from the perspective of a Chinese girl who, as the fourth daughter, is unwanted in her family and instead finds friendship and help from Christian missionaries. I couldn't put these down!

By Don Brown

This is a phenomenal nonfiction graphic novel about the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. It's a short, but very powerful read!

By Huda Fahmy

At her old school, Huda was the only Muslim and so that was her entire identity. But, when her family moves to Dearborn, Michigan where there is a much bigger Muslim community, Huda feels lost. She's not sporty, she's not fashionable, she's not even entirely sure how she feels about being Muslim. It's only as she starts trying on different identities and making new friends that she's able to realize what is actually important to her.

By Dan Santat

This is an autobiographical story about the author's eighth grade school trip to Europe. Dan is a good kid, but he feels like an outcast at school. Even though the Europe trip sounds exciting, Dan is expecting to feel like an outsider with his classmates like he always has before. But, his experiences on the trip are life-changing and he ends up learning a lot about himself. The story is both heartwarming and laugh-out-loud funny!

By Maris Wicks

If your teen is taking Human Anatomy in high school, this hilarious graphic novel is surprisingly helpful! The author is a self-proclaimed science nerd and I love how she's turned what could be boring or overwhelming subject matter into something fun and easily digestible in the graphic novel format. A must read!

By John Hendrix

This non-fiction graphic novel is about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Pastor and Nazi resistor who helped hatch and execute multiple plans to kill Hitler during WWII. As a faithful religious man he struggled to reconcile the teachings of the Bible with the evil he saw happening in Germany and though it wasn't an easy decision, he felt that the only way to truly be a faithful Christian was to kill Hitler. It's a gripping novel (near misses, suitcase bombs, secret codes) and a fascinating part of WWII history that isn't often talked about.

By Gene Luen Yang

This is a unique story about what it means to be both Chinese and American. It follows three characters: Jin Wang who is the only Chinese-American student at his school, Monkey King from an old Chinese fable, and Chin-Kee who embodies every negative Chinese stereotype. Very clever and I love the ending!

By Thi Bui

This is a beautiful, if at times heartbreaking, memoir about a family's escape from South Vietnam in the 1970s. The memoir spans multiple generations and is a profound look at the effects of war, immigration, and complex family relationships.

Because of the mature themes, this one is best for older teens/young adults.

by Jason Reynolds | Illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff

This is based on Jason Reynold's book about gun violence and revenge. The original book won a pile of awards (it's spectactular!) and while this graphic novel version doesn't replace the original book, it certainly enhances the story.

Will's brother was just murdered. Now, Will finds himself on an elevator with a gun, ready to get revenge. But as the elevator stops on each floor, Will gets a bigger piece of the story and begins to see his brother's murder in a new light.

by Kristin Cashore | Illustrated by Gareth Hinds

Not only do I love the original Graceling book this graphic novel is based on, but I also love Gareth Hinds' work, so I was delighted by this collaboration!

Katsa is a graceling, a person born with a rare skill. Unfortunately, her skill is the ability to kill with her bare hands. It's not a skill she wants but she's under the control of her uncle who uses her to threaten everyone who opposes him. But when Katsa meets Po, a foreign prince, and agrees to help him solve a kidnapping, she leaves her uncle and heads toward the revelation of a terrible secret.

by Emily Carroll

If your teen likes spooky stories, then they'll love this creepy graphic novel collection of fairy tales gone wrong!

by Matt Tavares

This graphic novel is fiction, but it's based on a true story. Set in 1975 Indiana, the story follows a girls' high school basketball team and highlights the struggle for gender equality in high school sports.

I especially enjoyed this one because my own teenager started playing basketball a couple years ago and I've been shocked by how much inequality still exists between male and female sports. She even had one of her teachers say to her, "Well, everyone knows that watching boys' sports is just more fun." So yes, read this book!

By Shaenon K. Garrity | Illustrated by Christopher Baldwin

I did not expect the direction that this graphic novel takes! It starts with a high-school girl obsessed with Gothic Romance novels. On her way home one dark and stormy night, she jumps in the river to save a man who looks like he's drowning. But when they make it to safety, she finds that she is somehow in a place called Willowweep and it looks just like the setting of one of her Gothic novels. But it's not that at all - it's so much weirder and funnier!

By Ryan Andrews

It's the night of the Autumn Equinox Festival and everyone in town will be casting hundreds of lanterns down the river to honor a local folk legend. Ben and his friends, however, have made a pact - this year will be the year that they follow the lanterns to see where they end up. They set out on their bikes, but as they journey along, one by one, Ben's friends all make excuses and head back home leaving just Ben and a kid that they've always ostracized. As the two boys follow the lanterns on a fantastical journey, both learn some valuable lessons about friendship.

I loved this magical, gorgeous graphic novel - highly recommend!

By Brenna Thummler

Thirteen year old Marjorie Glatt runs her family laundry business, helps take care of her younger brother after the death of their mother, and is dealing with a grumpy man who is trying to run them out of business. It's a lot on her shoulders and she's at the end of her rope when she meets Wendell, a ghost at night and an ordinary sheet during the day. This is such a charming story!

By Dylan Meconis

I devoured this graphic novel loosely based on the childhood of Queen Elizabeth I. As an infant, Margaret is taken to live on a forgotten island with a small order of nuns. She has a simple, happy childhood there until a young boy and his mother are sent to the island for opposing the king. Only after their arrival does Margaret begin to question why the convent on the island exists and why she was sent there.

By Tyler Feder

I didn't expect to laugh so much while reading a graphic novel about grief and loss! Tyler is in her first year of college when her mother is diagnosed with late-stage cancer. She's close to her mom, so it's heartbreaking following her through the months leading up to her mom's funeral, but she shares her experiences in a way that is both poignant and humorous. I loved every page of this graphic novel and I hope she writes more!

By Debbie Levy

My teenager read this first and then told me it was so good that I had to read it too! This is the perfect introduction to Ruth Bader Ginsberg and why she's so famous. I love that the graphic novel format makes nonfiction topics like this one so fun and easy to read for teens.

By George Takei | Illustrated by Harmony Becker

When George Takei was four years old, his family was forced from their home and sent to a "relocation center" for the duration of WWII. This is his firsthand account of what it was like growing up behind the barbed wire fences. It's so moving!

By Kiku Hughes

This is a fictional story based on the author's grandmother's life. When Kiku is on vacation in San Francisco, she suddenly travels back in time to the Japanese-American internment camp that her grandmother was forcibly relocated to during WWII. While she is displaced in time, Kiku experiences firsthand what it was like for her grandmother to grow up in an internment camp.

I loved this graphic novel and especially appreciated how it highlights the intergenerational impact of trauma.

By John Lewis | Illustrated by Nate Powell

I think everyone should read this trilogy about the Civil Rights Movement. Even after years of studying history as an undergrad and graduate student in college, I still learned things about the Civil Rights Movement from this graphic novel that I had never heard before. It's a vivid first-hand account of John Lewis' fight for civil and human rights and it is incredibly powerful.

By Vera Brosgol

Anya falls down a well on her way home from school and while she is stuck, she meets a ghost. When she finally makes it home, the ghost follows her. Anya is lonely, self-conscious, and struggling to fit in at school so having a ghost for a friend seems like a good thing. But Anya's ghost is not what she seems.

I've read all of Vera Brosgol's graphic novels and I love her unique, and sometimes dark, perspective!

By Jarrett J. Krosoczka

This graphic memoir had me in tears more than once. Jarrett's mother was a drug addict so he was mostly raised by his grandparents, even though it wasn't easy for any of them. What I appreciated most was the love and tenderness that the author shows his family, despite their flaws, as he shares his very difficult childhood. I wholeheartedly recommend this graphic novel for both teens and adults.

By Marjane Satrapi

This is the first graphic novel I ever read and it hooked me immediately! I was a graduate assistant and the professor I was working for assigned it to his undergrad history class - I had to read it so I could grade their papers. I had no idea how powerful and moving a graphic novel could be until I read this memoir about Satrapi's experience growing up in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution.