We asked some of our experts which middle grade graphic novels they are looking forward to in the next year or so. Here’s what’s on their radars.
Gina Gagliano, publishing director of the new Random House Graphic imprint
● The Maker Comics series from First Second detailing how to fix a car, bake, and more
● Cathy G. Johnson’s The Breakaways, a girls’ soccer middle grade contemporary graphic novel
● Cece Bell is working on some younger reader graphic novels, her first comics since the acclaimed El Deafo
● Pilu of the Woods, a story of friendship and loss by Mae Nguyen
● Aquicorn Cove by Katie O’Neill, which features mer-seahorses—where can you go wrong with that?
● Welcome to Wanderland by Maddi Gonzalez, a series about a girl who loves an amusement park, then realizes there’s a secret fantasy country behind the service entrance doors
Richard Corbett, new book buyer for Powell’s in Portland, Ore.
● Fake Blood by Whitney Gardner
● Check, Please! #Hockey by Ngozi Ukazu
● Aquicorn Cove by Katie O’Neill
● Crush by Svetlana Chmakova
● Hidden Witch by Molly Ostertag
● And, of course, the new Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi
Meghan Dietsche Goel, children’s book buyer and programming director at BookPeople in Austin, Tex.
For the upcoming season, I fell in love with the unabashedly geeky exuberance of Molly Brooks’s Sanity and Tallulah and their quest to boldly (maybe too boldly) go where no brilliant young scientists have gone before—starting with the world of genetically engineered mutant cats, of course.
Jesse Post, operations manager of Postmark Books in Rosendale, N.Y.
I personally love the DC Superhero Girls graphic novels, and I thought the next one, coming up in October, was especially good. I’ll keep trying to get kids into superheroes. Chris Schweizer is working on a Roanoke book that looks incredible. Not sure if that has a pub date yet, but I’m really looking forward to reading it and poring over all the historically accurate details I’m sure he’s painstakingly drawing as we speak. The new Amulet—I mean, all you really have to do is say “new Amulet” and excitement builds. And I heard that Ru Xu has a follow-up to Newsprints—I can’t wait to spend some more time in that world! If it’s possible to look forward to a book that doesn’t exist, I really want there to be another volume of Immortal Iron Fists by Kaare Andrews and Afu Chan. I don’t think there will be one, but it’s on my wish list. Wishes are free!
