Author: Gene Ambaum

A Book Of Maps For You by Lourdes Heuer, illustrated by Maxwell Eaton III. Neal Porter Books, 2025. 9780823455706. A young cartographer maps their town, including friendly neighbors, the school, the library, the art store, and even their house. Minor […]
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Mujina Into The Deep Volume 1 by Inio Asano. Translation by JN Productions. Viz Signature, 2025.9781974749997. Publisher’s Rating: M Mature, Ninjas fight on rooftops; the deadliest look like teenage girls. Some work as bodyguards or escorts, others are assassins. The […]
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Wash Day Diaries by Jamila Rowser and Robyn Smith. Chronicle, 2022. 9781797205458. 192pp including two pages that show an overview of the process of making the comics from scripts through coloring. “To the Black girls around the world, you are […]
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There’s No Time Like The Present by Paul B. Rainey. Drawn & Quarterly, 2025. 336pp. Rainey’s follow-up to one of my favorite graphic novels of 2023, Why Don’t You Love Me?, also features screwed-up characters, alternate realities, and a lot […]
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There’s No Time Like The Present by Paul B. Rainey. Drawn & Quarterly, 2025. 336pp. Rainey’s follow-up to one of my favorite graphic novels of 2023, Why Don’t You Love Me?, also features screwed-up characters, alternate realities, and a lot […]
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Mixed Feelings by Liana Finck. Rise / Penguin Workshop, 2025. 9780593660423. I love New Yorker cartoonist Finck’s picture books! (I think this is her second.) The kids in it have feelings that can’t be expressed in a single word, and […]
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Brownstone by Samuel Teer & Mar Julia. Versify, 2024. 9780358394747. 318pp. Fourteen-year-old Almudena has never met her Guatemalan father, Xavier. When her mother gets a chance to tour with a dance production, she drops Almudena off to spend the summer […]
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The Power Fantasy Volume 1: The Superpowers by Kiron Gillen and Caspar Wijngaard. Image, 2025. 9781534328884. Contains #1 – 5. Publisher’s Rating: M (Mature). I love deciding to pick up a graphic novel in a comic store and then, when […]
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These two sequels to Adam Rex’s Gumluck the Wizard are fun but go read that first book in the series if you haven’t, it’s too great a start to miss. Rex’s stories are hilarious and make the best read-alouds in […]
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Kirby’s Lessons For Falling (In Love) by Laura Gao. HarperAlley, 2025. 9780063067790. 302pp. Kirby Tan is a climbing prodigy with a nemesis (AJ), an awesome best friend (Eric), and a supportive family (her very Christian mother, her younger brother Bowen, […]
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