Growing up is hard. Changes are hard. Especially in the middle grades, right before high school. I can’t imagine how much harder it must be now, with the internet, smart phones and social media. Even without any of that, I remember how awkward and unsure I was.
Charisse must be about my age and have grown up in the 70s. The clothing, references, and houses look very 70s. (The boom box and “Shake your booty” on page 236 gave it away.) Maybe that’s why she reminds me of me back then. My junior high school was packed with kids, I only had about three friends, and I was also obsessed with everything. It was hard for me to make friends too. I also broke the rule about going off campus and skipped a period to go to the 7-11. I was also obsessed about getting actual Candie’s shoes. (Google it) (Too expensive, but my mom bought me knock-offs at Zayre’s) I also changed best friends about then—I didn’t have so dramatic a falling out with the one I had grown up with, but we hung out less and less as she got more and more involved in things I didn’t do. Just like Charisse, I felt grouchy and hurt.
I remember how up-and-down the early teens are—how I was so sure NO ONE ELSE EVER FELT LIKE THIS. It’s a tough time for any young woman. You’re not sure you’re good enough, you don’t like your skin or your teeth or your whatever. Then the next day, things are good. Things are changing fast. Charisse can talk to her mom, though, and her brother and her mémé – if only in halting French in her mémé’s case. Charisse has a lot to be thankful about. Negotiating changing friendships is a difficult thing sometimes, and sometimes you don’t want to talk to anyone about it. This book can help middle-schoolers and early teens to not feel like they’re so alone. It’s helpful to know that feeling awkward and trying different things to see if they fit is normal. It’s also normal to think that something is going to last forever. It’s telling that Charisse fears running into her ex-bestie through the whole book, but when she does, it’s not really a thing. She’s moved on.
The artwork is brightly colored and sharp, and the panels are varied in size to break the story into different sections. This helps give the reader a break during some emotional parts. It also slows the pacing, which is perfectly executed. I reviewed the digital copy, so can’t speak to the printing or binding. The book is 262 pages, plus whatever is added to the print edition. Harper has also written “So Embarrassing—Awkward Moments and how to get through them”, which would be a natural partner to this book. Recommended for any middle school library.
Wrong Friend By Charisse Mericle Harper Art by Rory Lucey Macmillan First Second, 2026 ISBN: 9781250851970
Tripping Over You, Volume 2, from Suzana Harcum and Owena White, picks up not long after the first graphic left off, showing unlikely couple Liam and Milo navigating their maturing relationship. This slice of life romantic comic was adapted from real life couple Harcum and White’s webtoon in February and promises more volumes to come. Fresh out of high school, the pair are growing into young adults and trying to allow their relationship to grow with them. Liam and Milo are in a very interesting phase, kind of semi-out to their families (who bring their own baggage into their relationship) and striving to make room for each other as their lives grow fuller. Liam doesn’t know what he wants out of his future and Milo seems plagued with self doubt, but they keep circling back to find comfort in each other. This volume catches our couple at a very real, very vulnerable time where a high school relationship can evolve into an adult one or where it can flounder under the weight of growing up.
This is a sweet story that young readers can easily connect with. The art is incredibly cute with Harcum and White using a style that hits me as a kind of Disneyified Manga: characters with big eyes and bold lines in a world of saturated color. It is very easy to read and honestly just pretty. Liam and Milo give classic black cat/golden retriever energy and seem hyper aware of the struggles that can come with relationships where people have different needs and communication styles. While this comic does show a growing young adult relationship and the intimacy that comes with it, there’s nothing explicit on page or even suggested and I would probably recommend it as young as 6th or 7th grade, depending on the reader. There are a couple of shirtless scenes and implied sex and Liam still hasn’t kicked his smoking habit from book one. But with that, their relationship maintains an innocence that will keep it accessible to a wide range of readers.
The plot beats were a bit of a hang up to me. The small domestic moments of our couple meeting new people, fighting to find time together, struggling with demanding families, and eventually moving in together feel almost like filler, like all of these moments are leading towards conflict in a future volume. The most striking of these involve Milo’s new friend Hebert, an American theater student. There isn’t immediate conflict but there is definitely unresolved tension and Hebert’s motives are questionable at best. Many of the plot points feel unresolved. Liam still does not have a clear career path and Milo still seems uncertain in aspects of their relationship. All of these things made this feel less like a step in their story and more like laying groundwork for the next book.
But honestly, I don’t know if I care. It was still a lovely read. The characters are ones you want to spend time with and their relationship is easy to invest in. It’s sweet and loving and a ready made next read for my Heartstopper fans. Parts of it do come off as wish fulfillment, particularly the moment where Liam comes out to his father. But queer kids deserve as much wish fulfillment as they can get. I can’t help but worry that these boys will have a tough time ahead of them, but my fingers are crossed for a happy ending.
Tripping Over You, Volume 2 By Suzana Harcum Macmillan First Second, 2026 ISBN: 9781250330734
Company Age Rating: 14-18
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16) Creator Representation: Lesbian, , Character Representation: Queer, Jewish ,
Some readers erroneously believe that adult graphic novels should have sophisticated art, particularly in a day and age where art can be easily generated through a computer. “Sophisticated” means, in this case, the artwork has aspects like realistic looking human faces, shading, and color gradation that makes the book look more like a collection of photographs than anything drawn by a human being. It’s important to remember that “graphic novel” is a medium rather than a genre, and a medium can convey a variety of different ideas. For example, Heaven, West Virginia, written and illustrated by Ravi Teixeira, doesn’t need chiseled jawlines or a computer-generated color palette to tell an emotionally wrought story about coming home to find oneself.
The book follows Lamont, a man who has come home to Heaven, West Virginia to stay with his aunt while dealing with the passing of his homophobic father, a religious man who liked to share his bigotry from the pulpit. Learning tea making from his aunt provides a measure of peace, along with his conversations with handsome cowboy Coyote. Threatening to shatter that peach is a monster lurking in the woods, a monster whose eyes glow red and whose teeth are perfect for rending flesh. Lamont sees this creature and knows that it wants to devour him. Unfortunately, Lamont cannot run from this beast. He must ultimately face this monster as well as his own identity.
Teixeira’s seemingly supernatural evil evokes the folk horror traditions of something evil lurking in the woods, but it gets much more mileage in the readers’ minds thanks to his use of symbolism. For Lamont, as for many LGBTQ + individuals from a less than welcoming family, coming home often reawakens some very real traumas as fearsome and brutal as anything with teeth made to tear flesh. However, Teixeira’s story is not all doom and gloom because his Appalachian home provides healing. They demonstrate this thanks to medicinal tea recipes, with ingredients provided by Appalachian soil, interspersed throughout the book’s various chapters. This use of recipes, along with the beast in the woods, also demonstrates Teixeira’s skill with symbolism.
And those symbols are beautifully rendered, even if you can’t see the individual hairs on the beast stalking the woods. Teixeira’s style utilized blocky lines, flat surfaces, and simple colors, but they do a great deal with them. The artwork is clear and vibrant while the characters are still expressive, despite not seeing every wrinkle. Teixeira’s art style ultimately serves the story, especially as it seems to evoke images of Appalachian folk art.
For those who actually inform you of their beliefs that simple art work cannot be considered “sophisticated,” you can give them examples like Art Speigelman’s Maus and this book. The book’s uncomplicated beauty and rustic charm make it perfect for librarians in rural areas like Appalachia, as well as for librarians looking for well-told LGBTQ+ stories.
Heaven, West Virginia By Ravi Teixeira Oni Press, 2025 ISBN: 9781637158746
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+) Creator Representation: Trans , Character Representation: African-American,
A lunchtime party under the bleachers leads to a group of middle schoolers facing a week of detention. Except instead of regular old boring detention, they’re roped into helping out with the school’s new Enviro-Club. In The Greenies by Emma Mills, with art from Sarah Nicole Kennedy, readers meet kids just like them who want to make their world a more environmentally friendly place and have some fun doing it too.
After her parents’ divorce, Violet moved to St. Louis with her mom, where she’s about to start a brand new school halfway through the school year. She’s thankful for having her cousin Kris there to help out but she mostly plans on relying on faking it till she makes it. When she gets invited to the Best Under Bleachers Party of the Century, she figures it’s a great way to meet her classmates. It’s fun, everyone’s having a good time… until they’re caught by a teacher who makes them clean up and assigns a week’s worth of detention to all the kids under the bleachers.
This week of detention turns into forced participation in the Enviro-Club, a group with a very passionate leader but very little interest from other students. The Greenies take on tasks around the school to make it into a greener, more beautiful space. There are some mishaps along the way, including a big one involving the mysterious 4th floor of their school and missing recycling, but there’s lots of joyful and funny moments. One standout is when the group rescues a chipmunk at school, which animal lovers will appreciate. The group also deals with some minor infighting and squabbles, showing readers that even when you’re working together, sometimes personalities and ideas will clash and it’s okay.
As the first book in a new middle grade graphic novel series, much of the action and story in this particular book involves the group as we get to know them, with a special focus on Violet as our main character. She realistically struggles with sharing her true emotions and trying her best to fit in at a new school in a new city. She misses her friends from home and seeing her dad everyday. Mills’ writing does a good job including these emotions in the novel without them overtaking the storyline. Yes, Violet is the main character but there’s more to the story than just her.
Kennedy’s art complements the story perfectly and is pleasantly reminiscent of other popular middle grade graphic novels, a selling point for voracious graphic novel readers. The characters in the book are diverse and expressive, with their facial expressions being a particular highlight for how realistic they are and their part in driving the book forward.
The Greenies is very focused on social responsibility and how small acts can make a difference. This particular aspect of the group makes it a fine choice for a classroom or book club read, where readers can consider what they can do and work together to make changes like the group does. The focus on a neighborhood clean up makes it an excellent springtime choice that may spur middle grader readers into action in the environment around them.
The Greenies By Emma Mills Art by Sarah Nicole Kennedy Macmillan, 2026 ISBN: 9781250815767
Company Age Rating: 8-12
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Tween (10-13)
A young boy navigating a near-future world that is both like ours, and also not. A story woven through with commentary on where we find ourselves today.
Street Noise Books brings us Hybred from Jamie Mustard and Francesca Filomena. Set in an alternate future, the book introduces us to Johnny James, 9 years old when the story begins. Mixed race, outcast, and living in a slum walled off beside the bright lights of Follyland, the rich and shining section of city just next door, Johnny splits his time between a home for boys and his fractured family, living life alongside gangs, despair, and a consistent stream of violence.
What Johnny learns from a young age is that those who give up, do not survive. And Johnny is determined to survive. Through years of childhood and into adulthood, Johnny crosses paths with a range of characters, all the while hiding the secret that he is even more different than those around him can know. As everyone claws their way toward survival, Johnny’s love of art may be his path toward safety, but only if he can endure the dangers laying in his way.
Written entirely in narration, Hybred doesn’t use paneling or text bubbles to deliver its relatively short narrative. Instead, the series of standalone, full-spread images and text blocks carry us through each moment of Johnny’s story. Written and with art direction from Mustard, this book tackles a lot—race, inequality, mental health, exploitation, and more—all grounded in an examination of the role that art can play in shaping society. It’s an ambitious and admirable undertaking to address so much in a singular story. Unfortunately, the scope of the themes ultimately harms both Johnny’s narrative and the broader ideas Hybred seeks to convey.
The story itself is never given room to breathe, unfolding in a series of vignettes that never quite find cohesion, while the dramatic conclusion of certain plot points happens largely in summary and off the page. Quiet storytelling and ambiguity can be immensely powerful. The challenge with Hybrid is the size of the gaps the reader is left to fill themselves. Similarly in theme, Mustard turns a lens on vitally important social issues, but in packing so many in with such passionate intensity, it becomes a struggle to walk away from the book with a greater understanding of any idea in particular. In trying to show us all the sights along the way, Johnny’s story struggles to reach a clear destination.
But this is not to downplay what the book does achieve. Not only does Mustard approach the writing with vision, but Filomena’s painted illustrations bring a wealth of character and visual style to the story. Reminiscent at times of Dave McKean’s art, Filomena’s hazy and stylized approach fills the book with life, blending rich colors with striking visual designs that showcase this strange-but-familiar world and the multitude of characters who inhabit it. Pages move from more cinematic presentations to portraits to paintings that demand focus on key elements of the story. Across the range of palates and scenes, Filomena’s style invites the reader to keep looking, following Johnny into this strange alternate world he is navigating.
Throughout Hybred, there are moments of drug use, violence, death, strong language, racism, human trafficking, and sexual themes. With only a couple exceptions, the book does not linger overly long on these moments—and with the early portion of the book framed through a child’s eyes, some of the darker plot points are clearer to the reader than they are to Johnny himself. Nevertheless, the often bleak combination makes the book best suited for adults alongside some older teens who know what they’re in for. In the end, I wish I liked Hybrid more than I did. It’s a respectfully ambitious undertaking from a writer who clearly has a lot to say, and I admire any piece of art that’s willing to aim big. Additionally, Filomena’s art deserves to be seen as it brings this complex tale to life. Hybred doesn’t achieve much of what it sets out to do, but I respect its vision even as I wish more of Johnny’s story had landed effectively along the way.
Hybred A Graphic Novel By Jamie Mustard Art by Francesca Filomena Street Noise Books, 2025 ISBN: 9781951491437
Stories can make you sigh for all sorts of reasons. Frustration, contentment, resolve. Angelica and the Bear Prince, published by Random House Graphix in October 2025, pulls a deep, comforting, swoon-like sigh from the reader, at least this reader. This is a cup of cocoa of a graphic novel. A warm, joint popping hug of a graphic novel. A fully broken-in hoodie of a graphic novel. It’s the best kind of sweet, romantic, comfort read.
Angelica and the Bear Prince, author/illustrator Trung Le Nguyen’s follow up to the award winning The Magic Fish, is a very loose reimagining of the Norwegian fairy tale East of the Sun and West of the Moon. It follows Angelica, Jelly to her friends, who is picking herself back up after hitting a pretty serious burnout wall. Jelly is an over-achiever and a people-pleaser who got so wrapped up in her desperation not to disappoint people that she ran herself right into the ground.
With perfect timing for her to realign herself, Jelly gets an internship at the theater company that was her happy place as a child. She gets to spend the whole winter stage managing her favorite play with her best friend Christine who is starring opposite the play’s lead and the theater’s mascot Peri the bear in Jelly’s favorite play. The mascot whose social media account Jelly has developed a pen pal style relationship with. The mascot who is embodied by a figure from Jelly’s past who is desperate to reconnect with her. The reveal here and the shift in their relationship takes a while to develop but is so, so satisfying.
Per Nguyen, this is a story about grief and it drips off every page. The grief that comes with growing up, grief of mourning a loved one, grief of dealing with mental health struggles. And with all that heaviness, this is an incredibly light, hopeful graphic, partially because of Nguyen’s stunning art. The illustrations are like a manga processed through a Disney lens, giving the graphic a bright, beautiful flow that is incredibly easy to read. The characters feel lived in and real and their hopes and struggles are incredibly relatable. The story is romantic and sweet and so beautifully told.
One of my favorite things about this graphic is that all the characters are given room to grow. So frequently in stories like this anyone who is not the central romantic couple just fade into the background, but Nguyen doesn’t fall into that. Jelly’s mom, still mourning the loss of her own mother, is anxious and uncertain and desperate to help her daughter grow while keeping Jelly her little girl. The stern manager of the theater is learning how to keep loving after their own loss and massive life changes. Christine, who easily could have been relegated to the barely-seen-best-friend role or the focus of Jelly’s jealous for landing the lead role of the Princess in the play, is a ride or die bestie throughout both being there for Jelly to lean on and going to her for support when she realizes her relationship isn’t what she deserves.
Angelica and the Bear Prince is such a lovely, cozy graphic. Teens and preteens alike can easily get wrapped into the romance and coming of age elements of the story and the focus on transformation and growth. It’s a legit pleasure to read.
Angelica and the Bear Prince By Trung Le Nguyen Penguin Random House Graphic, 2025 ISBN: 9781984892669
Company Age Rating: 12+
NFNT Age Recommendation: Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16), Tween (10-13) Creator Representation: Vietnamese, Nonbinary , Character Representation: South Asian, Trans, Anxiety, Depression
Anima. Lisa Storm. Vera Vicious. Morgaine La Fey. Gaia.
Five different women, both friends and rivals. Five women among the hottest and wildest girls to be found cruising the Sunset Strip. They make the scene. They go backstage. They enjoy the drugs and the bands just passing through. Every night is a new party. Every party is a new adventure.
That changed with the arrival of The Moon Show—a band on the verge of becoming the next big thing. The girls are there when a major label signs them. They go on the road with the band as they go on-tour. And for a while they are living the dream in style.
However, the girls start noticing something is wrong. Other women the band picks up go missing. And some of the girls start seeing strange things while they’re high. Visions of some darkness behind The Moon Show. Something that calls for blood!
Groupies is a hard comic to quantify. It is horror, but it is a slow-boiling horror story where the terrors are more existential than gory and largely left to the imagination. There is a mystery, but the big secret of the story is telegraphed early and somewhat predictable given stories about musicians selling their souls are common enough. (The label that signs The Moon Show is called Asmodeus Records, for crying out loud!)
Thankfully, that’s not really what Groupies is about. The mystery and horror are just background dressing to the true focus of the comic. Namely, the stories of five different women trying to find meaning in their lives amid the sex, drugs, and rock and roll culture. And their vastly different reactions to everything around them.
Lisa Storm, for instance, enjoys the scene, but still dreams of finding true love with The Moon Show’s front-man, Si, despite knowing deep down he’s a dog. Gaia and Morgaine work together to bring rock stars into bed, yet both would rather spend time with alone with one another. The irony is they are both fearful of saying anything for fear of ending what they have. And then there’s Vera Vicious, who for all her blunt talk and complaints about other women trying to steal her man of choice, is the first to realize there’s something strange about the people from “the label” and something sinister going on. All in all, Helen Mullane does a fantastic job of developing these characters and putting the reader inside their heads.
Similarly, Tula Lotay turns every chapter into a different sort of visual journey. It does the artwork a disservice to describe it as merely psychedelic. Oh, there are shifts in the artwork as the characters get high, but there are different alterations to the style and colors depending on the drug. The dark visions Gaia has after taking datura, for instance, are different than the shared hallucination the women enjoy as they drop acid before going for a walk in the woods and start imagining themselves as dryads.
Groupies is rightly recommended for Mature readers. There is cursing. There is nudity. There is everything one would expect in a story devoted to exploring the dark side of sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll. And that’s before you bring in all the murder, assault and demons. In short, this is one to put in the adult collection of the public library and one to keep away from the kids and teens.
Groupies By Helen Mullane Art by Tula Lotay Mad Cave Studios, 2026 ISBN: 9781545821268
Company Age Rating: 18+
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+) Creator Representation: British, Character Representation: Bisexual,
Shy Cat and the Stuff-the-Bus Challenge by Dian Day and Amanda White teaches young readers about food insecurity through the story of Mila and her best friend Kit. Mila, a budding cartoonist, splits her time between her moms’ houses. Kit lives with his mom in an apartment. After bonding over being new kids at school, they are inseparable. Mila even gets to school early to join Kit for the school breakfast program since he doesn’t like to go alone. Between school, petting neighborhood cats, and DIY movie making, things are great between the two! Until Kit has a meltdown at school, setting the main story in motion.
The Stuff-the-Bus Challenge asks the students to bring goods to be donated to a local food bank. The challenge is simple – stuff the bus with food! The winning class gets their own pizza party. Students are excited to meet the challenge, when Kit discovers a dented can amongst the donated items. Who would donate something imperfect? Why do his classmates think it’s okay to give their dented cans to people who need food? This tipping point spurs Mila to better understand food insecurity and how close to home it can be.
Throughout the story, Kit’s hunger and how it affects him personally day to day is hinted at: headaches, crankiness, being secretive. Mila recounts a time she thought Kit was being rude upon quickly eating three bananas at her house. Her mom explains that “sometimes rude was just hungry” and it shouldn’t take away from Mila’s time spent with Kit. The story makes it clear that, even though she cares about Kit dearly, Mila struggles with her own emotions and how to be a good friend, even when your friend is being off-putting, because you don’t always know what they’re going through. In learning more about Kit’s situation, she’s forced to deal with and control her own emotions.
Shy Cat and the Stuff-the-Bus Challenge covers a lot within its pages. As Mila speaks with the adults in her life, there’s several pages that are fairly text heavy. These honest conversations are worthwhile. The graphic novel introduces different ways to fight food insecurity, including a great introduction to community gardening. Mila realizes the importance of speaking your mind and standing up for what’s right, something readers may find especially inspiring. The book includes some backmatter on the Hungry Stories project, which both author and artist are members of, for anyone looking to learn more about the topic at hand.
White’s art in Shy Cat and the Stuff-the-Bus Challenge is colorful, realistic, and cozy when it needs to be. Individuals of different races, abilities, and bodies are shown around Kit and Mila’s community. Lots of cats too! Mila’s Shy Cat comics are interspersed throughout the story, they become a way for her to express her emotions, almost like a graphic diary, and these work quite well in doing that.
Shy Cat and the Stuff-the-Bus Challenge would be a great choice for a middle grade book club or classroom read along. The Good Question Bus in the story, where students can ask questions anonymously, can even be adopted for individual classrooms. This graphic novel deals with topics that must be spoken about openly and honestly in a way that its intended audience can relate to.
Shy Cat and the Stuff-the-Bus Challenge By Dian Day Art by Amanda White Not in listSecond Story Press, 2026 ISBN: 9781772604450
Company Age Rating: 9-12
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Tween (10-13)
Serendipity, a perky middle schooler, is lucky, as readers will see in the first pages when she wins a radio contest (again) for free carnival tickets. As her day progresses, her usual good luck continues—good grades, the lead role in the school play, good scores on the basketball court, and a solid position as class president.
However, once she and her best friend Basil have an UNlucky run in with ZamZam, the carnival’s fortune-telling rabbit, her luck starts to change. It’s all ZamZam’s fault! Or is it? Serendipity is determined not to let anyone down, stop making mistakes, and handle everything on her own – but maybe she needs more help than the school’s unofficial wizard can offer and maybe even the best luck in the world won’t let her handle all the things she’s taken on.
Serendipity is a white girl with long brown hair that curls perfectly at the ends (usually). Unless she’s dressed up in a pink princess gown for the school play, she sports a purple shirt, short blue jumper, and yellow shorts. Her legs are drawn with long, thin lines. Her best friend Basil is also white, with short, orange hair and a heftier build. She is usually shown in shades of green, her preferred clothes being a green shirt and brown shorts. Serendipity’s vice president, Chel, wears a headscarf and there are students with varying skin colors on the periphery of her circle. There are a lot of pink accents in the art, from Serendipity’s cute strawberry hat, worn to disguise her unexpected bad hair day, to the pastel swirls of her thoughts. The carnival tent is deep pink and the night scenes are shown in dark purple shades.
This is a candy-pink, sweet as lollipops offering. It’s more fantasy than realistic—most modern middle schoolers would laugh at the idea of involvement in three activities being too much to take on and the dramatic play director and aggressive school election are old tropes that don’t usually appear in actual school life. However, the overall message is a thoughtful one and there are some especially good moments where Basil expresses her frustration with how easily everything comes to Serendipity—and her lack of appreciation and awareness for that privilege.
This will be a popular choice where Raina Telgemeier read-alikes are in high demand, especially for younger elementary school readers and those who aren’t interested in, or ready for, the more serious challenges they may meet in middle school.
Serendipity By Gabbie Benda Holiday House, 2026 ISBN: 9780823457892
Orange Grove Junior High just held its graduation ceremony, and now it’s officially summer vacation. For some of the newly-minted rising ninth graders, the summer is off to a rocky start. Rose is disappointed to realize that she went through junior high without making much of an impression—no one seems to even remember her name. Best friends Juhi and Liv just had a huge fight—maybe even a friend breakup. Paul just wants to game and be left alone, but his parents are making him attend a pool party thrown by classmate Dustin. Paul’s popular cousin Maya will be there, too—her mom is forcing her to go and apologize for semi-accidentally humiliating Dustin in a viral video.
Dustin thought inviting the whole graduating class to a pool party might help him shake off his reputation as a loser. But it seemed like no one was interested, and then Maya’s video came out and made Dustin feel worse than ever. Now he just wants to hide. Then guests start arriving: Paul and Maya, plus a gaggle of Maya’s friends. Juhi and Liv, who are still fighting. Rose, who is determined to finally make an impression on her classmates. Emotions are high, and Orange Grove’s recent graduates are running wild. For some of them, what happens at this party will change everything.
Last Day Pool Party reads like watching a summery tween movie. The characters have enough unusual details to keep them from being flat, but they are familiar: the social outcast looking to prove himself, the wallflower desperate to be noticed, the best friends rocked by a major fight, the popular girl wondering if she’s become someone she doesn’t want to be. The focus shifts between these characters, following them from the pool deck crowded with an audience of fellow students to the living room where Paul is determined to ignore everyone and play video games to Dustin’s bedroom for an impromptu makeover scene to a bathroom where two characters go to hide and end up having a heart-to-heart. The characters’ stories start out separate but eventually converge in a cinematically dramatic climax, then stay mingled together as they sort things out afterward.
The art is fun, vibrant, and colorful. The cast features a variety of races and body types as well as wildly different personalities, which are highlighted by their expressive faces and dynamic body language. The main setting—Dustin’s house, inside and out – is well established and feels solid and consistent, like the set of a play, with the same locations hosting different characters throughout the party. Bright colors add to the sunny, summery feel.
This is a funny and ultimately optimistic story exploring lots of topics of interest to young readers: making and keeping friendships, discovering and developing your own identity, apologizing and forgiving. It is also a bouncy, quick read with lots of slightly over-the-top but relatable characters. Hand it to middle schoolers who want a fun romp with drama, humor, and heart.
Last Day Pool Party By Emma Steinkellner Labyrinth Road, 2026 ISBN: 9798217031429
Company Age Rating: 8-12
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Tween (10-13)
must be now, with the internet, smart phones and social media. Even without any of that, I remember how awkward and unsure I was.
couple Liam and Milo navigating their maturing relationship. This slice of life romantic comic was adapted from real life couple Harcum and White’s webtoon in February and promises more volumes to come. Fresh out of high school, the pair are growing into young adults and trying to allow their relationship to grow with them. Liam and Milo are in a very interesting phase, kind of semi-out to their families (who bring their own baggage into their relationship) and striving to make room for each other as their lives grow fuller. Liam doesn’t know what he wants out of his future and Milo seems plagued with self doubt, but they keep circling back to find comfort in each other. This volume catches our couple at a very real, very vulnerable time where a high school relationship can evolve into an adult one or where it can flounder under the weight of growing up.
be easily generated through a computer. “Sophisticated” means, in this case, the artwork has aspects like realistic looking human faces, shading, and color gradation that makes the book look more like a collection of photographs than anything drawn by a human being. It’s important to remember that “graphic novel” is a medium rather than a genre, and a medium can convey a variety of different ideas. For example, Heaven, West Virginia, written and illustrated by Ravi Teixeira, doesn’t need chiseled jawlines or a computer-generated color palette to tell an emotionally wrought story about coming home to find oneself.
boring detention, they’re roped into helping out with the school’s new Enviro-Club. In The Greenies by Emma Mills, with art from Sarah Nicole Kennedy, readers meet kids just like them who want to make their world a more environmentally friendly place and have some fun doing it too.
find ourselves today.
Random House Graphix in October 2025, pulls a deep, comforting, swoon-like sigh from the reader, at least this reader. This is a cup of cocoa of a graphic novel. A warm, joint popping hug of a graphic novel. A fully broken-in hoodie of a graphic novel. It’s the best kind of sweet, romantic, comfort read.
They make the scene. They go backstage. They enjoy the drugs and the bands just passing through. Every night is a new party. Every party is a new adventure.
story of Mila and her best friend Kit. Mila, a budding cartoonist, splits her time between her moms’ houses. Kit lives with his mom in an apartment. After bonding over being new kids at school, they are inseparable. Mila even gets to school early to join Kit for the school breakfast program since he doesn’t like to go alone. Between school, petting neighborhood cats, and DIY movie making, things are great between the two! Until Kit has a meltdown at school, setting the main story in motion.
carnival tickets. As her day progresses, her usual good luck continues—good grades, the lead role in the school play, good scores on the basketball court, and a solid position as class president.
rising ninth graders, the summer is off to a rocky start. Rose is disappointed to realize that she went through junior high without making much of an impression—no one seems to even remember her name. Best friends Juhi and Liv just had a huge fight—maybe even a friend breakup. Paul just wants to game and be left alone, but his parents are making him attend a pool party thrown by classmate Dustin. Paul’s popular cousin Maya will be there, too—her mom is forcing her to go and apologize for semi-accidentally humiliating Dustin in a viral video.
