2024 NATIONAL MEDAL
for Museum and Library Service Finalist

Graphic Novel

Flamer

Award-winning author and artist Mike Curato draws on his own experiences in Flamer, his debut graphic novel, telling a difficult story with humor, compassion, and love.

I know I’m not gay. Gay boys like other boys. I hate boys. They’re mean, and scary, and they’re always destroying something or saying something dumb or both.

I hate that word. Gay. It makes me feel . . . unsafe.

Check, Please!

Helloooo, Internet Land. Bitty here!

Y’all... I might not be ready for this. I may be a former junior figure skating champion, vlogger extraordinaire, and very talented amateur pâtissier, but being a freshman on the Samwell University hockey team is a whole new challenge. It’s nothing like co-ed club hockey back in Georgia! First of all? There’s checking. And then, there is Jack—our very attractive but moody captain.

Lifetime Passes

In this darkly comedic YA graphic novel, a group of teens starts a program to bring senior citizens to a local theme park to take advantage of the unofficial park If someone dies on the property, the rest of their party is given lifetime passes!

Blackwater

Riverdale meets Stranger Things in this debut queer YA graphic novel, developed from a hit webcomic. Set in the haunted town of Blackwater, Maine, two boys fall for each other as they dig for clues to a paranormal mystery.

"For fans of Heartstopper and Teen Wolf ." ― School Library Journal

The Orphan King

Prince Kaidan, born to rule as a hero of the realm, is on the move, taking first steps into the life of soaring regal adventure promised by his birthright. After completing secret training with his aunt, the magical Lady Taleissa, Kaidan returns home hoping to pick up where he left off and start an exciting new chapter. Instead, his parents are missing and the kingdom is destroyed, along with everything he’d ever hoped and dreamed.

Maus

A brutally moving work of art—widely hailed as the greatest graphic novel ever written—Maus recounts the chilling experiences of the author’s father during the Holocaust, with Jews drawn as wide-eyed mice and Nazis as menacing cats.

Maus is a haunting tale within a tale, weaving the author’s account of his tortured relationship with his aging father into an astonishing retelling of one of history's most unspeakable tragedies. It is an unforgettable story of survival and a disarming look at the legacy of trauma.

Fun Home

Distant and exacting, Bruce Bechdel was an English teacher and director of the town funeral home, which Alison and her family referred to as the "Fun Home." It was not until college that Alison, who had recently come out as a lesbian, discovered that her father was also gay. A few weeks after this revelation, he was dead, leaving a legacy of mystery for his daughter to resolve.
 
In her hands, personal history becomes a work of amazing subtlety and power, written with controlled force and enlivened with humor, rich literary allusion, and heartbreaking detail.

Persepolis

Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s acclaimed graphic memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.

Passport

An unforgettable graphic memoir by debut talent Sophia Glock reveals her discovery as a teenager that her parents are agents working for the CIA

Young Sophia has lived in so many different countries, she can barely keep count. Stationed now with her family in Central America because of her parents' work, Sophia feels displaced as an American living abroad, when she has hardly spent any of her life in America.

Oksi

Where was the bear born?
Where delivered?
By the moon, next to the sun
Among the stars of the plough
Sent to Earth in a golden cradle With silvery chains.

Poorling is a little bear. She’s a bit different from her brothers. Mother keeps their family safe.

For the Forest is full of dangers. It is there that Mana lives, with her Shadow children.

And above them all, Emuu, the great Grandma in the Sky.