“Get good grades.” “Don’t cause trouble.” These mantras from his dad were constantly drilled into Ming Lee’s head like a jackhammer for as long as he can remember, even as he begins his first day in middle school. How can he even think about getting into Stanford let alone survive the rites of passage of middle school? From the creative mind of Arree Chung comes his charming debut of the zany escapades of a middle grader navigating the wonder years of adolescence in Don’t Cause Trouble.
From the start, twelve-year-old Ming Lee struggles to adapt to a world that often misinterprets him: He is Chinese, but is mistaken for being Korean; Enduring rice-bowl haircuts and shopping for clothes at thrift shops embarrasses him; His mom makes homemade dumplings for lunch, inviting scrutiny and ridicule from his classmates at school. He is even placed into an ESL class when English is his first language. Striving to fit into a society where he feels like an alien, Ming Lee just can’t quite hack it.
In his debut graphic novel, loosely based on personal experiences, Chung presents a charmingly honest depiction of the exploits of an adolescent caught up in assimilating into American society. Ming is later placed into an honors English class where he befriends classmates Vikrum and Marcus, ultimately pulling them into a shoplifting heist. Vibrantly colored panels adorn the pages, with comical facial expressions driving the characters and story forward. Speech bubbles contain Mandarin translations—sometimes amplifying the comedic effect particularly when serving as a coded language to outsiders. Ming captures daydreaming flights of fancy through doodling rocket ships, basketball, and highly coveted Air Elevate sneakers (which he secretly hopes to procure when he saves enough money)—no matter what the cost and yes, pushing him to the point of causing trouble.
Through a series of self-contained misadventures, Don’t Cause Trouble integrates subtextual themes of fitting in, combating racial microaggressions, navigating interracial friendships, grappling with self-hate, and persevering through faith. As an added bonus, the back matter highlights the creative mechanics behind making a graphic novel from generating a story, scripting, and storyboarding to the design, inking, and coloring of a finished product. Overall, this graphic novel will expand the wide breadth of BIPOC literature in middle grade graphic novel collections while chronicling the oftentimes awkward and painful experiences of growing up in a world through the lens of adolescence.
Don’t Cause Trouble By Arree Chung Henry Holt Holt Books for Young Readers, 2025 ISBN: 9781250887306
Company Age Rating: 8-12
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11) Creator Representation: Chinese-American, Character Representation: Chinese-American,
Chris O’Brien and Alicia Ochoa can’t stop graduation day. Literally – they’re stuck in a time loop and don’t know how to find their way out of it. You and Me on Repeat by Mary Shyne takes on graduating high school and all the fun that entails with a modern, sci-fi tinged angle.
Chris and Alicia are former childhood friends, now estranged classmates and about to be graduates of the class of 2025. Their paths diverged after Chris became one of the popular athletes. Senior year’s been tough, with his beloved swim coach suddenly passing away. He’s ready to be done this high school nonsense and start college in New York City alongside his girlfriend Andy. They haven’t had their first kiss yet, but the perfect spot for it, the biggest party of their teenage lives, is ahead of them. When nothing’s going as planned, Alicia comes to the rescue, taking Chris to the solution to his problem: a swirling portal inside a superstore that will help him relive the day and make things perfect. Except he gets stuck alongside Alicia who has been reliving their graduation day over and over on her own. Can they find a way out and manage to restart their friendship?
You and Me on Repeat reads like a perfect teenage romcom. There’s the rekindling of old relationships, the anxiety of the future ahead, and of course, the blow out party to end all parties. The writing, especially the occasional annotations that dot the pages, even feel like a voiceover effect while reading. But the characters have depth. Alicia is dealing with the expectations of being a first generation college student. Chris is dealing with grief that’s not always easy to articulate, plus the emotions of your first serious relationship.
The book is modern enough without being too obvious in its references; teenagers will recognize personalities and situations that match their own lives. There are some references to drinking and sexual activity, so it’s better suited for older teens, those closer to Chris and Alicia in age. These are only minimal and really nothing out of the ordinary for a young adult novel of any format.
The coloring is a highlight of the graphic novel’s art. The portal itself is a swirling rainbow, so each individual loop is colored in that specific color pattern. New loop, new color. It also helps with the storytelling as a visual cue that a new loop is beginning yet again. Shyne switches Alicia’s appearance up throughout the book too. She tries on different looks in some loops, another clear visual to show the changing days. It’s fun to see the characters evolve and find new details in the many, many loops we follow them through.
You and Me on Repeat is about an endless loop but it’s not repetitive storywise. The details of the loop grow as the days go on and new discoveries continue to be made. Teen readers who enjoy stories with elevated emotions alongside romance will find themselves both hoping the loop never ends and rooting for Alicia and Chris to find their ways out.
You and Me on Repeat By Mary Shyne Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, 2025 ISBN: 9781250851840
Oh my gosh! Such middle grade angst about boys and makeup and how you look and what everyone in school is saying about you and…and…and…why is it so hard to talk to a guy that you think but are not sure you like? It was fine between you and him until you started thinking *that*.
12-year-old Abby is the oldest sibling in her family. In her Indonesian culture, that means she has certain responsibilities like acting more mature and constantly looking out for the safety and well-being of her four younger brothers and sisters. This is a heavy lift for a 12-year-old, since she’s obsessed about everything else at the same time. Her body, her friends, her siblings, what she likes, it’s all changing. Abby is worried about what her friends Julia and Monica will think about her weirdo younger brothers and sisters when they finally come to her house to hang out, but then they all get chickenpox, and Abby is stuck at home with her worst (totally wrong) suspicions.
I’ve almost forgotten what it was like to be 12 and how hard it was to figure out what the right thing was to do in school and family relationships, and how awkward you felt while trying. My generation did not have comics like this to help us realize everyone goes through this. Abby keeps doing the things that drive away the people and things that she likes the most – but why is doing the right thing by apologizing or explaining how you feel so hard? Page 154 explains any pre-teen’s dilemma in a comical shot-to-the-heart way. The puberty-fueled, anxiety-ridden assumptions and confusion Abby goes through while she’s quarantined will be familiar to anyone who has been a tween.
The story is kind of like the old game “telephone” – misunderstandings and assumptions galore! Finally, Abby and her friends straighten things out through caring enough to tell each other how they felt and what they assumed, and they all apologize. Friendship wins again! Could it be that the thing that is driving Abby crazy – her family and friends – is also the thing that gets her through this?
Chickenpox is a funny and heartfelt story of how hard it seems sometimes to survive puberty. The pages are sharp and colorful and the action flows in a manga-like fashion that echoes Abby’s favorite thing. You don’t need a BA in manga, though, to know Abby’s shojo-like expressions. She even shoots her younger sister an akanbe, to which her sister responds, “Real mature.” The frames where Abby finally decides to scratch her chicken pox bumps are hilarious. Information on the stages of the chickenpox virus are scattered through the comic. There are no adult themes. It’s a suitable title for any middle grade library and 7–14-year-olds.
Chickenpox By Remy Lai Henry Holt Holt Books for Young Readers, 2025 ISBN: 9781250863294
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Tween (10-13)
The first couple of pages are blurry grey scale and sepia, with lots of pencil and charcoal lines that create a depth of blackness, which is unlike any middle reader comic I’ve ever seen. Then, from out of the dust/sand storm, two indecipherable figures appear. The fact that the next panel shows two small children alone within huge dunes sets the tone for this title from Canada. Think: a mash up of Metropolis and The Plow That Broke the Plains in graphic novel form…then a futuristic Mary Poppins arrives! (Or Maria Von Trapp.)
In an unnamed area of the earth, (but what appears to be an Asian culture) DiDi and JieJie live in a small box-type residence in an area wracked with constant dust storms. Their daily lives involve trudging through the sand with a sled and empty bottle to get water from the only still-working water pump and walking to the only working phone booth to talk to their mom in Oasis City, who is working in the domed city and saving up to bring them to live with her. Even though life seems bleak, older sister JieJie tries to keep her younger brother DiDi’s spirits up. One day, on DiDi’s birthday, their mom doesn’t call. She doesn’t answer when they try to call her. It’s almost too much for little DiDi to handle. Just when all seems lost, they stumble upon a broken robot in the nearby fenced-off landfill that’s full of junk. They take it home and fix it. When the robot wakes up, it asks them what they want. DiDi says he wants a mom. The robot becomes their AI Mom. There are lots of hugs and snuggling, and their food and water problems seem over. AI Mom is warm and kind, has a dust barrier to shield them on their walks, strength to carry them both when they’re tired, and a full media software library of movies and music. AI Mom is every bit the mom they’ve been missing. But what happens when their real mom comes home?
The panels are rendered beautifully in pencil and charcoal, which is layered in such a way to preserve the suspense of the story from page to page. On certain pages, the action is obscured by the smoke, pollution and dust – you can’t wait to turn the page to see what’s going to happen. Only the parts of the story that depict hope have the slightest amount of color – AI Mom’s face, some little plant starts that the family builds in a hydroponic garden, a mother fox, the sun.
This is ultimately a story about hope; I initially thought the story might be a bit dark for the 8-12 set, but it ends happily, and it might be a unique addition for the generation that will have to deal with climate change. There are no adult themes.
If you’re interested in more comics that use climate change and environmentalism as part of the plot, here are some more:
Middle Reader 8-12
Global: One Fragile World. An Epic Fight for Survival. by Eoin Colfer, et. al.
16 and up Teen / Adult
H20. Grant Calof and Jeevan J. Kang.
Habibi. by Craig Thompson.
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands. by Kate Beaton.
Oasis By Guojing Henry Holt Holt Books for Young Readers, 2025 ISBN: 9781250818379
Maelstrom’s mother has conquered the kingdom, but now there’s nothing for Maelstrom to do. There’s no resistance, everyone’s too afraid to question their new ruler, and Maelstrom is bored. Until a new hero makes it into the inner castle and Maelstrom comes up with a plan to release the captive and cultivate a false relationship that will end in betrayal and the ultimate rival fight. At least, that’s what he thinks he wants until he gets to know the hero, Twigs, and her companions and family. Twigs has her own secrets that she’s hiding and isn’t sure how much to trust Maelstrom and his magic. But together they make a good team, and that’s hard to ignore.
This story asks, “What if?” to a variety of sword and sorcery tropes, including the chosen one, enemies to friends, and hidden royalty. This combination makes the story more fun and interesting by presenting the trope as conventionally used then subverting is as the story progresses and the reader becomes more attached to the main characters and the outcome of their friendship. I think the brightly colored, cartoonish illustrations matched perfectly with the tone of the story and the humor presented throughout. This would make for an excellent book club selection for teen readers or could be a shared reading experience between parents and their middle grade children. Otherwise, it would be an excellent addition to any public or high school library.
Maelstrom A Prince of Evil By Lorian Merriman Henry Holt Holt Books for Young Readers, 2024 ISBN: 9781250822833
Publisher Age Rating: 12-18 NFNT Age Recommendation: Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16), Tween (10-13)
for as long as he can remember, even as he begins his first day in middle school. How can he even think about getting into Stanford let alone survive the rites of passage of middle school? From the creative mind of Arree Chung comes his charming debut of the zany escapades of a middle grader navigating the wonder years of adolescence in Don’t Cause Trouble.
Chris O’Brien and Alicia Ochoa can’t stop graduation day. Literally – they’re stuck in a time loop and don’t know how to find their way out of it. You and Me on Repeat by Mary Shyne takes on graduating high school and all the fun that entails with a modern, sci-fi tinged angle.
Oh my gosh! Such middle grade angst about boys and makeup and how you look and what everyone in school is saying about you and…and…and…why is it so hard to talk to a guy that you think but are not sure you like? It was fine between you and him until you started thinking *that*.
The first couple of pages are blurry grey scale and sepia, with lots of pencil and charcoal lines that create a depth of blackness, which is unlike any middle reader comic I’ve ever seen. Then, from out of the dust/sand storm, two indecipherable figures appear. The fact that the next panel shows two small children alone within huge dunes sets the tone for this title from Canada. Think: a mash up of Metropolis and The Plow That Broke the Plains in graphic novel form…then a futuristic Mary Poppins arrives! (Or Maria Von Trapp.)
Maelstrom’s mother has conquered the kingdom, but now there’s nothing for Maelstrom to do. There’s no resistance, everyone’s too afraid to question their new ruler, and Maelstrom is bored. Until a new hero makes it into the inner castle and Maelstrom comes up with a plan to release the captive and cultivate a false relationship that will end in betrayal and the ultimate rival fight. At least, that’s what he thinks he wants until he gets to know the hero, Twigs, and her companions and family. Twigs has her own secrets that she’s hiding and isn’t sure how much to trust Maelstrom and his magic. But together they make a good team, and that’s hard to ignore.
