It’s 1999, Sara is about to start sixth grade, her first day of school since her family’s moved to a new house. She’s excited to join a new club but even more excited to spend lots of time with her best friend Monica since they didn’t get to see each other much this past summer. It’s going to be a great year! That is, until Sara wakes up to discover her legs are suddenly… hairy.
Mixed Feelings by Sara Amini and Shadia Amin is a colorful fun semi-fictional memoir of Amini’s own childhood. The book follows Sara through her sixth grade year as she starts dealing with puberty and the dynamics of middle school life. On top of this newfound hair she’s discovering on her legs (and arms… and eyebrows), Monica has a new best friend from her summer camp and Sara can’t seem to escape the two of them, making her feel like a left out third wheel. There’s some standard touchpoints of a first year in middle school story but Amini’s storytelling works in such a way it never feels redundant or overdone.
In an attempt to try something new and fulfill her goal of joining a club, Sara joins drama club, landing a lead role after her first audition. All that time spent watching television is finally paying off! The drama club and the upcoming play are a solid backbone to the story. The depictions of the intricacies of drama clubs and the pre-show warm up games are a particular highlight; any reader who spent time in a drama club will find them very familiar.
As the mixed race daughter of immigrants, Sara begins facing uncomfortable questions and exclusionary remarks from peers at school and her Farsi classes. She’s not Colombian enough, she’s not Iranian enough, she’s not Catholic, she’s not Muslim, so what is she anyway? There’s multiple scenes of other kids belittling her identity with appropriately angry and frustrated reactions from Sara. She watches her mother being discriminated against for her language and accent firsthand. Her pride in her parents’ backgrounds and their respective cultures grows as the story continues, which could be a source of inspiration for young readers dealing with similar experiences themselves.The text features bits of dialog in both Spanish and Farsi throughout the book and includes a glossary at the end.
While it does have serious moments throughout, Mixed Feelings is overall a very fun graphic novel. The scenes of Sara’s ongoing newly sprouted hair drama and subsequent secret shaving are laugh out loud funny. So are many of the moments with her family, especially with her dad. Amin’s art includes great facial expressions that jump off the page, with lots of colors in the panels. The art sets the mood for the story and works alongside the emotions perfectly. For readers interested in retro pop culture, including those beyond their middle grade years, there’s a lot of great 90s references hidden in the very detailed art too.
The first in a new series, Mixed Feelings is a delightful addition to the ever growing collection of middle grade graphic novels. Amini’s love of her family and reflection on her own childhood shines through the story; Amin’s art complements this perfectly. The story deals with serious topics while making you laugh on the next page. Readers will be excited to follow Sara’s story through to the next book in the series.
Mixed Feelings By Sara Amini Art by Shadia Amin Scholastic GRAPHIX, 2026 ISBN: 9781338797398
Company Age Rating: 8-12
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Tween (10-13) Creator Representation: Colombian-American, Iranian-American, Character Representation: Colombian-American, Iranian-American,
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.
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.
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: 9781914224355
The story opens with David, a brown-skinned, lanky middle-schooler, imagining the “spark” of creativity and ideas as a cute little cartoon creature. He arrives home and meets up with his neighbor Marta, a lively homeschooled 2nd grader with red-rimmed glasses and the two investigate an explosion in David’s basement. It turns out his mom has successfully created a tool to shrink herself down so she can travel between dimensions into a “micro universe.” Unfortunately, she’s left the tool behind.
David and Marta go on a brief adventure to rescue David’s mom and, while in the microscopic dimension, encounter the blue spark of David’s imagination. It’s pictured as a blue ball with a purple cape, gloves, and boots on it’s stick-like arms and legs and a splash of blue “hair.” Together, with the help of David’s experiments, they rescue his mom from a crowd of purple creatures like Spark that seem to be sucking her creativity.
Inspired by Spark and their adventure, David tries again to start a Science Club and gets more interest this time. With the enthusiastic participation of Marta, he demonstrates how to make “space mud” at the club’s first meeting in his backyard and even gets the interest of a girl, Lisa. She’s shown wearing tights, a long skirt, and a loose jacket with curly black hair and a blue knit cap. David’s audience includes a kid with long blonde hair in a wheelchair.
However, the story is far from over – Spark isn’t the only creature that came through the portal from the microscopic universe and David’s mom is working on a new project in their basement that could mean disaster! David will have to bring out his trusty experiments and depend on Marta’s inexhaustible energy to save the day with science and keep the spark of inspiration alive.
There’s not a lot of variation in body types pictured, but that’s due more to Loux’s art style than a studied lack of diversity. Loux’s characters all have long, thin, flexible limbs and show exaggerated emotions with their wide mouths, heavily-drawn eyebrows, and the rapid changes in their eyes. The science experiments have a few illustrations, but these are mostly part of the story – the instructions are primarily in the text.
The other dimension is colored in orange-hued pinks, pale purples, and yellows with lots of ripples, creatures with multiple legs, and speech bubbles that look like tropically patterned easter eggs. This contrasts with the everyday suburb where David lives with blue skies and green trees and lawns.
The story includes 18 simple science experiments, from slime to a straw rocket and there is a QR code that has videos to accompany each experiment. The book is sponsored by a science organization called High Touch High Tech which creates fun science experiences.
There is some disconnect in the story – David is supposed to be a middle schooler, but the science experiments are more something an elementary student, like Marta, would enjoy doing. They do somewhat interrupt the flow of the story. As Marta points out, they’re running from monsters so why didn’t David just bring a compass instead of magnetizing a needle in the middle of a chase? However, the story is mostly a vehicle to carry the science experiments and a younger audience will enjoy the light story and be interested in trying the different projects. Manning is an experienced author who is used to creating nonfiction/fiction graphic novel scripts and the plot moves smoothly despite the sometimes jarring science elements. Older readers who like Matthew Loux’s art and are interested in the science-fiction genre are more likely to enjoy his own graphic novel series, The Time Museum.
The Spark Experiment By Matthew Manning Art by Matthew Loux Andrews McMeel, 2026 ISBN: 9798881601928
Charlotte Bissett seems to be a pretty average middle school girl in the quaint town of Devilfish Bay. She lives with her internet chef father, Raymond, and her loyal canine companion, Vincent. She is a bookworm and devours any book put in front of her.
However, the cracks in her personal life slowly make themselves clear. Charlotte’s mother had gone missing in the recent past on a boating trip and her father is attempting to move on and begin to date again. On top of this, Charlotte doesn’t appear to have any friends, yet when two kids from her past, Molly and Griffin, move back to town it soon becomes clear why Charlotte is so guarded in her social life. Molly used to be Charlotte’s ride-or-die bestfriend, and yet after Molly moved away the girls had a falling out. Molly wants nothing more than to have a fresh start, but Charlotte is resistant and does her best to avoid Molly. Eventually, Charlotte reveals that the reason she is upset with Molly is because when Charlotte told Molly that a sea creature was responsible for her mother’s disappearance, Charlotte didn’t believe her. It is in that atmosphere of uncertainty and pre-teen angst that Charlotte, taking refuge in her safe place, the school library, is combing the shelves when a book falls off the shelf next to her. The book appears to be bound in green, improperly prepared leather of some kind, the pieces of rotted looking material stitched together in phantasmagoric fashion reminiscent of the Necronomicon from the Evil Dead franchise. The title of the book is “Liber de Monstrum” and true to that name appears to be a grimoire of supernatural information. Taking it home, Charlotte reads from the book, very carefully sounding out the words in an unknown language and upon uttering the last word the windows of her room blow open, the electricity goes out in the area around her house and in the morning Devilfish Bay experiences the first snowfall in fifty years.
On top of these strange occurrences, that day it’s announced that one of Charlotte’s favorite teachers, Mr Cooper, has gone missing and an enigmatic woman with platinum blond hair, who doesn’t appear to be who or what she seems, takes over the class in the interim. Clearly, Charlotte has awoken something or some things from their slumber, and it’s up to her to try and fight these unknown forces. The question is whether her recently returned friends will believe her this time and offer her their help, because it is clear Charlotte cannot fight these monsters alone.
The Girl Who Loves Monsters follows spectacularly in the “kids on bikes” tradition, creating a very real and present danger in a small community and presenting the kids willing to stand up to that danger when the rest of the community can’t see it or believe in it. Charlotte, Molly, and Griffin make a compelling trio bound by their history, common interests, friendships, and burgeoning teenage emotions. In this first volume in the Devilfish Bay series, writer Insha Fitzpatrick sets the scene brilliantly for future adventures and the various mundane trials and tribulations that will also stand in the main characters’ way as they attempt to combat the enigmatic evil that has come forth from the Liber de Monstrum.
The art by Ashley Robin Franklin creates a beautiful balance between the soft, cartoonish style that sets a relaxed tone to the everyday world of the story with the sharp, phantasmagoric elements that truly evoke the horror and supernatural elements. From the first page to the last, The Girl Who Loves Monsters is a compelling read that deals with very relatable parts of adolescence, such as being taken seriously by those around you, mixed with the eerie supernatural elements that could only take place in a small town somewhat set apart from the wider world.
The Girl Who Loved Monsters By Insha Fitzpatrick Art by Ashley Franklin Penguin Random House Viking Books for Young Readers, 2026 ISBN: 9780593690901
Company Age Rating: 8-12
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11) Creator Representation: African-American, Queer, Character Representation: African-American,
There is a long and storied tradition of bratty kids in children’s literature: Ramona B. Quimby, Max, basically every kid except Charlie in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And, of course, Junie B. Jones. Barbara Parks’ kindergarten heroine first entered the scene in 1992 and has graced 31 books, multiple stage plays, and a video game, even finding her way into Banned status in the early 2000s for not displaying good social values, poor grammar, and “mouthiness”. That by itself, in addition to being a straight up mood, could attract new readers to this legacy series. Now our kindergarten sass mouth is starring in her own graphic novel series from Penguin Random House, adapted by Colleen AF Venable and illustrated by Honie Beam. The first three books, Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus, Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business, and Junie B. Jones and Her Big Fat Mouth, are already available and the fourth is expected September 2026.
All three graphics follow the original books closely with mild nods towards modernization (a fidget seat in Junie B.’s classroom and the appearance of a cell phone) but no real structural changes. Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus sees Junie B. on her first day of kindergarten and her dread over the too loud, too crowded, too much bus pushes her to hide in her school overnight with disastrous results. Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business has Junie B. get confused over the arrival of her new baby sibling and telling an oopsie lie about him being a monkey. Finally, Junie B. Jones and Her Big Fat Mouth follows our main character dealing with an upcoming job day at school and realizing that she occasionally talks before she thinks things through.
Visually, the graphic is cute with a bright, animated art style and easy to follow panel flow. Beam adds fun, wavy cell borders when Junie B. is imagining wild scenarios and the book plays with different text styles for moments of emphasis. Venable sticks incredibly closely to the source material, in fact a little too closely.
I’m not sure this graphic does enough that’s different from the books. I mentioned nods towards modernization and they really are only nods. Venable didn’t leave room for changes in how contemporary children move through what is essentially a new world from what Junie B. inhabited. I’m not saying kids today can’t be “mouthy” or opinionated, there’s just something about this that feels out of step for me. Not only Junie B.’s behavior, but the reactions from the adults in her life seem really far removed from how kids today may behave. The books are filled with moments of Junie B. struggling or lashing out in a way that’s played for laughs, but reads as almost upset and none of the adults in the book seem to acknowledge or provide thoughtful help. I really wanted to like this -I love a mouthy, rude kid- but I finished feeling a little indifferent.
Junie B. is a hard character to like and that has always been part of her draw. She represents that main character part of us that remembers each questionable childhood moment or sees others having those same moments and can take a minute to laugh at them. Having these stories in a new format may introduce a new generation to their parent’s favorite sassy, mouthy rude kid. But, I suspect they’re going to meet her and not know what to do with her.
Junie B. Jones By Colleen AF Venable Art by Honie Beam Penguin Random House Viking Books for Young Readers, 202
Volume
ISBN
Junie. B. Jones and the Stinky Smelly Bus
9780593706701
Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business
9780593706718
Junie B. Jones and Her Big Fat Mouth
9780593706725
Company Age Rating: 6-9
NFNT Age Recommendation: Easy Readers (5-9), Picture Books (3-8)
The rules of the game are simple: don’t get tagged, don’t cross the Uphill/Downhill dividing line, and no adults allowed. If you get tagged, you’re immediately placed in the other side’s jail (until the streetlights come on, until the school year starts). Passed down through generations, everyone in Lakeside knows these rules are integral to keeping this decades long capture the flag game going. Newcomers must complete a puzzle in order to show their responsibility and be sworn into the game. When Fred’s family moves to Lakeside, he spends his summer playing The Endless Game, a summer he and the town will never forget.
The Endless Game, written by J.D. Amato with art by Sophie Morse, is a new middle grade graphic novel focusing on Fred’s first summer in his new town. He’s not happy his family’s moved again but almost immediately meets his fellow Downhill kids. After passing the entry test, Fred is sworn in as a member of the Downhill by the Council of Homeschooled Kids and quickly learns all about Lakeside’s infamous game. There’s DIY castles, root beer speakeasies, and bike races, plus years of lore and history to catch up on. As the summer flies by, Fred learns that the game always takes priority, even if winning never seems fully possible.
At home, Fred’s mom is glad he’s made friends and has finally fit in somewhere. She deals with her own job hunting struggles, something hinted at off page and in larger spreads, but not a main focus of Fred’s energy. His dad’s absence, however, is strongly felt throughout the story. Fred just wants his dad to finally move to Lakeside to be with his family, a move being held up by his work situation. They’re all tired of having to uproot their lives for his dad’s job and just want him to be home with them in this new place they love. Amato weaves the more emotional family touchpoints into more of a background plot, while still being a crucial element of Fred’s summer.
The Endless Game reads like the best kind of kids summer movie from the 80’s or 90’s but written for the kids of today, giving it a very timeless feeling. It takes place in a pre-cell phone time, seemingly the 90’s, without constant references to cultural touchpoints of the time, making it enjoyable and welcoming for readers of all ages. The kids of Lakeside are diverse, one benefit of this modern graphic novel over some existing classic “kids in summer” stories, and many young readers will see someone similar to themselves.
Morse’s art is lively, full of motion and movement, an excellent complement to the action-packed story. The colors are warm summer tones to go along with its seasonal setting. The characters are very expressive. One particular highlight is the spreads at the beginning of each chapter, which often feature quick looks into Fred’s life and family beyond the game.
The Endless Game is a fast-paced graphic novel full of summer fun for middle grade readers. It will appeal to readers looking for slice of life graphic novels and those looking for exciting action in their graphic novels. While it is intended for ages 8 to 12, it has appeal beyond that in both directions, as well as older readers as well. It is an excellent summertime read.
The Endless Game By J.D. Amato Art by Sophie Morse Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2026 ISBN: 9781665927154
Company Age Rating: 8-12
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Tween (10-13)
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 ,
Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales is a wildly successful series of historical stories told in graphic format. He’s also written short stories with the same style for various anthologies. In his 13th book in the series, he goes full tilt into the short story format with a series of creepy, gross, terrifying, and weird stories, most, but not all, centered around the United States.
The story is framed by his original narrators and characters from history—Nathan Hale, the hangman, the British provost, and, added in Major Impossible, Bill Richmond. Hale starts the story with his narrators peering at a sketch of the front cover, with the historical Nathan Hale explaining that “this book was created by hand by a real human artist.” There’s a humorous warning at the beginning about the scary content, then the framing plot opens.
The four narrators are sheltering from the rain under the gallows and decide to tell scary stories, starting with Captain Hale. Since it’s his thirteenth tale, he tells a scary story about a thirteen baby—the Jersey Devil. Black and white art, picked out with spots of green, illustrates the gruesome creature and its victims, ending with a short discussion on folklore and history. The provost demands a true story, so Hale begins “A Sip of Radiation” and the backgrounds glow a ghostly green as he tells the true story of Radithor, radium-infused water. The story jumps between Curie’s discovery of radium and the effects of Radithor on a welathy young man, Eben Byers, who died a gruesome death due to the “miracle cure” and ends with the radium girls and a creepy correlation between overuse of radium and the possible effects of unlimited internet use. The stories continue with the ghostly “The Demon Cat,” a grotesque tale from Edgar Allan Poe, “Hop-Frog,” and more. They include snapshots of US history, like a dream of Abraham Lincoln, a ghost story from the Civil War, and, of course, reappearances of the Jersey Devil.
Bill Richmond’s contribution, “The Boo Hag” is framed in a slightly darker green and features a cast of Black characters with creepy fleshless monsters, and placid, swirling waters in the South Carolina Sea Islands that hide dark secrets. Hale switches to a sharper contrast in “The Head in the Jar” which features the folk legend of Joaquin Murrieta. Stark white backgrounds on the small panels show the bare desert of the stockades and Gold Rush towns then switch to a mass of grays as Murrieta suffers and reenacts his vengeance in the dark of night.
The story ends with a transition that takes the readers to Denmark and introduces the berserkers of the title. Hale’s characters in this tale show sharply defined faces with pointed, craggy noses and long-haired, narrow faces contrasting with bulky, bearded warriors and fleshy tyrants. The story comes to a gory and dark end, featuring monstrous beasts and dense, packed panels showing heroes battling creatures in the dark. The stories return to the US and the true crime story of “The Butler Goes Berserk” featuring the mysterious crimes at Frank Lloyd Wright’s estate, Taliesin, committed by his butler, Julian Carlton. The collection is finished with a goofy story from the hangman, framed in glowing green and a final appearance of the Jersey Devil.
Hale ends the book with his usual meticulous research; in this case he adds additional information to the sources explaining which parts of each story are factual and which are folklore or legends. He also includes an encouragement for readers to explore short stories and some recommendations and sources.
This is a fitting transition to twelve wonderful historical graphic novels and hopefully marks the beginning of a new set of these histories. It’s also a fun way to get readers to try something new as well as stop to think a little more deeply about the media and stories they consume, since Hale includes lots of discussion points throughout the story as well as plenty of gore, monsters, and creepy happenings. A sure bet for middle school readers and anyone who enjoys creepy stories and interesting historical tidbits, this will delight both old fans of Hale and those new to his work.
Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: Bones and Berserkers By Nathan Hale Abrams, 2025 ISBN: 9781419773204
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Teen (13-16), Tween (10-13)
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)
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
a new house. She’s excited to join a new club but even more excited to spend lots of time with her best friend Monica since they didn’t get to see each other much this past summer. It’s going to be a great year! That is, until Sara wakes up to discover her legs are suddenly… hairy. 
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. 
The story opens with David, a brown-skinned, lanky middle-schooler, imagining the “spark” of creativity and ideas as a cute little cartoon creature. He arrives home and meets up with his neighbor Marta, a lively homeschooled 2nd grader with red-rimmed glasses and the two investigate an explosion in David’s basement. It turns out his mom has successfully created a tool to shrink herself down so she can travel between dimensions into a “micro universe.” Unfortunately, she’s left the tool behind.
Devilfish Bay. She lives with her internet chef father, Raymond, and her loyal canine companion, Vincent. She is a bookworm and devours any book put in front of her. 
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And, of course, Junie B. Jones. Barbara Parks’ kindergarten heroine first entered the scene in 1992 and has graced 31 books, multiple stage plays, and a video game, even finding her way into Banned status in the early 2000s for not displaying good social values, poor grammar, and “mouthiness”. That by itself, in addition to being a straight up mood, could attract new readers to this legacy series. Now our kindergarten sass mouth is starring in her own graphic novel series from Penguin Random House, adapted by Colleen AF Venable and illustrated by Honie Beam. The first three books, Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus, Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business, and Junie B. Jones and Her Big Fat Mouth, are already available and the fourth is expected September 2026.
line, and no adults allowed. If you get tagged, you’re immediately placed in the other side’s jail (until the streetlights come on, until the school year starts). Passed down through generations, everyone in Lakeside knows these rules are integral to keeping this decades long capture the flag game going. Newcomers must complete a puzzle in order to show their responsibility and be sworn into the game. When Fred’s family moves to Lakeside, he spends his summer playing The Endless Game, a summer he and the town will never forget. 
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.
with the same style for various anthologies. In his 13th book in the series, he goes full tilt into the short story format with a series of creepy, gross, terrifying, and weird stories, most, but not all, centered around the United States.
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.
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.
