Adventure Time Vol. 1 by Ryan North

A hapless snail has freed the evil Lich from his bag of holding and he is on a mission to destroy everyone and everything in the Land of Ooo.  It is up to Finn and his best friend Jake the magical dog, with the help of their friends, to defeat the Lich and save Ooo.  If you’ve never seen an episode of Adventure Time, the previous sentences may have sounded like gibberish, but fans of the popular television cartoon series will enjoy seeing it brought so faithfully to comic book form.  The art and dialogue are full of lively action, nonsense humor, and wordplay.  Adventure Time is a vibrant option for readers looking for humorous comics and offers a welcome entry point to the format for those turned off by mainstream superhero comics. --Regan Schwartz

Click here for an ELA lesson plan from Diamond Bookshelf.

North, Ryan. Adventure Time Vol. 1. Los Angeles: KaBoom!, 2013. Print.

Grace After Midnight: a Memoir by Felicia "Snoop" Pearson and David Ritz

Some of the most popular requests from students are for books about “real life.” Sometimes they’re looking for realistic fiction, but often they’re looking for a real story about a real person who has been through difficult times. Grace After Midnight fits the bill. Anyone who has watched the latter part of HBO’s groundbreaking series The Wire will know Snoop’s character, a soldier for Marlo’s drug-dealing crew who commits murders with calm professionalism. What they may not know is that Felicia “Snoop” Pearson was living a life very similar to her character’s when she was discovered by one of the actors in the show. Recruited for being “perfect” for the role, Snoop’s life was suddenly turned upside down.

Snoop tells her story in a simple and direct way that is sure to draw students in to her world. Opening with a memory of her birth mother, a crack-addicted woman who once sold the clothes off Snoop’s back for drugs, this story pulls the reader in from the very beginning. It’s filled with memories of her life with the foster parents she loves, her crime-filled neighborhood, and her time in prison. She’s also very candid about her sexual identity and her relationships with women. --Anja Kennedy

Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror: Spine-Tingling Spooktacular by Matt Groening

The Treehouse of Horror series, a special publication within the regular Simpsons comic book series, may be perfect for Halloween, but the books excite readers all year long. Since acquiring a handful of these last year, they have been some of the most often-handled, picked up and flipped through books in the library. Some students ask if we have any books based on TV shows, and these and the Boondocks comics are among the first that I point them towards. Described by one student as “mad colorful,” these Simpsons comics are eye-catching, in sharp contrast to the black and white art of the Boondocks. Presented as episodes that stand alone, each segment allows for bite-sized enjoyment. In Spine-Tingling Spooktacular, ELA teachers might want to look for the Simpsons’ take on Kafka’s classic Metamorphosis, where Homer turns into a bug-breath beetle. --Anja Kennedy