High School Recommended Reading List: Graphic Books

In the middle of the night in 1997, Doctors Without Borders administrator Christophe André was kidnapped by armed men and taken away to an unknown destination in the Caucasus region. For three months, André was kept handcuffed in solitary confinement, with little to survive on and almost no contact with the outside world. Close to twenty years later, award-winning cartoonist Guy Delisle ... recounts André's harrowing experience in Hostage, a book that attests to the power of one man's determination in the face of a hopeless situation.

A graphic memoir about growing up with a remote dad who managed a funeral home while hiding his homosexuality. Contains adult content.

Three foreign exchange students and the pleasures, and difficulties, of adjusting to living in Japan.

Bui documents the story of her family’s daring escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s, and the difficulties they faced building new lives for themselves. At the heart of Bui’s story is a universal struggle: While adjusting to life as a first-time mother, she ultimately discovers what it means to be a parent—the endless sacrifices, the unnoticed gestures, and the depths of unspoken love.

A graphic novel about a strange disease that is being transmitted to Seattle's teens during the mid-1970s. Contains adult content.

Presents the history of the development of the first atomic bomb, from the earliest experiments with nuclear fusion during the nineteenth century through the Manhattan Project. Additionally, describes the destruction caused by the bomb in Japan, and the tensions over nuclear weapons that have kept the world on edge ever since.

A collection of eight comics that introduce the series' lead character, the Sandman, Lord of Dreams.

An intimate graphic memoir about an American girl growing up with her Egyptian father's new family, forging unexpected bonds and navigating adolescence in an unfamiliar country.

In the nineties, six teenagers disappeared into a fantasy role-playing game. Only five returned. Nearly thirty years later, these broken adults are dragged back to discover the game isn't finished with them yet.

Historian Yuval Harari tells the story of humankind's creation and evolution, exploring the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be 'human'. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, [this book] challenges us to reconsider accepted beliefs, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and view specific events within the context of larger ideas.

Now a Netflix original series! Keyhouse, a New England mansion with fantastic doors that transforms all who dare to walk through them, is also home to a hate-filled and relentless creature that will not rest until it forces open the most terrible door of them all.

Enter the world of Katsushika Hokusai - the enigmatic creator of Japanese art's all-time most iconic image. This vivid graphic biography tells the story of Hokusai's intriguing life and pioneering works, details the fascinating historical context of Edo-era Japan, and explains how Hokusai forged an image of his country that still resonates across the world today.

An arm peppered with tiny holes dangles from a sick girl's window... After an idol hangs herself, balloons bearing faces appear in the sky, some even featuring your own face... An amateur film crew hires an extremely individualistic fashion model and faces a real bloody ending... An offering of nine fresh nightmares for the delectation of horror fans.

Follows the adventures of Officer Rick Grimes and other survivors as they try to navigate and survive in a world suddenly in the grip of a zombie apocalypse.

A revelatory, visually stunning graphic memoir by award-winning artist Nora Krug, telling the story of her attempt to confront the hidden truths of her family's wartime past in Nazi Germany and to comprehend the forces that have shaped her life, her generation, and history.

Li Kunwu's story is a personal one that is inextricably linked to his three decades as a propaganda artist for the Communist Party. We're taken on a journey from 1949, through the Cultural Revolution, to the present day.

Meet Charlie Chan Hock Chye. Now in his early 70s as he looks back on his career, Chan has spent a lifetime making comics in his native Singapore since he was a boy of 16, in 1954. The artist doubles here as both the narrator and the subject matter, as his life story parallels the changes in Singapore over five decades since the war. The evolution of his artwork mirrors the evolution of both his homeland and the comic book medium itself.

The debut graphic novel from Thai-Italian illustrator Elisa Macellari, Papaya Salad tells the story of her great-uncle Sompong who found himself in Europe on military scholarship on the eve of World War II. A gentle and resolute man in love with books and languages, in search of his place in the world, Sompong chronicles his life during the war and falling for his wife, finding humor and joy even as the world changes irrevocably around him.

David Smith is giving his life for his art--literally. Thanks to a deal with Death, the young sculptor gets his childhood wish: to sculpt anything he can imagine with his bare hands. But now that he only has 200 days to live, deciding what to create is harder than he thought, and discovering the love of his life at the 11th hour isn't making it any easier!

Focuses on one corner of a room and travels back and forth over hundreds of thousands of years, looking at events that have happened in that exact space side by side.

Twin brothers Omar and Yaqub may share the same features, but they could not be more different from one another. And the possessive love of their mother, Zana, stirs the troubled waters between them even more. After a brutally violent exchange between the young boys, Yaqub, "the good son," is sent from his home in Brazil to live with relatives in Lebanon, only to return five years later as a virtual stranger to the parents who bore him, his tensions with Omar unchanged.

Two generations of superheros, including Dr. Manhattan, who deals with the responsibility of his powers, and Nite Owl, who wrestles with letting go of the past, dissect their collective histories while trying to determine who is methodically killing them all off.

A graphic novel account of the dropping of the atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, based on the experiences of the author, who was six years old at the time of the attack. Covers events leading up to and immediately following the bombing.

A beautifully illustrated graphic novel depicting the life of Simon Radowitzky (1891-1956), a gentle soul caught up in a cruel world. His tumultuous life begins with his immigration from Ukraine to Argentina, followed by his assassination of Colonel Falcon (who presided over the slaughter of 100 workers) in 1909. Banished to a penal colony, he escaped, was recaptured and tortured, serving a total of 20 years. Upon release he joined the Spanish Revolution, after which he decamped for Mexico, where he died in 1956 while employed at a toy factory.

The great-granddaughter of Iran's last emperor and the daughter of ardent Marxists describes growing up in Tehran in a country plagued by political upheaval and vast contradictions between public and private life.

'Unflattening' is an insurrection against the fixed viewpoint. Weaving together diverse ways of seeing drawn from science, philosophy, art, literature, and mythology, it uses the collage-like capacity of comics to show that perception is always an active process of incorporating and reevaluating different vantage points.

Documentary, diary, and graphic novel, this up-to-date look at our planet and how we live on it explains what global warming is all about.

A tale of mourning and acceptance that compares and contrasts the contemporary nature of gay tolerance in the East and the West. Yaichi is a work-at-home suburban dad in contemporary Tokyo, married to wife Natsuki, father to young daughter Kana. Their lives are suddenly upended with the arrival at their doorstep of a hulking, affable Canadian named Mike Flanagan, who declares himself the widower of Yaichi's estranged gay twin, Ryoji. Mike is on a quest to explore Ryoji's past, and the family reluctantly but dutifully takes him in.

A collection of short stories showcasing the fantastical and realistic lives of women.

The story of Debbie Tung's struggle with anxiety and her experience with depression. She shares what it's like navigating life, overthinking every possible worst-case scenario, and constantly feeling like all hope is lost. The book explores her journey to understanding the importance of mental health in her day-to-day life and how she learns to embrace the highs and lows when things feel out of control.

In the spring of 2003, a pride of lions escaped from the Baghdad Zoo during an American bombing raid, roaming the streets in a desperate struggle for their lives. "Pride of Baghdad" raises questions about the true meaning of liberation--can it be given or is it earned only through self-determination and sacrifice? And in the end, is it truly better to die free than to live life in captivity?