Note how I hedge my bets in the title, calling them both comics AND graphic novels. I accept all terms. I’m cool like that.

This was the first year that both of my children were too old to be read to at night. In the past, I managed to cut through the neverending swath of children’s comics by reading to the both of them every night (half the bedtime was dedicated to a graphic novel and half to a novel). But this year I went cold turkey (one is in middle school and one is in high school). No more of that. As a result, the number of comics for kids I saw dropped precipitously. I make no excuses. I saw what I can see. I’ll just tell you that yesterday at work I tearfully returned about ten GNs I wasn’t able to get to, thanks to the time crunch. *sigh* As such, while I stand by every book on this list, if you’re missing one of your favorites please feel free to mention it in the comments. This is a good example of the limitations of a one-woman-show.

And if you’d like a PDF of today’s list, you can find one here.

Still can’t get enough comics? I can’t blame ya. Here are the round-ups I’ve done in previous years:

• 2024
• 2023
• 2022
• 2021
• 2020
• 2019
• 2018
• 2017
• 2016

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2025 Comics and Graphic Novels for Kids

FEATURED TITLE

I Am Not Okay by David DeGrand

I mean, how we all didn’t adopt this book as the Official Title of 2025 is still a bit of a bafflement to me. Could any other book sum up this year so well? I think not. And I can tell you, from a personal standpoint, I identify HARD with Fluff Nugget here. Feeling grumpy? Feeling sad? Let Fluff Nugget cheer you up then! But what happens when the cheeriest creature around feels downtrodden and defeated? I mean, the cover sells itself, but the interior is pretty darn good as well. This is about a people pleaser who has an inevitable breakdown of massive proportions. I am deeply amused by any children’s book graphic novelist who clearly was influenced by Ren & Stimpy on some level. David DeGrand, j’accuse! Loved the tone, the writing, and the general mix of relatability on this one. Plus, it’s hilarious (which always helps). I mean, how can you resist a hero named Fluff Nugget for crying out loud? I submit to you our new King.

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The Bizarre Bazaar: Mirror Town by Daniel Nayeri, ill. Liz Enright

Oh yeah. You got so wrapped up in his The Teacher of Nomad Land that you didn’t even notice he put out a graphic novel this year as well, did you? A picture book too, for that matter, but that’s neither here nor there. In this book, Abel Azari doesn’t live an enviable life until the day he stumbles into a peculiar curio shop. Next thing he knows he’s the most popular guy in town.. but what’s really going on?  With its Twilight Zone feel, this would actually pair remarkably well with Jasper Rabbit’s Creepy Tales. Nayeri (who apparently wants to try ALL the formats!) gives creepy graphic novels a go with this tale of a traveling magical curio shop and its mischievous (some might say demonic) denizens. I was a little thrown by the tempestuous relationship of our two narrators at the start, but once it became clear that something weird was going on I settled right in. I always like stories where characters get exactly what they want for creepy reasons. Certainly worth a read in any case. 

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Botticelli’s Apprentice by Ursula Murray Husted

Mella yearns to be trained as a classical painter, but in Renaissance Italy such dreams are unavailable to girls. Can she convince the great Botticelli to take her on? Years ago Husted did a book called A Cat Story in which she was able to replicate the artistic styles of a number of classic artists. Now she’s doubling down with this story of a girl who yearns to be an apprentice. Botticelli just isn’t as well-known to kids these days, not like Michaelangelo and Da Vinci (both of whom have very amusing cameos in this book). It can be so difficult for a book to balance girl power with historical accuracy. I thought that giving Mella a rich female patron was a very clever solution to an almost insurmountable historical problem. Contains what may be the most dog-like dog in the history of comics (I’m still cringing over what the dang mutt eats in this story). Great art, of course, but equally magnificent storytelling.

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Cabin Head and Tree Head by Scott Campbell

[Previously seen on the Unconventional List]

Meet Cabin Head and Tree Head! Two great buddies helping one another through a series of small adventures. Join them and all their friends as they enjoy portraiture, leafcuts (both good and bad), treasure hunts, and more! I want to dive deep into whatever world this is that Scott Campbell has conjured up and just live there for a while. Apparently the man hasn’t produced a picture book since 2019 and decided to celebrate his own return with a book that perfectly combines the sweet and strange. His publisher is selling this with the description that it’s, “like Bill and Ted crossed with Frog and Toad.” Not sure I entirely agree with that, but it’s more on-the-nose than you might think. In this world, everything is on somebody’s head somewhere. This gets taken to its logical extreme when we pan back at one point and see that Cabin Head and Tree Head and all their friends live on an Earth Head (the Satellite Heads delight me). The fact that all these Heads have tiny people who occasionally come out and do stuff is just adorable. I had a lot of fun watching the little people swinging on Tree Head’s tire swing from time to time. I guess you could put this in your graphic novel section OR your early chapter book section, depending on your mood. There are six main stories and then three additional bonus stories about some of the other Heads. Obviously, I’m a fan of Library Head, but that was probably a given. The tone in these stories is so sweet and strange that you’ll have a hard time putting this down. I want to go to there!

It also happened to have the BEST promotional video of the year. Watch all the way to the end, if you’d like to see the surprise cameo:

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The Cartoonists Club by Raina Telgemeier and Scott McCloud

When Makayla and Howard start a comics club at their school, they have no idea how to even begin. A clever combination of great storytelling and practical advice for kids who want to make comics of their own. Well, this book was sort of sold on being a version of Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics for kids, and by gum that is pretty much precisely what it is. It’s rather genius. It’s not the first book for kids I’ve ever seen to discuss the process of making comics, but rather than being pedantic and doing a kind of step-by-step process that a lot of books indulge in, this manages to be both full of practical advice and a deeper philosophical understanding of how much work a reader has to do to even read comics. I was a bit surprised that they didn’t mention the differences between different kinds of comics (or that any of the kids were into manga) but I guess they’re leaving that for the sequel. And darned if the doggone book didn’t make me tear up… twice! Twice I tells ya! It’s the best of all possible worlds, this collaboration.

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Chickenpox by Remy Lai

[Previously seen on the Gross List]

A visually inventive (and at times extremely gross) memoir, told from the P.O.V. of the author’s older sister, about the time the Lai kids all caught chickenpox. Will they get along while trapped together in quarantine? Ha! No way! Man, I swear I had chickenpox when I was a kid but I don’t remember it being anything quite as interesting as this. Lai is giving STRONG oldest sister vibes with this title. The dichotomy of being part of a large, raucous family particularly rang true on every page. Since most of the book is set in the home during the family’s quarantine, the danger is of making the story repetitive or boring. Turns out, Lai has the situation well in hand (this would make a GREAT play/musical!). I was also impressed by how efficiently the character of Abby was able to mess up all her friendships at once. I literally wasn’t sure she’d be able to pull it all off, but lo and behold, I need not have worried. Happy endings for all! Oh, and if you want some pus with your children’s literature, there is a visual (not seen here) of a pox bursting that is pretty stomach-churning.

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Creaky Acres by Calista Brill and Nilah Magruder

Even though I’m reading books for kids all year long, I miss a lot of the best titles. I’m just one gal and there are a LOT of books out there! All this is to say that I wish I’d located Creaky Acres sooner. I credit the Best of the Year lists put out by Chicago Public Library and New York Public Library for pointing me in the right direction with this one. The premise is that Nora is a star of her horseback riding team. Unfortunately, because of her nerd dad’s job, she has to move to a smaller community in the country. Now she’s the only Black girl in her school and the local barn, called Creaky Acres, is downright decrepit compared to her last one. Brill does a brill-(see what I did there?)-iant job of making Nora a complicated character. She’s an absolute jerk about her new location when she first moves in, but she’s also dealing with a concentrated array of microaggressions at school, thanks to being the first Black kid there. Watching her slowly come to love the new barn and its denizens (though maybe not the overly affectionate opossum) is a real mark of excellent graphic novel writing. See, it’s books like this one that make me wish, yet again, for an ALA award for comics. Just the most fun you can find in a book this year. 

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Creature Clinic by Gavin Aung Than

A young orc doctor takes care of mythical creatures in need of (sometimes hilarious) medical help. When a human (gasp!) enters their fantastical realm, she must hide him! Oh, this is a hoot. The downside of having so many graphic novels coming out these days is that you really can’t tell which ones are going to be fantastic charmers and which ones are snorefests. Drop this one down the “fantastic charmer” slot, please. It’s sort of E.R. for the fantasy set. Than is just having SO much fun with all the different ideas here, but I also kind of loved the personal relationships and distinct personalities on these pages. Plus, we don’t see a ton of books for kids where a young woman is trying to earn her mother’s respect in the field of medicine. And I loved the info at the end that Than got the idea for pushing a unicorn’s horn back in place after he had to have that happen to his own nose. 

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Don’t Cause Trouble by Arree Chung

When your mom cuts your hair, you have to buy your clothes at thrift stores, and all you want is a pair of cool shoes, life can feel rough. Ming just wants to fit in, but can standing out be okay too? Boy, the graphic novel memoir really is the way for picture book creators to get into the comics world now, isn’t it? I wonder if they’re told to go this route or if it’s just a natural path. Chung’s narrative has many of the elements we’ve seen in some other comics, but he definitely has his own distinct style and frame of reference. The mom in this book, for example, is a very different mom than I’ve seen in a while: Perpetually cheery, never getting mad. Arree’s anger on the page is palpable, and I’d say it’s fairly strong, and quick, read.

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The Fire-Breathing Duckling by Frank Cammuso

Mama Duck loves all her ducklings equally… even the fire-breathing ones. Nort isn’t like his brothers and sisters. Will he ever find the place he belongs?  It can be a touch difficult to find young graphic novels for the earliest of ages in a given year. TOON, therefore, makes sense as an ideal place to look. Plus Frank Cammuso is an old hand at this work. Now even though he’s gone the old predator-lives-with-ducks storyline (which we’ve seen in every possible combination, though this version reminded me particularly of Lambert), I really liked the tone, the art, and the story here. It’s just a classy class act altogether. More than a little sweet, without getting all messagey and in your face.

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Fresh Start by Gale Galligan

Having trouble at school? No worries! Thanks to Ollie’s dad’s job, she moves from place to place all the time, never having to live with her past mistakes. But what happens when the family lands in Virginia… forever? Welp, I’m sold. I feel like Galligan’s been holding back on us until now. Obviously they couldn’t break out their raucous humor in their Babysitter’s Club adaptations, but even Freestyle was a little more subdued than this. Clearly they just needed to do something a little more personal. This book fills that requirement, but is also just this incredible mix of styles with an overarching theme that felt incredibly real. And funny? So funny! Extra points for the Bonus Comics in the back (to my mind, all funny GNs should include Bonus Comics, even if they’re just sketches). The storyline that I enjoyed the most here was actually the one involving the way the parents really did treat Ollie’s younger sister poorly. The fact that Ollie sees this and then continually brings Cat into the conversations… I’ve never seen that before. This one’s a keeper.

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Higher Ground by Tull Suwannakit

Welp, I’m not sure what to think about the fact that 2025 is clearly the year that author/illustrators decided to write a bunch of very sweet and affectionate post-apocalyptic tales. I mean, between this book and Oasis, we pretty much have the market cornered, wouldn’t you say? It wasn’t immediately apparent to me by the cover of this book that this even was a graphic novel. And, perhaps, purists would protest the label. Are there panels? Sure. Speech balloons? Well… no. Not exactly. But the whole book inhabits that space between an early chapter book and a graphic novel, and I like to think that the sheer number of (quite frankly) beautiful illustrations in this book tip the balance in favor of comics. The premise of the title is that a natural disaster in the form of rain floods the world. Our child heroes and their grandmother are lucky enough to have an apartment with not only roof access, but a working garden up there as well. As the months pass they tend to the garden, more than a little perturbed that the water levels are only climbing higher and higher. And when the water threatens to flood the garden, big choices must be made. It’s a children’s book, so expect a happy ending, but it rivals How to Say Goodbye in Cuban (see below) in terms of beautiful watercolors (to say nothing of the graphite powder, gouache, and acrylic paints) in a graphic novel format). The last words in the book? “Don’t give up.” A message we can all use this year.

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How to Say Goodbye In Cuban by Daniel Miyares

Who would have thought winning the lottery would be such a problem? Carlos didn’t want to leave his grandparents’ Cuban farm for the big city, but that’s what happens when his papi hits it rich. Then Castro takes over and things change further still. The Cuban experience of leaving under Castro has definitely been rendered into a graphic novel experience for kids before, sure it has. What hasn’t really been done, though, is a breakdown of why the Cuban Revolution happened in the first place. Even so, it’s the story of Miyares’s dad’s experiences that are the heart of this book. I LOVE his grandfather, by the way. That guy shines through the pages, making inappropriate jokes in tense times (I’ve been telling folks that he has Uncle Iroh energy). Add in the fact that Miyares made the entire book in watercolor (no digital illustration for this man) and you’ll notice that the colors just undulate off the page. I’ll say it! This is my favorite Cuban Revolution graphic novel to date! 

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I Witnessed: The Lizzie Borden Story by Jeramey Kraatz, ill. Crystal Jayme

Who killed Lizzie Borden’s parents? When 14-year-old Charlie Churchill sees something strange next door, who is to blame for the crime? A tale of uncertainty and an unsolved murder. I don’t know what I was expecting when I started this book. Probably some sordid story (but age appropriate for kids??). Instead, I found a hugely compelling tale of murder that leaves precisely what happened to Lizzie Borden’s father and step-mother wide open. Kraatz gives us a world-weary Lizzie, clearly aching for some kind of freedom, but a murderer? It’s just as unclear to the reader at the end as it is to the young hero. Along the way you also get this incredible series of courtroom set pieces (the book is an excellent introduction to how courts work in general). It was nicely historical but felt very contemporary too. A nice bit of uncertainty (with great backmatter to make things interesting) for budding true crime enthusiasts.

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Into the Bewilderness by Gus Gordon

What to do? Luis the bear has ended up with tickets to a performance in the big city, but he’s never been out of the deep woods before. Good thing he has grumpy mole Pablo to come along for the ride. Now due to the fact that I would run over small mammals on the road to get to the newest Gus Gordon book, I may not be the most unbiased reader of this title. As weird as this may sound, this book has a VERY similar tone and feel to the TV show We Bare Bears, right down to the awkward Sasquatch who just wants to hang out and be groovy. Gordon is just so good at capturing the feel of cities that it’s almost a pity that it takes our two protagonists so long to get to one. I could also spend a long time just staring at the map at the front. But, of course, the true heart of this book lies in the friendship between cheery bird-chomping Luis and perpetually grumpy Pablo. There’s kind of an Ernie and Bert energy to their friendship (though their personalities are different). Worth your time and a quick read.

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Kindred Dragons by Sarah Mensinga

I’d be the first person to tell you that the tagline that this is Anne of Green Gables meets How to Train Your Dragon is annoying… and 100% accurate. Happily, Mensinga appears to be the kind of author/illustrator who is perfectly at ease with taking some basic source material and then spinning it into something bright, shiny, and new. In this story Alice is 100% obsessed with dragons. She’s convinced that soon she’ll be given an egg of one by the fairies to bond with (so, yes, there’s a bit of the old Dragonriders of Pern in this tale as well). Even though her strict grandmother tells her it’s impossible, she believes… but it never happens. What does happen, however, is that she becomes friends with an old dragon named Brim in the woods. But what happens when that dragon gets sick? The art of this book? Gorgeous. The tone? Ideal. The story? SO much fun. Oh, and I probably shouldn’t even say this (it’s a little bit of a spoiler), but can I tell you how relieved I was at the end that Mensinga managed to find a way to give Sarah a happy ending utilizing her special skills? Find this one!

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Loki by George O’Connor

There was a time, oh best beloved, when picture book creators could get away with murder on their pages. Think of Trina Schart Hyman hiding a copulating couple on the edge of a wooden table or any number of weirdnesses populating Tomi Ungerer’s books. These days, good luck with all that. Picture books go through the finest sieve imaginable, so any weirdness that manages to squeak through is almost miraculous as a result. Not so, comics. Graphic novels in the last couple years have sprung up en masse, and the end result is that there are so many of the darn things that some of the creators are managing to put stuff on the pages that gives me hope in this massive book banning age. Nathan Hale, for example, somehow managed to include the desiccated face of a man in a full two-page spread in Bones and Beserkers (see below) while George O’Connor here has an entirely DIFFERENT half-a-desiccated corpse face (his is more vertical and Lane’s more horizontal). Oh, and Loki totally ties his bits and pieces via rope to a goat to get a laugh. The thing about O’Connor’s Asgardian series as opposed to his Olympians series is that he has a lot less sources to draw from, and the sources he does have are very very very weird. The emotional thrust of this book is how Loki goes from trickster to villain. I thought the title did a remarkably good job with it all, honestly. But that’s George O’Connor for you. Getting away with murder and just a little bit more. 

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My Trip with Drip by Josephine Mark, translated by Andrew Shields

[Previously seen on the Translation List]

Optional Alternate Title: They Just Don’t Make ‘Em Like This In America! It’s the Germans this time, and let this be yet another poked hole in American belief that the “Germans aren’t funny”. Maybe the stuff for adults isn’t, but the children’s stuff is fantastic! Case in point, a graphic novel with more guts than you’re going to see all year (and a serious Batchelder contender, by the way). The story focuses on a small rabbit who is taking some kind of medicine. He’s pretty much permanently attached to an IV, his gums are bleeding, and he’s losing his fur. But all that is almost secondary to the adventure he finds himself on when his IV stand accidentally repels a bullet and saves a wolf’s life. Now the wolf is honor bound to the bunny (whether the bunny wants it or not) and the next thing you know they’re stealing cars, kicking over the motorcycles at a biker bar, gambling, and escaping an Inspector Javert-like hunter who is determined to get them in his sights. Yet the heart of the piece (and it has a lot of heart) is the increasingly tender relationship between the bunny and wolf. As the bunny spends time with the wolf he finds himself growing braver and more confident, while the wolf begins to come to terms with not being alone anymore and finding a pack. Personally, I always have a problem with books where someone needs to take medication regularly and doesn’t, but that is NOT this book. The wolf himself takes the bunny’s medication plan very seriously. I don’t know that we see a lot of books with heroes disabled in this particular way, but if this story is any indication, we could use a lot more.

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Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: Bones and Berserkers by Nathan Hale

[Previously seen on the Gross List]

Oh wow. So the cover is a bit misleading on this one, I’d say. The endpapers, in contrast, dead on. Emphasis on the dead. Nathan’s always harbored a love of good old-fashioned horror, but it’s tended to come out more in his standalone books like One Trick Pony or (most especially) Apocalypse Taco. His Hazardous Tales, in contrast, can get gory but always stayed relatively safe (a remarkable balance when you’re dealing with something like the Donner Party). But in this latest, with its “13 True Tales of Terror” on its cover, he lets himself go completely. I mean, the first story in this book has a newborn baby killing everyone in the receiving room so… y’know, it lets you know what’s going on right from the start. That’s why this cover, with its Viking on the cover, is downright tame in comparison. Now Nathan has always harbored a special love for Stephen Gammell, he of the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (which means Nate should take a gander at the poetry book Nightmare Jones from this year). Indeed, this book is even dedicated to Gammell and Alvin Schwartz. Years and years and years ago, I did a challenge on my blog for folks to Re-Seussify Seuss, which is to say, to rework a famous Seuss image in the style of another artist. Nathan chose to do a selection from One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, in a Gammell style and it was damned well the best thing I ever saw. Here take a gander:

So with all that in mind, just know that if you’re handing this one to kids, maybe don’t make it the first Hazardous Tale they see. This book’s a lot more interested in folktales, legends, and urban legends (another Alvin Schwartz similarity) than strict history (though there is some of that as well… *shudder*). 

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Night Chef: An Epic Tale of Friendship with a Side of Deliciousness by Mika Song

Though I’ve heard the book compared to Ratatouille, anyone familiar with the film Everything Everywhere All at Once is going to know that the true comparison here is Raccoontouille. In this tale we meet the Night Chef. Having grown up in the walls of a restaurant, she’s a raccoon with a particularly keen sense of cooking. Naturally, she’s only ever known human food. When her search for an egg leads her to a newly hatched baby crow she becomes determined to reunite it with its kind. This means epic cross country adventures, a lovely animal-run restaurant where she discovers cricket, earthworm, and firefly dishes, and a villainous owl out for blood. Mika Song has dabbled in food-related graphic novel fare involving rodents for years and years now, honestly. I’m sure many of you have seen her younger books like Donut Feed the Squirrels. Night Chef is just a bit older than all of that, but is still on the younger side of middle grade readers (so more for the 9-year-olds than the 6-year-olds). After reading the 2025 nonfiction title Bug Snacks by Jess French, I went out and purchased some cricket flour. It’ll be the perfect accompaniment for the Fly Frittata recipe at the back of the book (no flies included). Consider pairing the two books together!

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North for the Winter by Bobby Podesta

[Previously seen on the Holiday List]

A supervising Pixar animator tries his hand at middle grade comics and comes out with a legitimately fun Christmastime tale. Silly that I am, color me surprised when I learned that the critter on the cover of this book is Donner. Dasher had her time in the sun with Matt Tavares, so it seems only fair that Donner should have a turn. The story fixes on a broken family. Virginia and her dad are driving to her aunt’s home just in time for Christmas and the kid is NOT happy about it. Ever since her mom’s death, Virginia’s father has been withdrawn and moody. It probably doesn’t help when he almost hits some animal in the road and gets a flat. While he’s taking care of that, Virginia runs into the animal in question and accidentally ends up with the strange compass it wears around its next. What follows is a trip to the city where department store elves, a trapper with a Javert-like mindset, a new friend for Virginia, and more than a dose of magic mean that by hook or by crook, it’s up to Virginia to save Christmas itself! I was particularly taken with the continual shots of the army during all of this, as they try to deal with the flying objects that make no sense on their radars. Set in 1955, the book is peppered with little callbacks to a lot of classic Christmas fare. Reading it, you’re never quite sure where Podesta will head next. Gripping storytelling, fantastic art, hopefully we’re going to see a lot more books out of Mr. Podesta in the future.  

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Oasis by Guojing

In a barren desert, two children strive to survive while their mother works in the city. But when they discover an abandoned robot and fix it up, they find a new kind of mother. Knowing, as I do, how long graphic novels take to make, I know that Guojing didn’t write this to almost coincide with The Wild Robot movie, but whatta tie-in! Mom robots, man. They’re very “in” right now. Of course, the entire reason this (or really any Guojing book) works is because she ties the plot in so completely to the reality of children left behind by their parents on their own (Guojing’s first book in America The Only Child was based on that concept along with her own childhood experiences). She’s done so many lovely books over the years that I didn’t really expect “dystopian hellscape” to be in the cards for her, but that’s what I like about Guojing. She always keeps you guessing. And as dystopian hellscapes go, this is probably one of the sweetest and gentlest you’ll find, though there are plenty of dark scary corners here and there. Still, the idea of finding a substitute mom when you can’t reach your real one? That felt right to me. Gorgeously illustrated and beautifully written. I adore this. Would pair weirdly well with The Storm in the Barn by Matt Phelan too.

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On Guard! by Cassidy Wasserman

I used to run a post on my blog that would discuss the contenders for “Worst Parents in Children’s Books” of that particular year. I just don’t read widely enough to know all the potential inclusions, but I can tell you that if I was inclined to make such a list for 2025, Grace’s mom in this book would be RIGHT up there. You don’t see a lot of parents slapping their kids across the face these days, but that’s just one of the memorable moments in this title. In this story, Grace has had a falling out with her (now) former best friend. On top of that she’s having to navigate her parents’ divorce. It wouldn’t be such an issue, except that even divorced they constantly fight, and Grace’s mom isn’t exactly the most attentive parent. Fortunately, when Grace discovers the fencing team at school, she also finds friendship and a self-confidence she never had before. Now this is hardly the first fencing graphic novel I’ve ever seen (Duel by Jessixa Bagley and Foiled by Jane Yolen both come instantly to mind), but I found the storytelling and easygoing incorporation of fencing terms and rules into the book just super. Plus, that painful moment when your friend no longer wants to be friends with you is handled so well. A great title about finding something to love, and advocating for yourself (even if the person you have to advocate with is a parent). 

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One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams Garcia, ill. Sharee Miller

I don’t know why I resisted reading this for as long as I did. After all, I adored the original (it’s my own personal Shoulda Won a Newbery Award soapbox book). Maybe I worried that Sharee Miller’s art was too simple to dip into the nuances of this story. That thought was, I admit now, inherently stupid. I wasn’t two or three pages into this story before I realized that it’s not about the complexity of the art. It’s about the way in which the graphic novelist plucks out the storytelling elements of the original text. And seeing a gigantic Muhammed Ali boxing a plane in the sky? Right there I was sold. Best of all, Miller somehow manages to really relay the key moments of Garcia’s original text without sacrificing anything. Now I’ve seen some objections to the art in this book, pointing out small inaccuracies (like the fact that the takeout Chinese food comes in plastic bags when it should have been paper bags). I’ll grant that, but I’ll counter that while that is annoying, it doesn’t negate the fact that this is a seamless adaptation. And the best part? Reading this comic makes you want to reread Garcia’s original book. It’s the perfect gateway drug to literature.

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Otis & Peanut Find a Way by Naseem Hrab, ill. Kelly Collier

Three small stories follow the adventures of best friends Otis and Peanut. Whether it’s anxiety over travel, missing someone who’s gone, or planning an upcoming visit, these tales handle it all with equal parts humor and kindness. If we’re always on the lookout for younger and simpler picture books then, by extension, we should also be always on the lookout for younger and simpler graphic novels as well. This book may be #3 in a series, but it stands entirely on its own. Hrab is shockingly good at the writing here. It’s just three little stories (“The Trip”, “The Stone”, and “The Visit”) but the last one sums up the previous ones nicely. It’s compact but also touches on some really serious issues with a gentleness that can’t be taken for granted.

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Say Something, Poupeh Babaee! by Dr. Haleh Massey, ill. Ghazal Gadri

Anyone else getting El Deafo vibes off of this book? Not necessarily in terms of the content, but there’s something about Gadri’s illustrative style that certainly invoked Cece Bell to my mind. This book has, unfortunately, flown distinctly under the radar this year, and that’s a serious shame. Seems to me that a middle grade novel that talks about travel bans against Muslim countries is DISTINCTLY timely. In this story Poupeh Babaee has flown from Iran to the U.S. to stay with her relatives ahead of her parents. They stayed behind to sell their business and get everything ready for this move. Unfortunately, in that gap the U.S. has instituted new guidelines on who is allowed to enter the country, and Iran is on the “dangerous country” list. Poupeh, meanwhile, has to deal with the fact that her classmates call her “Poopy Baby”, her cousin doesn’t seem to even want her there, and she’s dealing with selective mutism at precisely the time that she’s supposed to talk to a government official about getting her parents to the States. It’s a lot. There’s not a kid out there who’s going to come away from this book without feeling an overwhelming gratitude that they don’t have to deal with the stuff that Poupeh is dealing with. The adults in her life (particularly the men) are NOT particularly open to hearing what a kid like her is going through. It’s a rough ride (the kid with the America First dad is a trip) but it all ends happily at the end. Whew!

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Sea Legs by Jules Bakes, ill. Niki Smith

Janey’s family lives on a boat traveling through the Bahamas. She feels isolated and wants to make a friend…but all too soon learns to be careful what you wish for. Based on the author’s childhood, I came into this thinking it was some happy little basic middle grade comic about living on a boat. Yet the minute Janey’s new friend, Astrid, steps onto the scene, the whole mood of the piece shifts. Growing up, I had a friend with an alcoholic dad, and I was just as oblivious as Janey to what was really going on. There’s an intriguing dark underbelly to this tale, and it elevates the story from pretty-good–but-forgettable to great. Sure, it takes a little while to find its sea legs, but once it knows where it’s going it’s nothing short of extraordinary. 

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Sky & Ty: Dinomite! by Steve Breen

You know me. Always on a desperate search for graphic novels that can speak to our youngest of readers. I’ll be the first to admit that cowboys don’t hold the same sway over young minds as they did for my parents’ generation, but anything’s better with dinosaurs, right? Particularly dinosaurs that rock good looking cowboy boots. This little sequel picks up where the first Sky & Ty book left off. Partners in the truest sense, this unlikely duo of girl and dinosaur (think of it as a younger version of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur) is split into two separate chapters. Breen knows juuuust how much humor he can work into each story so that it’s still easy to read, but it also sports a wry wit of its very own. Extra points for the jokes at the back and info on cowgirls (accompanied by an image of Calamity Jane). 

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The Snips: A Bad Buzz Day by Raúl the Third, colors by Elaine Bay

Evil barbers have a diabolical plan that involves hundreds of unsuspecting victims to receive terrible buzzcuts, but never fear! The crime-fighting Snips are on the case! Certainly I’ve seen a fair amount of Raúl and Elaine’s work before, but this struck me as more of a labor of love than I’d seen before. They’re really tapping into a 1930s cartooning vibe that I dig, with direct references to Nancy, Richie Rich, Betty Boop, Ignatz, and more obliquely to things like Felix the Cat. I’ve always admired the way the duo is able to drop a reader directly into a story without having to dwell too much on exposition. Still, for me it’s the look of the piece that I find so thrilling. If they do more of this series, I really hope that they lean all the way into these early cartoons and their influences. 

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Survival Scout: Lost at Sea by Maxwell Eaton III

It wouldn’t be a true year-end roundup without as many Maxwell Eaton III titles as I can cram into my lists. This isn’t exactly the first in a series either. As the third Survival Scout title, we’ve already figured out how to survive in the wilderness AND how to survive a tsunami (of the two, pick the wilderness). Now let’s talk about being stranded at sea without any particular idea where land is or how far it might be. First and foremost, Scout’s mom needs to stop sending her daughter out with her eldest son. That dude is a certifiable menace. Still, the scrapes he leaves his younger sibling in are always absolutely fascinating. With her snarky skunk friend at her side, Scout covers a WIDE range of scientific concepts in the course of explaining how to find your way back to land. You learn how to steer a sailboat (I literally did not know you could sail into the wind until this title explained it to me how), navigate with maps, charts, and satellite phones, and everything! Plus they’re funny! These books are a friggin’ delight (though I’m increasingly worried that Scout’s going to get herself stranded in space at some point). 

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True Colors: Growing Up Weird in the ‘90s by Elise Gravel, translated by Montana Kane

Elise knows she’s a weirdo, but she’s pretty okay with that, as long as she has her best friend Asma. But when Asma and a new friend start hanging out without her, is their friendship over?  I’m just so friggin’ PEEVED that Drawn & Quarterly went and labeled this as a YA gn. It ain’t. At most it’s maybe a middle school one (there is some mention of periods and a brief look at sex ed) but Gravel is WAY more interested in the ins and outs of friendship than relationships. It’s also, and I mean this sincerely, one of the funniest books of 2025. I mean, those of us who have read Elise Gravel won’t find that fact particularly surprising. Even so, I was struck by how often I found myself laughing out loud as I read this. You just want to go back in time and befriend this girl. An incredible look at having ADHD in the ‘90s. 

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The Vanishing of Lake Peigneur by Allan Wolf, ill. Jose Pimienta

Nonfiction time! On November 20, 1980 an entire 1,100 acre lake disappeared. How did it happens? Action packed graphic novel storytelling relays this forgotten piece of Louisiana history. BLAST! This is amazing!!! Last year we had that rip-roaring nonfiction about people escaping Mt. St. Helens. This year? A Louisiana disaster, utterly lost to history, from 1980 that is so gripping you’ll be on the edge of your seat. Characters probably spend a little too much time talking about what an “ordinary day” it is for my liking, but once the disaster begins you wonder how anyone ever forgot about it. This has everything! Trapped miners. Deadly whirlpools. Equally deadly waterfalls. Dogs in peril! People in peril! Geyers! I love the note at the end that says that maybe the reason this wasn’t better reported and remembered is that no one died, everyone was focused on the hostages in Iran, and on Dallas, who shot J.R.? Whatever the reason, this is gripping, and a great mystery to boot. 

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Very Bad at Math by Hope Larsen

Middle grade graphic novel alert! Verity has it all at her school. Popularity and friends galore! But she has a secret. Math makes no sense! If she doesn’t do better, she will have to give up things that mean everything to her. Will she prevail? It’s good and it includes a nice bit of info about dyscalculia that I haven’t seen discussed in children’s books much before. I also really liked that Very is the rare popular, nice character. I knew kids like her when I was a kid but we almost never seen them on the page. And, naturally, I love the math connection here. True, Very’s not a huge fan of it, but she comes around once she realizes that her problems stem from a disability, not a lack of trying. I wouldn’t call it the MOST positive portrayal of math this year, but at least it doesn’t demonize it. Plus, it takes some time to explain how math is useful in the real world (which is good stuff). All told, this is enticing and new in ways I haven’t seen before.

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That’s it for today! Be sure to stay tuned for more lists on 2025 titles. The full roster is here:

December 1 – Great Board Books

December 2 – Picture Book Readalouds

December 3 – Simple Picture Book Texts

December 4 – Transcendent Holiday Children’s Books

December 5 – Rhyming Picture Books

December 6 – Funny Picture Books

December 7 – Caldenotts

December 8 – Wordless Picture Books

December 9 – Bilingual Books for Kids

December 10 – Math Books for Kids

December 11 – Books with a Message / Social Emotional Learning

December 12 – Easy Books

December 13 – Translated Children’s Books

December 14 – Fairy Tales / Folktales / Religious Tales

December 15 – Gross Books

December 16 – Poetry Books

December 17 – Unconventional Children’s Books

December 18 – Early Chapter Books

December 19 – Comics & Graphic Novels

December 20 – Older Funny Books

December 21 – Science Fiction Books

December 22 – Fantasy Books

December 23 – Informational Fiction

December 24 – American History

December 25 – Science & Nature Books

December 26 – Unique Biographies

December 27 – Blueberry Award Contenders (Celebrating the Environment)

December 28 – Nonfiction Picture Books

December 29 – Nonfiction Books for Older Readers

December 30 – Middle Grade Novels

December 31 – Picture Books

Filed under: 31 Days 31 Lists, Best Books, Best Books of 2025