We’re close to the end! Today’s top 10 are graphic novels and comics that were my favorites of the year, graphic novels that taught me, entertained me, made me feel something, and inspired me (to cosplay that is!) I always say one of the indicators for me is whether I’d want the art on my wall and that’s the case with any of these.
It’s not a secret that graphic novels are here to stay and if these are any indication of their amazingness, they’ll be around forever. Hats off to the illustrators or the creators that do double duty as author AND illustrator.
What do you look for in great graphic novels and comics?
As promised, Wednesday’s list are for picture books. Whether I see them recommended in library journals, bookish websites, or from my favorite human recommender, Stacey Rattner (the Leaping Librarian), I have favorites and it’s usually because they hit me in the feels.
I was a fan of Guojing when she published Oasis (hint: you might see that on an upcoming list), so when I read The House That Floated, I realized I’m just a big fan of her concepts and art- in this case a wordless picture book.
Khorram is known for his YA and now adult romances but his love, as a Persian of tea, led him to write the picture book that I’ve been waiting so long to pub and it finally arrived in 2025. Tea IS love. I love whimsy as evidenced by other titles on this list and heartfelt. What do you look for in picture books?
My top 10 lists each year always capture the books published in that year, however manga and manhwa are notoriously difficult to capture year by year in part because the American release of a title isn’t synchronous with the Japanese publication. And because a series can go on for quite some time, if the series is discovered after a publication date many years ago, I can obsessively read through the series without waiting for the next volume. The opposite it also true, a first volume released in 2025 where the wait may be long to see the next volume.
So this list is the only list where the specific volume I’m on may not have been published in 2025, but these were my favorites read this year. However, Maid to Skate should be on your to-be-read list and it comes out… TODAY! I read an advanced copy thanks to Netgalley which is why I am able to put it on the list and celebrate its delightfulness.
As with my adult titles from yesterday, I like dark stuff and The Strange House is no different. I also was into apocalyptic stories which is why The Color of the End and Touring After the Apocalypse make appearances. I can juxtapose that with the friendly story of Frieren and friends, the chill girls night and winter camping in Laid Back Camp and the humor of a former yakuza turned househusband.
Needless to say, I’ll endlessly fill my days with manga and manhwa new and old any day of the week.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s reveal of the top 10 picture books.
Kicking off a week of my top 10 with categories including adult titles, middle grade and YA, manga and manhwa, picture books, and graphic novels, comics, and manga for teens.
The titles ranged from nonfiction including memoir to investigative nonfiction to emotional essays about kitchen objects, comics featuring murder (I think I have a type), and fiction the features witches that continues to remind me of my love of learning that I lean toward nonfiction in general.
A friend forwarded an email a few weeks back to make sure I knew that Sy Montgomery would be somewhat close by. There is a bookstore outside of my general area that has a second location the next state over that’s a scenic drive, but not too far. She knew I would travel for turtles.
For readers for youth, most will know the name Sy Montgomery. She’s written over 80 books about animals and those adventures have taken her all over the world. She’s written picture books, middle grade, and adult books about animals from octopuses to hummingbirds, turtles to tarantulas. I’m a big fan. The collaboration for her latest included illustrator Matt Patterson who would also be at the event as they promoted The True and Lucky Life of a Turtle featuring the real life adventure and misadventure of Fire Chief. But I also wanted the change to hear from Montgomery herself, plus get a bunch of books signed for my outdoorsy niece and nephews and one for myself.
If you haven’t read one of Montgomery’s books, you must. She provides depth, insight, and humor in and around the amazingness of animals. My favorites include: How to Be A Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals and What the Chicken Knows.
And the animal adjacent biography of Temple Grandin.
The drive to Vermont from my city on the eastern edge of New York was magical as the leaves have already begun to change, and I even had a little extra time to stop at a few cemeteries (I am a taphophile after all). What a lovely afternoon to spend among author and illustrators and books learning about animals and from each other.
Years back, our high school library celebrated the national Free Comic Book Day on the Monday following the nationally-celebrated first Saturday in May event.
It began when a comic nerd named Jay was interning with a social worker at our school and asked about helping kick one off and it slowly grew from there. Even after he was gone, he would return to help whether bringing tabletop games, and ideas to introducing me to people in the field who could also contribute. He’s about bringing people together over comics and he writes about it in magazines and on websites like this 2022 article called Why Buying Your Kids More Comic Books Can Benefit Their Mental Health for Inside Hook.
Then the pandemic hit and like many events, it fell by the wayside until this year. We were going to be hosting Steve Sheinkin as our author visit about a month before Free Comic Book Day and I wanted to make the connection between his award-winning Bomb being turned into a graphic novel and his Rabbi Harvey comics to comics in general whether our high schoolers were already fans or not. It’s as much about exposure for a new group of comics lovers as it is a place to connect for tried-and-true comics lovers.
Jay again stepped up when I reached out because I had mentioned wanting to do a panel or have experts on hands during our lunch shifts. Then we’d have passive activities (and a few active ones) surrounding the learning.
I worked with my Japanese Culture Club to design the activities and then invited classes from departments like art to take part. They heeded the call and brought down classes to learn from our panelists who ranged from a comics shop owner to an illustrator of several graphic novels who I was surprised to learn was local. The others were collectors since childhood, an independent publisher of comics, and contributors to the comics field in other capacities. But more than that, the students sat down and decoupaged a coaster from old comics, worked on a Marvel puzzle, and helped add pages to our pop-up zine.
We’re happy that these moments were captured by professionals in our district’s Communications department and shared with the school community. The smiling faces holding comics. The serious focus while creating their art. The intense language of a gaming tournament after school. Even though it was a long day setting up and breaking down, soaking up their enthusiasm is what keeps all of us in education young.
Representation matters. And in the case of books for teens in which the teen has a rare illness, it stands as a mirror or window for a reader. Now more than ever, books are being published featuring characters with autism, anxiety, and depression, all more common especially in 2025, but what about rarer illnesses such as Crouzon syndrome or Ehlers Danlos Syndrome or spinal muscular atrophy? I’m happy to report that there are stories, and fabulously written stories at that, about rare illnesses.
I got to thinking about this yesterday afternoon having finished the book I Am The Cage by Allison Sweet Grant that was published last week. In it, nineteen year old Elisabeth is slowly revealed to have had intense medical trauma growing up as a result of leg length discrepancy. And then I remembered other books that I’ve read and enjoyed sharing with teens with similar rare illnesses.
Four additional fictional stories include the graphic novel Stars In Their Eyes by Jessica Walton and Aska featuring Maisie who is an amputee. Breathe and Count Back From Ten by Natalia Sylvester whose main character Veronica has hip dysplasia. The fifth book in the Teen Titans graphic novels called Starfire includes Kori who has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. And in Jawbreaker by Christina Wyman, Max struggles with the pain and possible surgery for her Class II malocclusion.
Then there are the autobiographies. As a lover of this category and whose high school library features a massive collection of amazing ones, I am always on the lookout for addition spectacular stories. And the first one, Shane Burcaw’s Laughing At My Nightmare holds a special place for me as I was able to booktalk his second book Strangers Assume My Girlfriend Is My Nurse at a Macmillan breakfast many years ago and then met both Shane and (then girlfriend, now wife) Hannah at a dinner during that conference. Burcaw has spinal muscular atrophy. And if you’d like a fictional YA title with a character who also has it, I highly recommend Chaz Hayden’s The First Thing About You.
One I often recommend is Ariel Henley’s A Face For Picasso, who spent her teen years under the knife (along with her twin sister who also has it) to provide symmetry to her face having been born with Crouzon syndrome and realizing what she needed versus what she wanted. Another that I share regularly and quote from regularly is Zion Clark’s (along with James S. Hirsch) Work With What You Got, a sports autobiography which rounds out his life, and fame, thus far after being born with caudal regression syndrome.
Of course there are more, however these nine are solid stories that I hope you pick up if you haven’t already.
Last week I recommended the entertaining first book in The Misfits series The Royal Conundrum written by Lisa Yee and illustrated by Dan Santat to a girl who didn’t really know what she was looking for. I told her that a fun adventure would await and if it sounded good, then dive in.
She returned today saying she wanted something else. I’m not even sure she cracked it open. As a mood reader myself, I assumed that the good time romp that The Royal Conundrum offered her last week when we talked wasn’t what she was looking for now. We chatted for a few minutes. I showed her a new display of books and talked about a few based on format and topic and told her to roam and see what stuck out.
Ten minutes later she came up to the desk with Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett that I had talked about from our display and the Manga Classic edition of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare that was in a wildly different location than the other. Both a decidedly different mood than the original. We chatted during checkout and she grabbed a few bookmarks content with her choices.
I want to celebrate her self discovery. Her agency in choosing what is right for her at the moment. It wasn’t an assignment. It wasn’t forced. She just wanted to read a good book and meandered through the library without me trailing behind. We need to give kids the space to make their decisions with confidence… or maybe even sheer randomness. Either way, I’m glad she feels at home in the library to return and borrow as often as she needs.
How else can you learn about amazing human beings than with the perfect blend of fact and storytelling and illustration? Picture book biographies are where it’s at. I love learning about people I didn’t know about and others that I did know. Maybe it’s a musician, a children’s book publisher, or a computer. Either way. I’m glad they exist.
Readers Be Advised 