This graphic novel adaptation of Ethel Carnie Holdsworth’s romance novel is about sisters, Hester and Rachel, who grew up in poverty and learned how to fight for justice. The original novel was released in 1925 and was based on Ethel’s own experiences in a mill, but was not well received at the time of release. Now Scarlett and Sophie Rickard have adapted the novel into a new format during a time when the world could use reminding that human rights and dignity are inherent, not earned.Â
The sisters work in a Lancashire textile factory where their mother and grandmother worked. Rachel is full of energy and willing to confront the men in her town telling her she’s worthless, but Hester has a fragility that doesn’t allow for that type of action. Instead, Hester chooses to take a marriage offer from a wealthy mill owner in order to try and better her situation in life while her sister becomes an activist.
Normally, I would not pick up a story like this one as my personal preference leans toward fantasy or escapism from reality. This historical account hits home on many levels of commentary that address the issues of the time but are relatable today to a modern audience. Although this is not a word-to-word adaptation, the creators made sure to include aspects of the original (e.g. accents and colloquialisms). Likewise, the illustrator took care to represent the time period through the clothing and architecture renditions. The color helps distinguish characters, mood, and poverty level by using darker, neutral tones to make everything dark and dirty and saving the brighter and lighter colors for the upper class and their frivolity.Â
This book is best suited for academic libraries with strong English literature programs or adult collections with patrons interested in historical (or romance) graphic novels. Although this book addresses prostitution, there is no on-page sex. Just a little kissing. Both a foreword and author’s note explain that the slavery indicated by the title is not referring to the horrific trans-Atlantic slavery that is most often acknowledged by history but instead refers to the powerlessness of women and laborers.
This Slavery By Ethel Carnie Holdsworth, Sophie Rickard Art by Scarlett Rickard SelfMadeHero, 2025 ISBN: 9781914224355Â
Aisling is a princess about to turn eighteen, but a week before her big debut, she is kidnapped by Forget-Me-Not, who plans to get revenge for being replaced at birth by a changeling. Aisling is that changeling, although she had no idea of her fae heritage and neither did her parents because they don’t recognize her without the glamour she’s been wearing. As they travel through the fae lands, both Aisling and Forget-Me-Not discover they have more in common than they originally thought and start developing a relationship. We learn more about the fae lands through Aisling’s interactions (and almost disasters) and Forget-Me-Not’s backstory about growing up in an alien world that isn’t hospitable to humans. The story wraps up at the end of this volume and provides an epilogue to tie up all the loose ends of the relationship between our two main characters.
The saturated colors worked well with the fantastical setting, and I personally liked how the lighting was used to convey emotions and ambiance throughout the story. This is a standalone as opposed to the start of a series, which makes it a great choice for teen or adult readers looking for a one-and-done LGBTQ+ (specifically sapphic) fantasy romance. There is on-page kissing between two female characters (one that has a masculine look) but no sexual content. I would highly recommend this book for any public library and high school library looking to follow the romantasy trend with LGBTQ+ content. Your patrons will thank you for it.
Forgive-Me-Not By Mari Costa Macmillan First Second, 2026 ISBN: 9781250784179
Company Age Rating:Â 14-18
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16) Creator Representation:Â Brazilian, Portuguese, Character Representation:Â Lesbian,
Stephanie wrote this autobiographical comic based on her own life, growing up in an evangelical community and trying to mash that upbringing into a secular world that had her questioning her core beliefs as a young adult. Luckily, she met James during this time. He was attending seminar and deep in research about the religion, which helped both of them navigate their growing romantic relationship.
Stephanie covers a broad range of topics and emotions that many women will find familiar and intimate, including desire, being comfortable with your own body and thoughts, motherhood, loss, and faith. And she presents them through a lens of lived experience rather than as a prescription you should follow.
As you might expect from the title, color plays an important role throughout Stephanie’s story of growing up, maturing, and coming to terms with herself. Flashbacks and childhood memories tend to be presented in grayscale with a hint of sepia. She uses the most vibrant colors for childbirth and memories with her son. I found the most interesting correlation was when her memories mixed the two to signify that she wasn’t sure of herself and her own thoughts. Especially when exploring how she imagined herself based on her upbringing versus what she was feeling in her body in the moment.
Because of these interactions, and because she doesn’t shy from exploring all of childbirth, there are many depictions of the naked female form represented throughout the book. None of these are sexualized; however, this is clearly meant to be for young/new adults into their maturity and would be best suited for an adult collection in a public or academic library. Give this to your patrons who are feeling disconnected from their childhood, their own body/thoughts, or from their faith. While there aren’t any “answers” presented in Stephanie’s narrative, her story might help others find peace within themselves.
Everything in Color A Love Story By Stephanie Stalvey 23rd St., 2026 ISBN: 9781250347800
Continuing to showcase fan favorites from the original show, Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, Rutherford, and T’Lyn, this first volume in the new ongoing series features the same humor and adventure from the cartoon in episodic comic form. Starting off with a series of short adventures that solve themselves, we see our lower decks’ lieutenants in the bar, where Mariner is complaining about the lack of substantive adventure. This is obviously followed by adventures that get a little too dangerous, including a battle royale with mentors from previous iterations of Star Trek, a new universe quickly consuming theirs, and a time traveling menace wreaking havoc on the timeline.
I appreciated that the artists used the same character styles as the original cartoon and that it was consistent across issues. The primary color scheme of bright and bold with only cel shading really showcases the Star Fleet uniforms and aliens they encounter periodically. And it was fun to see previous favorites like Picard and Scott drawn in this style.
Although you can read this volume without seeing any of the cartoon’s five seasons, it would probably lead new readers to some confusion when character growth or previous adventures are referenced. The footnotes at the bottom of almost every page were fun but mostly unnecessary to the story after the first issue. They also seemed to be attributed to various characters and the narrator without identifying who was speaking in most cases, which was confusing more often than not. This would work best in public libraries since the show was produced for adults and contains adult themes and bleeped language. The subject matter can also get a little dark and depressing, so it’s definitely not meant for children to read although upper teens would likely enjoy it. If you have fans of the show at your library, they should enjoy reading this tie-in continuation.
Star Trek Lower Decks: Second Contact By Ryan North Art by Derek Charm and Jack Lawrence IDW, 2025 ISBN: 9798887243030
Related media:Â TV to Comic
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18)
Miss Mary Mac introduces storytelling and creative writing in graphic novel form with chapters that cover writing as an art form, where ideas come from, creating strong images, motivation, inspiration, and the creative process. The reader is invited to consider their own experiences and how to find their interests and bring those both together to tell a story. The author provides examples from different perspectives and brings their words to life by pairing them with lavishly drawn figures by the artist. The details and shading throughout give each panel depth and draw the reader in to learn more. It also allows the reader to visualize themselves in places they may not have experience with themselves.
It is fantastic to have a craft novel about creative writing presented in graphic novel form as the visualizations alongside the advice from the author worked in tandem to create a full picture for any reader to follow. I also enjoyed that the author used some of their early writing as examples throughout the book. At times, the artist used cartoon proportions and non-realistic coloring to move the reader’s eye across the pages. Other times, the images were portrayed more realistically, which allowed the reader to take in the details.
This is obviously marketed toward younger readers interested in writing, but this would be a good introduction for anyone interested in learning more about the creative process or writing in general. It would be great for public and school libraries and would be a good addition to academic collections that collect juvenile or leisure books.
Creative Writing with Miss Mary Mac: A Handbook for Young and Future Authors By Mary McInerney Art by Rivkah LaFille Macmillan First Second, 2025 ISBN: 9781250216885
Company Age Rating:Â 8-12
NFNT Age Recommendation: Teen (13-16), Tween (10-13)
Kara Orc is a doctor-in-training alongside Tucker Wolf at the Creature Clinic. Besides working with her competitive rival, Kara also has to contend with her mother, head doctor of the clinic. When a giant collapses outside their doors, no one can figure out what’s wrong with him; however, an unconscious human is discovered under his boot. Humans live in Fableland, which is outside of Myth Valley where the clinic is located, so they are rarely seen.
Kara wants to do the right thing and treat the human as a patient, but her mother wants him gone and orders Oblong, the janitor, to take him away. Oblong decides to help Kara with her plan to secretly treat the human, except once the human, Mitch, wakes up, he and Oblong become friends and secretly travel around the clinic together. Mitch has a plan to help the other patients, but with humans banned from the premises, they’ll have to get creative to help him prove himself and treat the giant before it’s too late.
This was an interesting take on the hospital setting that showcases how caring and asking questions can help patients just as much as the medicine that gets prescribed. The cast of characters was well rounded with a variety of personalities and creatures throughout the story. Most of the creatures will be known to the reader, but there’s a small handful, like Oblong, that are new and different. The coloring matched the tone, and the setting had a clean art style in the clinic and rougher details when it would enhance the characteristics of the scene outside of the clinic.
The charm of this story is in the relationship between daughter and mother, which addresses generational trauma in a realistic way. The author effectively portrays a variety of relationships between the myriad characters: family, friend, and rival. This would make a great addition to any middle school library or public library.
Creature Clinic By Gavin Aung Than Macmillan First Second, 2025 ISBN: 9781250847584
Company Age Rating:Â 8-12
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Teen (13-16), Tween (10-13) Creator Representation:Â Australian,
When Cassie, a fourth grade girl, thinks she’s won a grand prize from a mail flyer, she finds herself excited to share this fabulous feeling with her family, best friend, and favorite teacher. But as she is confronted with new big feelings (e.g. a classmate coming between Cassie and her best friend, everyone telling her she’s too sensitive, she didn’t really win any prizes), Cassie can no longer rely on her usual methods to find her way back to the wonders of life. Eventually, she is able to put some of the advice she is given into practice and starts communicating her feelings to her friends and family and works to find balance between her feelings and theirs.
This book does an excellent job of describing big feelings at a young age when you don’t understand where those feelings are coming from or how to talk about them. The fact that it has gorgeous illustrations adds to the appeal since words to describe feelings can be hard. Kids will be able to relate to the (slightly) fantastical depictions of everyday occurrences of wonder. This is a must in every library where kids can experience it and find a way out of their own big feelings. There’s no nudity, adult language, or romantic relationships depicted or discussed. Use it in your classroom or programming to talk about depression, feeling overlooked, friendship, or communication.
Dream On By Shannon Hale Art by Marcela Cespedes Macmillan Roaring Brook, 2025 ISBN: 9781250843067
What starts out as a slice-of-life story about a young man who works at a coffee shop, quickly becomes so much more as the reader discovers that Eli has magic, and the new hot guy from the coffee shop, James, catches him trying to practice in secret. James introduces Eli to the magical world that regular humans don’t know about, as well as his friends. And in the process, they start dating.
Each chapter follows one of the ensemble characters through their day, which allows readers to connect with them while the story’s mystery progresses. Each character encounters something odd, so they bring the information back to the group and discuss a strategy to uncover what the adults are trying to conceal from them. When their questions go unanswered, and they can’t find anything through their research, the group decides to summon a spirit from the past to find answers. But all they find is more questions as volume one concludes.
This story starts with chapters that show the same sequence of events but from different points of view, which I really liked and thought the rest of the story might do the same thing. However, since the other characters did not overlap as much, this was not the case. As the series title, Arcana, suggests, there is allusion to the major arcana of tarot origin in the chapter titles and portrayal of character roles within the group. One character does use tarot cards to divine events, so this does happen on the page.
The author is inclusive with characterization and artwork. The Lost Heirs features a gay dating relationship, LGBTQ+ representation in side characters, and none of it feels forced nor does the inclusion of various body types of the main ensemble. The body types (thick and thin, short and tall) are rarely mentioned in the story and are portrayed with cartoon coloring and body proportions, which works to naturalize them. The color palette is rather limited, using a brighter color to highlight an important character or emotion when necessary.
There is non-graphic, consensual sex between two young men that happens behind closed doors, so no nudity is shown (apart from naked male chests while cuddling in bed afterwards). If you are looking to diversify your graphic novel collection, and want a story that happens to have healthy LGBTQ+ relationships and characters as well as different body types, this is a great addition. Just beware that volume one ends on a cliffhanger, so readers will be wanting volume two!
The Lost Heirs By Sam Prentice-Jones Feiwel and Friends, 2025 ISBN: 9781250290229
Set in a future where videogames are all virtual reality (VR) based, Shangri-La Frontier (SLF) is a multi-player fantasy game with lots of unique characters, scenarios, and items, making it stand out from other VR games that are not well-developed and full of bugs and broken mechanics. Sunraku is a player that tackles these terrible games as a challenge; however, he picks up SLF during summer break and discovers his own unique scenario that keeps drawing him back to the game. His unconventional choices come from his many hours playing broken games and wanting to maximize his fun.
In volume one, Sunraku skips the beginning tutorial town and almost dies from the area boss monster guarding the second town. Wanting to get ahead of most of the players, he goes back to exploring after purchasing some new gear. While exploring, he runs into one of the unique boss monsters of the game, which don’t respawn after being beaten by players. He puts up a good fight but is no match for Lycagon; however, the beast acknowledges the strength of the player by cursing Sunraku to not be able to wear armor on his torso or legs and lower-level monsters will avoid him. Shortly after that, Sunraku finds a unique scenario involving a vorpal rabbit leading him to a hidden area called Rabituza.
In volume two, Sunraku is targeted by a group of player-killers (pk’ers) after an image of him with the unique non-player character (NPC) vorpal rabbit Emul is posted to an online forum without his permission. One of the pk’ers is an old gaming buddy, so we learn more about Sunraku’s other gaming adventures with Pencilgon and Katzo, who joins the game later. Sunraku is saved from being pk’d by a player known as Psyger-0, the “Attack Master,” who’s a female classmate with a crush on him but is too shy to even say hello. Next, Sunraku goes back to Rabituza to tackle the unique training scenario he was offered. He must fight a total of ten bouts with monsters, using only vorpal weapons, and wearing an item that lowers the experience he earns.
Volume three shows Sunraku finishing the epic training scenario and Pencilgon deciding that her clan has failed her game aspirations, and she needs to form a new group who can help her. After helping him escape pk-ers a second time, Psyger-0 sends a friend request to Sunraku, which he accepts to be polite and because he didn’t want to offend such a high-level player. This is when Sunraku explores the world by going into the Prismatic Forest Grotto and observing the monsters that populate the area. Pencilgon explains her plan to Sunraku and Katzo to take down one of the unique NPCs, Wethermon. The rest of this volume and the fourth shows how they prepare for this epic fight as well as its beginning.
This series is a unique contribution to action manga that utilizes isekai tropes, explores multiple game settings, and the interactions of characters in the game as well as outside of it. Due to the on-page violence and use of adult language, this is firmly a teen and up series; however, it is not much different from videogames that this audience plays anyway. In fact, gamers are the target audience. Adult readers would also find a lot to enjoy, especially the extras found in between chapters. This is where you can find additional lore about the games, monsters, items, and characters. Sometimes it repeats information that was explained during the story but sometimes it is new information that wouldn’t necessarily be easy to convey in the story without interrupting the pacing but enhances the reader’s knowledge. The illustrations have great detail and add to the world building as well and are one of my favorite aspects of this series after character building.
There are currently fourteen physical volumes available to purchase with the fifteenth set to be released at the end of February. If you have access to a platform that provides digital manga, there are eighteen volumes available. Another note is that we featured this series in our recent anime column, Anime Club Picks. The first season of anime covers the first six volumes of manga while the second season picks up immediately where the first stopped. Patrons who want to read ahead of the anime as it airs will find plenty of material as will readers looking to learn more about the world presented.
Shangri-La Frontier Vol. 1-4 By Katarina Art by Ryosuke Fuji Kodansha, 2022 ISBN: 9781646514823
Volume
ISBN
2
9781646514830
3
9781646514847
4
9781646514854
Company Age Rating:Â 16+ Series ISBNs and Order Related media:Â Comic to TV
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18)
At five, Ivy learns that she is starless in her useless beast tamer skill. Because of this, her family distances themselves from her andeven sides with the village chief when he demands her sacrifice three years later in order to end their curse and make life better for everyone else in the village. With the help of her only friend, the village seeress, Ivy successfully runs away and makes her way toward the capital.
Ivy disguises herself as a boy, based on a vague feeling from a previous life, and survives by hunting and foraging for food and supplementing her supplies from the various trash piles she comes across on her journey.Ivy forms a bond with a very rare type of slime and a large cat monster. Not trusting people after how her village treated her, Ivy mostly keeps to herself; however, after she arrives at a new town, the captain and vice-captain take a liking to her and go out of their way to help her (all while thinking she is a boy).
Ivy learns that there are good people in the world but gets spooked when reports of others fleeing her village reach her. She decides to move on to continue her journey.This story is an isekai (someone from our world is reincarnated or summoned to another world-either with game-like mechanics or fantasy elements), but unlike in other isekai, Ivy doesn’t seem to remember any specifics from her previous life, just feelings or facts about that help her survive.
This story features a young girl under 10 disguised as a boy, which would appeal to younger, middle grade readers. And I would recommend putting it in your middle grade graphic novel collection. The only issue that might come up is that in later volumes (4 or 5) starts an arc that deals with child abduction into the slave trade. This arc is also included in the anime adaptation. If the anime followed the manga, then none of the violence against children is shown on screen. Most of the fifth manga volume is actually just discussion of events and possible solutions, including using Ivy as bait.I appreciated that the theme of the series seems to be on trust and building relationships with caution and kindness.
A nice departure from the more violent isekai that focus on beating monsters to level up. I also liked the world building aspects. There’s quite a few scenes devoted to money, banking, and trash clean up. Specifically, trash is collected in specified areas near town and monster tamers who bond with slimes travel around to dissolve the trash that can’t be reused. I don’t think readers will be put off by these bits of world building since they are sprinkled throughout the character building.The art style matched the story, whimsical and fluid, lots of small details to flesh out the characters and the world. And it’s consistent through the first five volumes as well. It softens the harsher discussions and themes. Each volume has also included a bonus comic and short story. There are six manga volumes out in English and volume eight of the original light novel was just released in December with volume nine planned to release in April 2025.
The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash By Honobonoru500 Art by Tou Fukino Seven Seas, 2022 ISBN: 9781638584124
Volume
ISBN
2
9781638587323
3
9781685795429
4
9798888430477
5
9798888433973
Company Age Rating:Â Teen Series ISBNs and Order Related media:Â Book to Comic, Comic to TV
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Tween (10-13)
This graphic novel adaptation of Ethel Carnie Holdsworth’s romance novel is about sisters, Hester and Rachel, who grew up in poverty and learned how to fight for justice. The original novel was released in 1925 and was based on Ethel’s own experiences in a mill, but was not well received at the time of release. Now Scarlett and Sophie Rickard have adapted the novel into a new format during a time when the world could use reminding that human rights and dignity are inherent, not earned. 
revenge for being replaced at birth by a changeling. Aisling is that changeling, although she had no idea of her fae heritage and neither did her parents because they don’t recognize her without the glamour she’s been wearing. As they travel through the fae lands, both Aisling and Forget-Me-Not discover they have more in common than they originally thought and start developing a relationship. We learn more about the fae lands through Aisling’s interactions (and almost disasters) and Forget-Me-Not’s backstory about growing up in an alien world that isn’t hospitable to humans. The story wraps up at the end of this volume and provides an epilogue to tie up all the loose ends of the relationship between our two main characters.
upbringing into a secular world that had her questioning her core beliefs as a young adult. Luckily, she met James during this time. He was attending seminar and deep in research about the religion, which helped both of them navigate their growing romantic relationship.
Continuing to showcase fan favorites from the original show, Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, Rutherford, and T’Lyn, this first volume in the new ongoing series features the same humor and adventure from the cartoon in episodic comic form. Starting off with a series of short adventures that solve themselves, we see our lower decks’ lieutenants in the bar, where Mariner is complaining about the lack of substantive adventure. This is obviously followed by adventures that get a little too dangerous, including a battle royale with mentors from previous iterations of Star Trek, a new universe quickly consuming theirs, and a time traveling menace wreaking havoc on the timeline.
Miss Mary Mac introduces storytelling and creative writing in graphic novel form with chapters that cover writing as an art form, where ideas come from, creating strong images, motivation, inspiration, and the creative process. The reader is invited to consider their own experiences and how to find their interests and bring those both together to tell a story. The author provides examples from different perspectives and brings their words to life by pairing them with lavishly drawn figures by the artist. The details and shading throughout give each panel depth and draw the reader in to learn more. It also allows the reader to visualize themselves in places they may not have experience with themselves.
Kara Orc is a doctor-in-training alongside Tucker Wolf at the Creature Clinic. Besides working with her competitive rival, Kara also has to contend with her mother, head doctor of the clinic. When a giant collapses outside their doors, no one can figure out what’s wrong with him; however, an unconscious human is discovered under his boot. Humans live in Fableland, which is outside of Myth Valley where the clinic is located, so they are rarely seen.
feeling with her family, best friend, and favorite teacher. But as she is confronted with new big feelings (e.g. a classmate coming between Cassie and her best friend, everyone telling her she’s too sensitive, she didn’t really win any prizes), Cassie can no longer rely on her usual methods to find her way back to the wonders of life. Eventually, she is able to put some of the advice she is given into practice and starts communicating her feelings to her friends and family and works to find balance between her feelings and theirs.
What starts out as a slice-of-life story about a young man who works at a coffee shop, quickly becomes so much more as the reader discovers that Eli has magic, and the new hot guy from the coffee shop, James, catches him trying to practice in secret. James introduces Eli to the magical world that regular humans don’t know about, as well as his friends. And in the process, they start dating.
Set in a future where videogames are all virtual reality (VR) based, Shangri-La Frontier (SLF) is a multi-player fantasy game with lots of unique characters, scenarios, and items, making it stand out from other VR games that are not well-developed and full of bugs and broken mechanics. Sunraku is a player that tackles these terrible games as a challenge; however, he picks up SLF during summer break and discovers his own unique scenario that keeps drawing him back to the game. His unconventional choices come from his many hours playing broken games and wanting to maximize his fun.
