Allergic by Megan Wagner Lloyd and Michelle Mee Nutter. Scholastic Graphix, 2021. 9781338568905. 240pp. Maggie is about to get a dog for her tenth birthday, but then she has a severe allergic reaction. She goes to the doctor and finds out she’s allergic to anything with fur or feathers. She comes up with a list of alternate pet possibilities (none of those work out), and then, because of her, the class pet at her new school has to go. She worries everyone is going to hate her, but makes a new friend, Claire, a sixth grader who just moved in next door. (Everything is great between them until Claire gets a dog, and then it isn’t… at least for a while.) Adding to the mix Maggie’s two younger twin brothers, a new baby sibling that’s about to arrive, and the secret pet Maggies decides to keep in her room for a while, makes for a realistic, light-hearted story about friendship and family. This graphic novel deserves the comparisons I’ve seen to Telgemeier’s books and all the praise it’s getting. But the testing scene took me right back to my allergy doctor’s office and all the itchy welts I had to endure during my testing. Maggie’s allergy doctor gives her a clear explanation of her condition, which I wish I’d had back in the day.

The Summer Of Her Life by Thomas von Steinaecker and Barbara Yelin. Translated by John Reddick. SelfMadeHero, 2020. 9781910593783. 78pp. Frau Gerda Wendt spends her days in and around an old folks home with the help of her walker. It feels like she’s already dead, like time has already stopped. She spends a lot of her time thinking about the past, even though it’s painful, because it makes her feel alive. Young Gerda was great at math, socially awkward, and fascinated by stars. She seemed on her way to an academic life even though the fact that she was a woman surprised some. Then she chose love and a family over her career, but what she studied continues to affect how she saw the world. Her story has an amazing, beautiful ending that’s entirely poetic, and reminds me of the Japanese film After Life. This graphic novel is an obvious readalike for Wrinkles by Paco Roca, which centers on a new nursing home resident with dementia. It shows him and a few of his friends drifting in and out of the present and into the lives they used to live (or maybe just imagine they

nineteen by ancco. Drawn & Quarterly, 2020. 9781770464100. 176pp. with a touching introduction about how these stories take her back in time, especially the stories that make her feel like she’s seeing her healthy grandmother again. This book is full of older, shorter work by South Korean comics creator, ancco shows the development of her artistic style. There’s a lot of test anxiety in the first two stories, the first of which involves visiting the main character’s injured mother in the hospital, while the second is about watching a grandmother age and, I think, being adult enough to start seeing her as a person. In the title story, drunk high school girls fear getting in trouble, then one gets caught drawing a BDSM scene starring her teacher. (Content warning: the student is beaten quite a bit, and there’s a creepy taxi driver who tries to take advantage of her.) The thing that unites many of these stories is a sense that the characters have to work hard even though they’re never going to be part of some glossy Korean success story. My favorites are the shorter interludes; they’re panel-less, feel biographical, and, like “nineteen,” are closer in style to ancco’s previous book, Bad Friends (which I can’t recommend highly enough).

Perfect Pigeons by Katherine Battersby. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2020. 9781534457812. Battersby draws this “perfect” group of pigeons with an epic amount of color and personality. The pigeon who is not the same as the others, the one who sleeps in a hammock and flies with a cape and wears that colorful scarf on the cover, shows the rest what would happen if they all did whatever they felt like. (Spoiler: life is even better.) Bonus: the book ends with a pro-reading moment.     How To Find A Bird by Jennifer Ward, illustrated by Diana Sudyka. Beach Lane Books, 2020. 9781481467056. I normally wouldn’t go for a quiet and lovely picture book like this, but Sudyka’s illustrations are delightful and just the slightest bit cartoony in a way that makes me love this book. And the two happy kids finding birds in their natural habitats (including city streets and a suburban yard) give birdwatching a sense of fun.     The Chicken Who Couldn’t by Jan Thomas. Beach Lane Books, 2020. 9781416996996. A chicken falls out of a truck and needs to walk all the way back to the farm, but it just can’t. Other animals offer it encouragement and suggestions and warn it about the fox on the road. Then the chicken gets its head stuck in a hole when it tries to hide. Thomas somehow manages to turn the whole incident, and an eventual run-in with the fox, into a moment of self actualization for the chicken. It’s silly, and it’s comics, so win-win.

Both of these books feature badass female heroes and lots of violence. The YA novel is probably the more brutal of the two. Behind the Throne by K.B. Wagers. Orbit, 2016. 9780316308601. 432pp. Hail Bristol left the life of a princess behind years ago and became a notorious gunrunner. But now her sisters have been killed, her mother is ill, and there was just a serious attempt on her life. Good thing trackers from the Indranan Empire found her, and, on orders, dragged her back home to become heir to the throne. (Worth noting: this is set in a female-dominated interstellar empire based on India.) Back in the palace and extremely pissed off, the only people Hail can trust are the trackers who found her. War with a neighboring empire is about to kick off, and her mother is clearly losing it. But before any of that can be dealt with Hail and her bodyguards need to figure out who is trying to assassinate her and why.   Ship of Smoke and Steel: Book One of The Wells of Sorcery Trilogy by Django Wexler. Tor Teen, 2019. 9780765397249. 366pp. Isoka keeps the poorest part of Kahnzoka in line for her bosses and their criminal enterprises. She’s ruthless, and she’s secretly an adept who can draw power from Melos, the Well of Combat — that’s how she creates those glowing green blades that you see on the cover. Her other secret is that she uses the money she makes to create an upper-class life for her sister in a far, far better part of the city. After her power is discovered, she’s sent to Soliton, a mythical ghost ship that is said to collect damned souls. Her mission: to steal it and deliver it into the hands of the Blessed Empire in a year’s time. No one knows what awaits her on the ship. (But I’ll tell you, it’s totally berserk and very, very violent.) If she fails in her mission her sister will suffer, and of course that will mean that Isoka is probably dead, too.

the fire never goes out: a memoir in pictures by noelle stevenson. Harper, 2020. 9780062278272. 194pp. Stevenson is the writer/illustrator of Nimona, wrote Lumberjanes, and went on to be show runner and executive producer of Netfix’s She-Ra relaunch. This is her biography of sorts covering the years 2011 (when she was 19) through 2020, a period during which she took her first comics class, became a creative superstar on the internet for her fan art (and in the real world for her art art), and fell in love. Her life is a triumph in large part because of how she dealt with her anxiety and figured out her sexual orientation. Her book is a triumph because it doesn’t fixate on every moment and minute detail, and she represents her life in moments and yearly summaries using comics and drawings and a lot of words, too. Amazing book. Best biography I’ve read in a while. My favorite moment: the hug she gets at her first pride parade. The thing I didn’t know about: her geeky fan art! It’s fabulous and fun. I love the energy the comics and drawings in the book have — they flow from panel to panel to panel-less to whatever Stevenson needs to create to express herself. Long-time sticky note users like me will find a lot to cheer about in here, too.

Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks. First Second, 2019. 9781626721623. 224pp. It’s Halloween at DeKnock’s World Famous Pumpkin Patch & Autumn Jamboree. Josiah and Deja are preparing for their last shifts ever because they’ll be away at college the following year. Deja is determined to make it their best night ever. She traded shifts so they can work together at the Pie Palace and so that Josiah can finally, after years of admiring her from afar, introduce himself to the girl who works at the Fudge Shopppe. (Josiah is a socially awkward guy focused on being rated the best employee in the place; Deja is his opposite in many ways and is way more social.) I love the way Rowell writes conversations, and Hicks’ art really makes them work as trying to meet the fudge shoppe girl proves ridiculously difficult, and as the friends snack their way across the jamboree. Fun YA graphic novel with a bit of romance. Runaways Volume 1: Find Your Way Home by Rainbow Rowell & Kris Anka. Marvel, 2018. 9781302908522. Contains Runaways #1 – #6. Rowell has also been writing a relaunched Runaways title for years, which is also full of fun conversations and romance. (If you’re not familiar with the Runaways, they’re a super powered group of teen who defeated their evil parents. There was a TV show on Hulu.) This book starts with Chase bringing Gert back from the dead, kinda; he uses a time machine to rescue her from the past. Nico uses her magic to fix Gert followed by a joyous reunion with Gert’s dinosaur, Old Lace. And then it’s time to get the Runaways back together: Karolina is at college (but not for long) and Molly is living with her grandma who is probably evil (Grandma’s cats’ eyes glow red). And there’s the hope of reviving their cyborg friend Victor, who died on an Avengers mission, even though all they have is his head. I just read all five of the books in this ongoing title, and the sixth is due out in October 2021. So far it’s a fun ride. Gert and Chase can’t date because of the awkward age difference in the present (he’s 20 but since she’s from the past she’s still 16). (Don’t worry, she finds someone to love.) Karolina breaks up with Julie Power (of Power Pack)and quickly develops a new love interest. Molly tries to stick with going to school. A few of the group work crapy jobs. They also face down gods, meet a Doombot, and even become part of a different Los Angeles-based super team revival (which of course ends badly because the one constant is that adults suck). The books feel both ridiculous and serious, and I love the way there’s usually kindness at the center of these stories.

During the pandemic I’ve been reading books that have been sitting on my shelves for years, as well as buying old science fiction and fantasy paperbacks with ridiculous covers. Most are unreadable. These were fun. The Mad God’s Amulet: The Second Volume In The History Of The Runestaff by Michael Moorcock. DAW, 1977. 0886772168. 223pp. This is my favorite volume in the Runestaff series because of that amazing cover. Look at that cat! I know that look — that’s what my cat Soup looks like right before he pounces. (Unfortunately Soup does not have spines or a spear-tipped tail.) In this book Dorian Hawkmoon and his hairy friend Oladahn fight the forces of the Dark Empire of Granbretan as Hawkmoon tries to return to Castle Brass and Hawkmoon’s fiancee, Yisselda, from far in the east. It’s insane in a fun way and reminds me of Conan stories and episodes of Thundarr the Barbarian. Contains ornithopters, mad pirates, bad guys in bestial armor, and just enough violence. Exiles of Colsec by Douglas Hill. Bantam Starfire, 1988. 0553272330. 164pp. Teens sent to prison find out they’ve been sent to secure and start to colonize an alien planet for a corporation. After a horrific crash landing, they face hostile alien worm-things (see the cover) as well as aliens riled up by an insanely violent dude who was on their ship. Our hero is Scottish. This early YA novel is almost as much fun as Hill’s The Last Legionary series, and it has several sequels. Circus of the Scars: The True Inside Odyssey of a Modern Circus Sideshow by Jan. T. Gregor with Tim “Zamora the Torture King” Cridland. Illustrated by Ashleigh Talbot. Brennan Dalsgard Publishers, 1998. 0966347900. 383pp. In the early 1990s, in Seattle, I saw the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow twice. The second time I took my grandmother. I’m not sure what grossed her out more: seeing Mr. Lifto suspend concrete blocks from his pierced nipples (and then his penis), watching Matt the Tube draw the beer and everything else he’d imbibed from his stomach (and then drink it with several audience members), or witnessing Jim Rose hammer a large nail into his face (and then pull it back out). This is the inside story of all the fun and behind-the-scenes assholery. (Gregor did so many things for the troupe I’m not sure what to call him.) The level of detail is both kinda fun and exhausting, and brings all of the personalities involved to life. Rose himself does not come off well. (If you want his side of all of this, read his book Freak Like Me.) Talbot’s amazing illustrations and caricatures really tie everything together.

The Montague Twins: The Witch’s Hand by Nathan Page & Drew Shannon (illustrator). Alfred A. Knopf, 2020. 9780525646761. 352pp. including sketches and a few pages of the script in back. After twins Peter and Al’s parents disappeared, they started living with David, Shelly, and their daughter Charlie. What they don’t know is that magic is real, and that their parents were practitioners (as is David). The twins have managed to teach themselves a little magic and they’ve been using it (without really knowing) to solve crimes. But that all becomes clear when, on their day off, they encounter a strange storm and a spooky witch. Three girls in their town have been messing with magic, have disappeared, and may have set the witch loose. The brothers investigate with Charlie’s help. Cops hassle them. David tells the boys what their parents really did, and gives all three teens a teacher – David’s assistant, Rowan — whose explanations about magic are wonderfully ambiguous as there’s no right way to do it. This is a fun, not too scary YA mystery with a secondary LGBT theme (it’s set during the time of the Stonewall Uprising, which we hear about in a newscast). Shannon’s drawings are colorful and friendly and then just a bit freaky when they have to be. (The book made me think about the original Scooby-Doo series, and I think it will hold special appeal for older fans like me.)