Come Learn About Middle Grade Graphic Novels with Me!

This coming Saturday, April 24th, I have the honor of hosting a panel on Middle Grade Graphic Novels and I hope you will join me. As you know, I am the parent of a middle grade graphic novel reader with dyslexia and a HUGE advocate for graphic novels. I’m looking forward to talking with these authors and illustrators. In preparation for the panel I’ve read all of the books and they are all so great!

For more information and to sign up, go here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/landing-page/lbyrextracredit/

About the Books:

Sanity and Tallulah 3: Shortcuts by Molly Brooks

Publisher’s Book Description:

Everything is up in the air when the problem-solving best friends Sanity and Tallulah find themselves co-pilots on an unplanned adventure filled with action, adventure, and dangerous situations.
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Tallulah is great at piloting! And with her learner’s permit freshly reinstated, she has the perfect opportunity to prove it: filling in on the mail route to nearby stations while all the regular pilots are out sick. It’s her first big solo flight, and yeah, okay, her parking could use some work, but she’s not even a little bit nervous—she’s got Sanity along as copilot, plenty of old flight logs for navigation, and they’ll be in radio contact with Wilnick almost the whole time. All they have to do is follow the pre-approved route and stay out of the dangerous, uncharted, explosives-littered debris cloud . . . no matter how tempting a shortcut it is. Oh, and don’t cross the military blockade into the United Territories, obviously. See? No sweat!

Sanity and Tallulah’s pre-approved route didn’t say anything about space stations exploding, enemies in need of rescue, or getting caught in the middle of a border crisis in danger of escalating into all-out war, but sometimes totally awesome pilots have to change plans on the fly, and only an excellent copilot can keep things from going completely upside down.

Borders by Thomas King, Natasha Donovan

Publisher’s Book Description:

From two celebrated Indigenous creators comes a powerful graphic novel about a family caught between nations.

Borders is a masterfully told story of a boy and his mother whose road trip from Alberta to Salt Lake City is thwarted at the border when they identify their citizenship as Blackfoot. Refusing to identify as either American or Canadian first bars their entry into the US, and then their return into Canada. In the limbo between countries, they find power in their connection to their identity and to each other. 

This much-anthologized story has been adapted into a gripping graphic novel by award-winning artist Natasha Donovan. A beautifully told tale with broad appeal, Borders resonates deeply with themes of identity, justice, and belonging.

The Golden Hour by Niki Smith

Publisher’s Book Description:

From the author of The Deep & Dark Blue comes a tender graphic novel, perfect for our time, that gently explores themes of self-discovery, friendship, healing from tragedy, and hope for a better tomorrow.

Struggling with anxiety after witnessing a harrowing instance of gun violence, Manuel Soto copes through photography, using his cell-phone camera to find anchors that keep him grounded. His days are a lonely, latchkey monotony until he’s teamed with his classmates, Sebastian and Caysha, for a group project.

Sebastian lives on a grass-fed cattle farm outside of town, and Manuel finds solace in the open fields and in the antics of the newborn calf Sebastian is hand-raising. As Manuel aides his new friends in their preparations for the local county fair, he learns to open up, confronts his deepest fears, and even finds first love.

Filed under: Middle Grade Fiction