In this electrifying graphic novel debut, Polish animator and cartoonist Wojtek Wawszczyk uses magical realism to tell a moving tale of finding light in a life full of darkness. Mirroring the world we live in, the protagonist of this graphic novel comes from a broken home. However, in this case, the term is quite literal. Due to freak accidents at the steelworks where his parents work, his mom is snapped, his dad is flattened. As if that wasn’t enough to deal with, one day, he suffers his own life changing experience: mistakenly swallowing a glob of molten metal gives him the strange power to radiate heat and light like a lightbulb. As he grows up, evolving from Bulb Boy to Mr. Lightbulb, he finds that his unique abilities can be a curse and a blessing; while they alienate him from others, they also allow him to shine.
Young Adult (ages 14-18)
Material appropriate for young adults
All Rise: Resistance And Rebellion In South Africa
All Rise: Resistance and Rebellion in South Africa is a four-part graphic history series. Based on little-known court records, each volume consists of six stories of resistance by marginalized South Africans against colonial and apartheid governments. This first installment, which spans the “Union period” of 1910-48, was researched and written by South African historian Richard Conyngham and each illustrated by a different South African artist. The stories in All Rise combine a variety of universal issues related to justice and human rights with a refreshing narrative medium. By foregrounding “anonymous” protagonists with lesser-known histories, the book breathes new life into a terrain of written history that until now has been dominated by icons.
Heroines, Rescuers, Rabbis, Spies: Unsung Women Of The Holocaust
Discover nine ordinary women who took extraordinary measures to save lives during the Holocaust, resisting terror and torture while undercover or in hiding, in concentration camps, in forests, and in exile.
I Shall Awaken
A small village in Eastern Europe, where the old gods still have influcence. Four children got lost twelve years ago, but suddenly three of them have returned with no memory of what has happened to them.
At The End Of Everything
A group of teens at the Hope Juvenile Treatment Center are shocked to discover their guards have abandoned them, but their joy turns to fear when they learn a catastrophic pandemic has occurred outside their walls, turning their new-found freedom into a fight for survival.
Halley’s Comet
in the final years of South Africa’s Apartheid era, an unlikely trio-a sheltered white rugby player, a black farmworker’s son, and an Indian shopkeeper’s daughter-discover the consequences of knowing the truth and having the courage to speak it. Halley’s Comet is the coming-of-age story of Pete de Lange, a white 16-year-old schoolboy, set in small-town South Africa in 1986. Pete lives a relatively sheltered life, primarily concerned with girls and rugby- until one January night changes everything. Thrust together with two complete strangers-Petrus, a black farmworker’s son and Sarita, an Indian shopkeeper’s daughter-the trio find themselves running for their lives from the vicious Rudie, whose actions will ripple far beyond that fateful night. This era-defying friendship-sparked by a shared secret- challenges everything Pete thought he knew and believed. And when anti-Apartheid revolutionaries set their sights on the town, it will change the course of the three young people’s lives forever. Halley’s Comet is a story of friendship, love, change, taking chances, hope, a comet, and some pretty cool 80s music. Hannes Barnard is a South African-born author of both English and Afrikaans novels. He debuted in 2019 with the YA novel, Halley se komeet, which he translated into English as Halley’s Comet. In 2020, Wolk, his apocalyptic YA adventure, was released, and coming up in 2022 is his crime novel, die wet van Gauteng. When not writing, traveling, or planning his next adventure, Hannes works in marketing. He has called England and Seychelles home but now lives in Johannesburg with his wife.
Arsene Lupin, Gentleman Thief
Discover the adventures of the original, world-famous gentleman thief who inspired generations of charming scoundrels and gallant anti-heroes in fiction and film for over a century.
Movements & Moments
An ambitious feminist anthology chronicling Indigenous rebellions around the world
Inuunira
In this harrowing survival story, Brian Koonoo takes off on a hunting trip in Canada’s Arctic. After his snowmobile breaks down, his GPS loses signal, and his camping fuel runs low, he is left alone to survive for seven days. Inuunira is an Inuktitut term that means “how I’m alive,” and this account shows exactly how Brian managed to stay alive. He experiences close encounters with planes, blizzards, and hunger, all while much of his gear is lost. Walking 60 kilometres in search of safety, he uses the knowledge his father and Elders taught him—modern and traditional means of navigation, finding water, making shelters, and keeping his spirits up—to continue on.
Accidental Czar: The Life And Lies Of Vladimir Putin
This riveting graphic novel biography chronicles Vladimir Putin’s rise from a mid-level KGB officer to the autocratic leader of Russia and reveals the truth behind the strongman persona he has spent his career cultivating.