Cosmic Cadets: Contact by Ben Crane and Mimi Alves. Top Shelf, 2023. 9781603095204. Jimmil’s mom is the Captain of the Khonsu, a starship on a diplomatic mission to establish contact with alien races, and she’s training him to be a hero. But while their ship is resupplying on an uninhabited planet, Jimmil is more excited about studying the local flora with his class than in training with his mom. After he discovers evidence there may be intelligent life on the planet that everyone else has missed, he convinces a few of his friends to head back to the surface to find the aliens and impress his mother. Jimmil is not quite the pilot he believes himself to be, but at least the aliens are more friendly than they initially appear. As he and his friends try to convince his mother and the rest of the adults that that’s true, the book has a lot to say about friendship, friendliness, and good intentions. This book has a nice indy-comics feel, and I particularly liked Priscilla Tramontano’s bright colors for the alien flora and fauna. Older elementary school and middle school students in particular will enjoy this one.

Blood Stained Teeth Book One: Bite Me by Christian Ward (story, art, colors on some pages), Patrick Reynolds (art), and Heather Moore (colors). Image, 2022. 9781534323858. Contains #1 – #5. First Born Vampires are rich and cool and can turn humans. Sips (those turned by First Born) are kind of a mess, and they attract the wrong sort of attention, so the First Born forbid their creation. First Born Atticus Sloan has been turning people for a fee plus a portion of their future earnings. But he’s been found out by the First Council, and now he has just three weeks to track down all the Sips he’s made. He must kill them or he’ll be killed himself. There are, of course, complications. Some of the Sips are famous, and of course they all want to live forever. (This is a promising start to a new series.) Worth noting: Moore’s colors throughout are fantastic, and it’s great to have a few pages colored by Ward himself as well.

Paul Bunyan: The Invention of an American Legend by Noah Van Scrivner. With art and stories by Marlena Myles, an introduction by Lee Francis IV, a postscript by Deondre Smiles, and a bibliography for further reading. TOON Books, 2023. 9781662665226. 48pp. This short graphic novel revels in the tall tales about Bunyan while showing their origin as stories created to justify the clearcutting of indigenous lands all over the U.S. by lumber companies. I found Myles’s essay about indigenous stories about wood spirits / Little People particularly compelling, and plan to try to track down a few of those. (Email me if you know books I should look for.)     A Little Emotional by Christopher Eliopoulos. Rocky Pond Books, 2023. 9780593616611. Eliopoulos’s comics are fantastic, and so is this picture book about a young boy whose favorite action figure is missing. His emotions are drawn as creatures (that’s anger on the cover before it gets ugly and explodes). Eliopoulos turns it all into a nice lesson on sharing (with one’s younger siblings even).       Bad Apple by Huw Lewis Jones and Ben Sanders. Thames & Hudson, 2021. 9780500652435. Apple is “a nasty piece of fruit.” It’s true, seriously — he’s a total bastard to other foods and flowers and then he goes too far. Sanders’s illustrations, and particularly their colors, are wonderful. (There’s even a sequel of sorts, Apple Grumble, in which Granny Smith tries to teach Apple some manners.)       A Place for Pauline story by Anouk Mahiout, illustrations by Marjolaine Perreten. Groundwood Books, 2022. 9781773066097. 48pp. Pauline is the oldest kid in her family and it feels like she’s always in the wrong place at the wrong time. But she finds a hidden, quiet space for herself, but then she gets bored alone and so plans to secretly jump on a boat to France to visit her grandma (also named Pauline). This is another great picture book in comics format, which I believe was originally published as a graphic album for kids in France.      

I’m A Great Friend! by Lauren Stohler. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2023. 9781665918336. Capybaras all lounge around the pond calmly, offering protection to their bird friends on their backs. Baby Capybara wants some bird friends, too, but his energy and activities drive them away. After he attracts a few, there are a few funny pages where the birds try (and fail) to hang on for the ride. I love the energy of Stohler’s illustrations, and how she ends the story.       A Child Of Books by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. Candlewick, 2016. 9780763690779. Every page of this book is mesmerizing, with its hand-drawn font, its photographic collage elements, and the way words are part of the illustrations. It’s about a child from a world of stories inviting another kid (and everyone) along on adventures. It’s a perfect gift from experienced readers to new readers.       Fish by Liam Francis Walsh. Roaring Brook Press, 2016. 9781626723337. A boy and his dog fish for the letter F I S and H in this nearly wordless adventure that uses a few elements of comics to incredible effect. And the drawings themselves are perfect, as are the colors.           The Sword In The Stove by Frank W. Dormer. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2016. 9781481431675. Two chefs look for their friend Harold. One assumes he went potty. But then they find his sword in the stove. How did get there? (Spoiler: they’re not very happy with the answer when they finally get it.) Dormer’s primitive-looking drawings work with the silly humor and word balloons to create a ridiculous atmosphere that makes the ending not at all as scary as it might have otherwise been.        

In Limbo by Deb JJ Lee. First Second, 2023. 9781250252661. 348pp. This is one of the most moving graphic memoirs I’ve read in a while and one of the most beautiful, with its detailed gray-blue illustrations. It’s going to be my go-to gift for a bunch of friends and family this year. I know it will resonate with a number of people I grew up with, Korean American and not. It’s the story Deb’s high school years, of not belonging, of being pushed to excel at school, of the racist bullshit she endures. It’s the story of her trying to figure out who her friends are and what they mean to each other. It’s full of her doing things others want her to do while trying to figure out what she wants, and then moving toward it. That Deb was born in South Korea and immigrated to the US with her parents is at the heart of her story. Her relationship with her mother was especially painful for me to read about — it reminds me of stories friends told me of the controlling, demanding parents who seemed to be trying to find success through their kids. (Even after reading this, I’m still not sure if I was luckier to have parents who expected little from me. Though I am glad I see more of myself as a parent in Deb’s father than in her mother’s worst moments.) Minor spoilers: Deb is doing better by the end, and is working toward becoming an artist. This is the kind of book that will make you think about someone you went to or are going to school with, I bet. My wife (she grew up in South Korea) and I have both read it and it has been the basis for a few difficult discussions about standards of beauty and how those affect us differently. I’m still trying to process what I took away from this book, and I know I’m going to reread it soon. And I have the sense that when I do I’ll be in even more awe of Lee’s craft and her ability to share her experiences. Worth noting: This is a slightly different book if you can read a bit of Korean as the language is sprinkled throughout the dialogue. It’s not necessary to understand the story, but it enhances the book. (The Korean is sometimes but not always a repetition of at least part of the dialogue in English in the same word balloon.)

Translation State by Anne Leckie. Orbit, 2023. 9780316289719. 432pp. This new novel is set in Leckie’s Imperial Radch universe, and it’s told from three points of view: Enae’s — She’s an adult lived with her rich, recently deceased grandmother and has just lost everything. But Enae has been given a job with the Office of Diplomacy and an assignment — to find help track down what happened to a being who went missing centuries ago. Reet’s — He was raised as an orphan and now works in a low-level position on Rurusk Station. Then he’s informed that he may be a descendent of the Schan, who once ruled Lovehate Station, and is welcomed by a community who’s been trying to find someone like him. This may explain all the strange things he feels and that are happening to him. Qven’s — (this is a bit of a spoiler, but only a little) Qven is supposed to become a Presager Translator. He’s one of the engineered “humans” who provide a point of contact for the very alien/unpredictable Presager, and who have made a negotiated peace with them possible. E is a bit rebellious, and seeing em raised and possibly punished and experiencing eir life from within eir point of view is just a great read, given how inexplicable some of Qven’s experiences as a young “person” are. Of course Qven’s story collides with the other characters’ in amazing ways as Enae tracks the fugitive and Reet figures out who he is. Leckie is one of my favorite writers and I couldn’t put this book down once I started it. It’s the fifth set in this universe, though, so if you’ve never read any of Leckie’s science fiction novels start with the unbelievably good Ancillary Justice, or maybe even Provenance, which I love more than anyone else I know who’s read it.

Skip Loafer Volume 1 by Misaki Takamatsu. Translation by Nicole Frasik. Seven Seas, 2021. 9781648275883. Publisher’s Rating: Teen (13+) Whenever I visit Austin, TX, I visit Book People to read their shelf talkers and to buy a great book I’ve never heard of before. This was my pick this year. (And believe me it takes a lot to get me to pick up a teen romance manga. Stop by and see the shelf talker if you aren’t moved by my pitch for the book — it’s on a table on the first floor across from the science fiction and fantasy, if I’m remembering correctly.) Iwakaru Mitsuki is fifteen, and she just moved to Tokyo from a tiny town in Ishikawa to attend high school. She’s going to live with her aunt, who seems worried, but Mitsuki brushes aside her concerns; she thinks her first day will be perfect. Of course that’s not what happens. But a very good-looking young man named Sousuke, late for the opening ceremony himself, spots her in the train station, lost and afraid of the crowds and “hiding” against the wall. When she lashes out at him, he doesn’t seem to mind. And then she vomits after giving a speech at the ceremony. As school goes on we see how awkward and out of her depth Mitsuki is in some ways (it’s very endearing) while Sousuke remains to be a decent guy who wants to be her friend (and maybe more) (this made me like him, too). My wife would disagree with this, but Skip and Loafer reminded me of Yotsuba&! in a way. I think reading a book about a student trying to adapt to life in Tokyo while my daughter starts her study abroad time there activated my dad genes the same way reading Yotsuba&! does.

The White Van by Patrick Hoffman. Grove Press, 2014. 9780802124203. 240pp. When I walked into BLMF Books a few weeks ago, the proprietor JB saw me and said, “I’ve got a book for you.” He handed me The White Van and said it was great and he’d read it quickly. He also asked if I’d ever heard of Hoffman. I hadn’t, but now that I’ve finished this book, I’m glad I bought his second novel that day, too. This is a dark crime story with a robbery at its heart, and the fewer specifics you know about going in the better. It all starts with a woman named Emily, one step from living on the street in San Francisco, and a man she meets in the bar who buys her drinks. He coaxes her back to his hotel room with the promise of drugs while swearing that he doesn’t want sex. And he’s not lying. He and his accomplices convince her to stay there with drugs and cash, promising her the chance to earn more if she goes along with their plan, which they’ll reveal at some point. It involves the Russian mob, several folks who have fallen into debt, and a high-stakes heist that supposedly has zero risk. Two cops, out for themselves, also figure in. The mistakes everyone makes seem realistic throughout, as do the ways everything goes wrong. A dark, compelling crime novel.  

Always Never by Jordi Lafebre. English translation by Montana Kane. Dark Horse Books, 2022. 9781506731377. 152pp. The story of a decades-long romance is told backward from its end (or is it a new beginning?) to its sudden start. He’s been gone for most of that time, at sea, where he also finished his doctorate in physics. (He recently returned home to run a bookstore.) She is the responsible one, a happily married family woman who became mayor of the city where she lives, who never forgot the man she fell for decades earlier. It’s not as much of a complication as it might be, but it is an excuse for an exchange of letters over the years, and of semi-broken hearts that might be fixed at the end (the beginning of the book). Always Never is worth reading for its reverse-chronological structure alone, and Lafebre’s illustrations are also world-class and full of joy. This is Lafebre’s first book to be published on paper in English, though other graphic albums by him are available in English digitally from Europe Comics at https://www.europecomics.com/author/jordi-lafebre/