A savvy guide to the best graphic nonfiction for teens

Who says reading a book has to be painful? Evidently, that’s what most high school students who are doing research must think. If you need proof, just look at the grimaces as they search for a title to satisfy an assignment. These kids are in distress—and you can’t really blame them. Many school-related books are so dense that today’s text-scanning teens have a hard time finding the information they’re seeking. And with their bland narratives, formulaic layouts, and muzzy stock photos, some titles are so curriculum conscious they practically scream, “Read at your own risk.” Good thing there’s now a pain-free alternative: graphic nonfiction for adults. Many of these titles work well with teens, offering them quick access to facts and an enjoyable encounter with books and information literacy. Since graphic nonfiction is enjoying a boom, there’s no shortage of deep content and intriguing topics. And unlike some of the lackluster graphic nonfiction that’s being published for younger readers, the top adult titles are all about first-rate storytelling and appealing art—a combination that few teens can resist. In putting together my list of essential titles for high schoolers, I’ve searched for graphic nonfiction that’s already on many schools’ suggested reading lists or titles that have the potential to meet the needs of formal curricula. But curriculum relevance only goes so far. If we truly want kids to take advantage of graphic nonfiction, we need to give them engaging titles. I hope the following suggestions will help you build a collection that’s relevant and aesthetically satisfying to teens and their teachers.

Essential series

Larry Gonick has spent more than 30 years creating winning graphic nonfiction about scientific and historical topics, ranging from The Cartoon Guide to Statistics (1993) to The Cartoon History of the United States (revised edition 1991, both Collins). Gonick’s loopy black-and-white images offer visual puns while his texts go far to explain difficult ideas (such as molecular structure), decode formulas, and ask relevant questions that keep readers rushing back for more. Unlike the recent spate of series aimed at young readers, Gonick’s books are hefty, each weighing in at several hundred pages. Accessible and inspiring to curious readers as young as middle school, his work respects the reader as someone who really wants to know the scoop, rather than just earn credit for doing homework. Rick Geary launched his stellar cartooning career just behind Gonick. Since its beginning in 1987, his “Treasury of Victorian Murder” has been providing period-inspired re-creations of famous and less well-known killings, including those of President Lincoln (The Murder of Abraham Lincoln [2005]) and Lizzie Borden’s parents (The Borden Tragedy [1997]). (By the way, the latter is an easy booktalk with teenage girls, since many can easily imagine offing one’s parents with an ax.) Each volume gives enough background information about the victim, killer, investigators, and witnesses to draw teens in—quite the opposite of a conventional narrative’s dry recitation of details. Geary’s books include maps and interesting visual angles to give readers that you-are-there experience, as well as bibliographic notes for further research. Each murder case and its aftermath—whether trial, ongoing investigation, or even a villain’s later dark deeds—is recapped in under a hundred pages. Also, look for Geary’s new series, covering a more recent historical period: his A Treasury of XXth Century Murder: The Lindbergh Child (2008, all NBM/ComicsLit).

Outstanding stand-alones

Geary’s not just about murder cases. His recent biography of America’s former top cop, J. Edgar Hoover: A Graphic Biography (Hill and Wang, 2008), guides the reader through this famous life, while also providing a valuable glimpse into the political tides of 20th-century America, including the Depression, McCarthyism, Civil Rights, and Watergate. Geary’s style highlights his subject’s settings and showcases the artist’s considerable reportorial skills. And his black-and-white panels help readers anticipate the action, as special attention is given to bit characters who will later become big wheels in the story. Howard Zinn plumbs almost the same time period, but from a broader, more polemical perspective, in A People’s History of American Empire (Metropolitan Books, 2008). Tracing examples of American imperialism both at home and abroad, and spanning Wounded Knee through the USA PATRIOT Act, each episode is presented through the eyes of a real someone who was there and incorporates images of actual newspapers and photographs. This is history with a purposeful bias, and it’s an excellent teaching tool for classes in political science and government. Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón reworked the official government document detailing the terrorist attacks of September 2001 into a svelte, much more accessible form in The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation (2006). Don’t be fooled. This isn’t a “for dummies” version of the full-length report—it offers data with an immediacy that’s seldom matched by conventional narratives. The four planes simultaneously hijacked in the air, for instance, literally unfold across an extended page that shows their positions at the exact same moment. The report also portrays evidence of racial profiling, as U.S. security personnel are shown singling out “suspicious” Middle Eastern faces. Jacobson and Colón have recently followed up their previous title with After 9/11: America’s War on Terror (2008, both Hill and Wang), a journalistic assessment of America’s foreign policy and cultural events post-9/11. Both books feature color illustrations and make use of visual close-ups, bird’s-eye views, and various sized panels to present experts’ perspectives and significant events, such as the capture of Saddam Hussein. The wellsprings and weirdnesses of American politics are also on display in Students for a Democratic Society by comics giant Harvey Pekar (2008), Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography by Andrew Helfer and illustrator Randy DuBurke (2006), and Ronald Reagan: A Graphic Biography also by Helfer, with illustrators Steve Buccellato and Joe Staton (2007, all Hill and Wang). Like any study of history, these works reflect their creators’ biases and particular points of view, but each volume strives to depict and explain its subject in a fair, objective manner. The black-and-white images offer poignant realistic details, such as the effects of Alzheimer’s disease on President Reagan’s posture and how Malcolm X’s powerful pose for a photograph reveals much more than the man’s physical strength. Ho Che Anderson’s visually eclectic King (Fantagraphics, 2005) offers a study of Martin Luther King, Jr. that’s a much more complete version of the Civil Rights hero than those found in standard school texts. Its pages include etched panels, brightly colored collages, and symbolically hued panoramas, which depict King as the complex man he was: father, occasionally unfaithful spouse, orator, preacher, and politician. Anderson provides a solid bibliography, including written documents and interviews he conducted with some of King’s associates. When it comes to understanding world events, graphic nonfiction can offer students more insight and access than conventional news reports and history books. Take self-described cartoon journalist Joe Sacco’s Palestine (2007), for example, a landmark investigation of the Middle East that’s available in a special single-volume edition with a foreword by the late Edward Said. Sacco, who calls himself a “war junkie,” traveled to the Middle East and interviewed local residents who hold a variety of political allegiances. Another of Sacco’s works, Safe Area Gorazde (2001, both Fantagraphics), also shouldn’t be missed. Not only does it give a comprehensive introduction to the 1990s war in Bosnia, but the story also offers a pedagogical gold mine of the author’s hard-won insights, including his use of informants. As a reporter, Sacco places himself in the stories he writes. His visual style is reminiscent of 1960s underground “comix,” but with cleaner lines and more serious content. As you probably know, Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (Pantheon, 2004) is now an animated feature film, and her story has been widely read by teens as well as by adults who had previously eschewed graphic novels as a literary form. The author-artist’s black-and-white images of Iran’s Islamic Revolution provide an insider’s view not only of this important event, but also of the real-life differences between one’s public politics and private beliefs. Miriam Katin’s We Are on Our Own (Drawn & Quarterly, 2006) also transports teens beyond the surface of things in her account of what it was like to be Jewish in Hungary during World War II. Katin’s narrative explores the effect of the Holocaust on the individual’s faith life, as well as the effects of this trauma on subsequent generations. The stark black-and-white images incorporate the color red in dramatic ways, making this a fine work to explore not only in social science class but also in literature and art classes. Stan Mack’s The Story of the Jews: A 4,000 Year Adventure (Jewish Lights, 2001) features loads of humor along with factual accounts and explanations of religious traditions. Like Gonick, Mack makes a large and serious topic accessible through energetic black-and-white cartoons, a thorough knowledge of the subject, and a keen interest in making his audience both laugh and learn. The Manga Bible: From Genesis to Revelation (Galilee Trade, 2008), by Siku, proves a delightful interpretation of such biblical events as the Flood, the Battle of Jericho, and some of the miracles performed by Jesus. Each biblical story comes with its own stylized approach—for instance, skateboarder lingo enlivens a scene from the Gospel of Matthew and 1930s gangsters help illustrate one of Jesus’s parables. Although this book isn’t intended for religion classes, it’s a perfect fit for classes that examine the Bible as literature. Osamu Tezuka’s 1970s-era manga Buddha (Vertical, 2003–2007) was published in Japan years ago, but it wasn’t available in an English-language edition until fairly recently. This multivolume biography is an enormous work, and, to date, only the first eight volumes have been published for American readers. The series is especially valuable for kids who need to know about religious beliefs beyond the Christian-Judeo tradition, and it belongs in every teen collection. Tetsu Saiwai’s BioGraphic: The 14th Dalai Lama (Emotional Content, 2008) successfully depicts the politics of religion as well as its faith content, all wrapped up in a tidy manga narrative. Now that manga’s the current rage with teens and other fans of pop comics, these last three titles are dressed for success—plus, they provide substance with style. It’s always frustrating to compile a “best of” list because it’s impossible to squeeze in all of one’s favorites—after all, there’s only a limited amount of space and time. However, I’ll end this one with a couple recommendations for teen artists and high school art classes. The Bristol Board Jungle (NBM, 2004), by Bob Pendarvis and Mark Kneece, shows as well as tells how a college-level comics course might unfold. Real art-school teachers and students worked together on this book, making it highly suitable—and inspirational—for an art classroom. And consummate comics scholar Scott McCloud has written an ongoing series of studies on the how and why of comics. His most recent, Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels (HarperCollins, 2006), should be required reading for anyone who’s interested in literacy as it answers the following question once and for all: Are comic books really about reading? I suspect you already know where I stand on that issue.

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Francisca Goldsmith is director of branch services at the Halifax Public Libraries in Nova Scotia, Canada.