IGNATZ AWARD Nomination for OUTSTANDING GRAPHIC NOVEL What prevents you from finishing your life's work? Josh Bayer finds a manuscript of an unfinished play inside his deceased father's desk. The play tells the story of Josh's mother's early death (age 37) and his father's struggle with single parenthood. When he attempts to adapt the play into comics, it triggers a series of personal crises. Bayer's limitations and futile ambitions are brought into sharp relief as he grapples with an estranged, unknowable parent and the play's frustrating lack of resolution. Humans worship lore, myth, and fables, but many people's creative dreams become abandoned. Why? Bayer's inky line, tangled textures, and kaleidoscopic color boldly fuse on the page into comic book semiotics, flights of grandeur, and tangents inside tangents. Josh Bayer stitches scattered memories into surrealistic episodes permeated with dream logic. Unended is a Promethean quest to excavate the creative fire hidden inside us.

Pill Hill, Nicholas Breutzman's darkly funny and utterly heartbreaking memoir, plunges the reader into a world of horrifying Tinder dates, flea markets, lizard people, child protective services, black holes, time travel, and stress-induced psychosis. Nic and Henry-father and son-stumble on an old forgottenpark and make a bizarre discovery. Someone marked all the trees with wads ofchewed gum! Who is the gum bandit? Reeling from recent family upheaval, Nic navigates the bravenew world of single parenthood. Meanwhile, his ex-wife descends into addiction,abuse, and homelessness. Amid the turmoil, he becomes increasingly anddesperately obsessed with exposing the gum vandal. Can Nic rise to the occasionand come to terms with his new reality? Or will he let the past drag him backinto despair and denial, threatening the thing he holds most dear: hisrelationship with Henry, his son?

Greek myth has inspired stories and art for millennia. And yet some stories and characters remain unfamiliar. First There Was Chaos explores the formless, primordial, and extraordinary forces that preceded the Olympian gods. These tales of Creation illustrate the creative process, giving cosmic form to the universal struggles of all creators. Framing the narrative is the story of a poet struggling with his act of Creation, hoping to transform nothingness into beauty. His struggles parallel the tales of primordial beings, from the ambitions of formless Chaos to the birth of the first Olympian, Aphrodite. Based on Hesiod's Theogony and other classic sources, First There Was Chaos synthesizes fragmentary myths into a compelling narrative accessible to a contemporary audience.

Haruki Murakami's stories in graphic novel form for the first time! Haruki Murakami's novels, essays and short stories have sold millions of copies worldwide and been translated into dozens of languages. Now for the first time, many of Murakami's best-loved short stories are available in graphic novel form in English. Haruki Murakami Manga Stories is one of three short story compilations, which present a total of 9 short stories from Murakami's bestselling collections. With their trademark mix of realism and fantasy, centering around Murakami's characteristic themes of loss, remorse and confusion, the four stories in this volume are: Super-Frog Saves Tokyo: A few days after an earthquake, Katagiri discovers a giant frog in this home. The frog promises to save Tokyo from another earthquake, but Katagiri must help him. Is this real, or is Katagiri dreaming? "[This story has] such an engaging mix of realism and fantasy that it takes a while for you to realize what a sad undertow the story has and how much it says about Katagiri's solitary life, his feelings of powerlessness and his dread of another quake." — The New York Times Where I'm Likely to Find It: A woman's husband goes missing so she hires detective. As the detective traces the man's whereabouts, he reflects on the meaning of his own life. "A searching Kafkaesque parable about disappearance, loss and coping." — Kirkus Reviews Birthday Girl: A woman tells her friend the story of a surreal encounter she has on her twentieth birthday with the owner of the restaurant where she works, who grants her a wish. The Seventh Man: The story of a man scarred by the death of his childhood friend in a tsunami. "Although Murakami's style and deadpan humour are wonderfully distinctive, his emotional territory is more familiar—remorse, unresolved confusion, sudden epiphanies—though heightened by the surreal. In The Seventh Man, one of his saddest stories, the narrator recalls the wave that reared up during a freak storm and engulfed his childhood friend." — The Guardian These new graphic versions of classic Murakami short stories will be devoured by his fans and will provide a new window onto his work for a new generation of readers not yet familiar with it! **Recommended for readers ages 16+ due to mature themes and graphic content**

Meet Pluto Rocket, a friendly alien, and Joe Pidge, a wise-cracking pigeon, in the first book of this hilarious new early graphic novel series, for fans of Narwhal and Jelly and Pizza and Taco! Joe Pidge, not just a pigeon but also the stylish king of the neighborhood, is bobbing his way down the street one day when, all of a sudden, Pluto Rocket enters the scene. It turns out, Pluto is from another planet, and is disguising herself for her secret mission — to find out what life in the neighborhood is really like. Lucky for Pluto, Joe Pidge has seen it all before, eaten it all before, and pooped on it all before, so he takes her under his wing and the two become fast friends. But Joe is the one who actually learns a thing or two and whose mind is blown by the out-of-this-world Pluto in this hilarious graphic novel series from Paul Gilligan, creator of the syndicated comic strip Pooch Cafe!

A brilliant investigation into the motivations and methods behind the actions of Hogwarts's renowned Headmaster! Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, is one of the most recognizable and mysterious figures in the Harry Potter series. As an unscrupulous beetle-like journalist once said, he's "a biographer's dream." Is he omniscient or limited? Is he benevolent or malevolent? What really drove him in the last years of an extraordinary life? Dumbledore dives between the lines of the Harry Potter books to create a portrait of the controversial Headmaster. We find Dumbledore's hand in every seeming coincidence, and consider the impossible decisions he had to make. This in-depth examination from author Irvin Khaytman casts the events of the Harry Potter series in a whole new light, resolving fans' questions that linger to this day.

"WHERE THE OTHER WILD THINGS ARE...An older sister to Sendak's work, maybe taking place on the next island over from Max's wild rumpus." —The New York Times "A wildly imaginative tale, spangled by magic realism and Argentine conflation of reality and fantasy." —Variety A celebration of the magical bonds that unite children! When her two big sisters embark on an adventure to explore a mysterious island, the youngest one doesn’t want to be left behind—even if she needs her sisters' help to read the sign that says “Only Reality Can Kill a Dragon”. Along the way, the sisters discover gorilla houses, popcorn falling from the sky like snow, and yes, a dragon that only reality can kill. What shines through from this funny story’s gut-wrenchingly scary beginning (“There was a terrible plane crash!”) to its sweet and satisfying ending is LINIERS’s admiration for the imaginative powers of childhood.

Two tiny mice give us a hugely valuable lesson in what it takes to be a leader. Association for Library Service to Children Graphic Novels Reading List (Grades K-2) 2019 Texas Library Association’s Little Maverick Graphic Novel Reading List 2016 Association for Library Service to Children's Graphic Novels Reading List 2016 ​"The text is easily accessible to young readers, with simple, repeating words, but also enforces ideas about controlling emotions and being responsible for one’s actions without being over-bearing. Children will easily relate to Penny and Benny as they grapple with sibling issues that are very real to this age group. The crafty charm of Hayes’s illustrations gives the book a timeless feel, while sleek panel variation and swooping action shots reestablish readers’s focus. Once again, Hayes has created a graphic novel that is inviting, relatable, but, most importantly, fun." —School Library Journal, Starred Review Geoffrey Hayes, winner of the Geisel for Benny and Penny in the Big No-No!, tells the story of two tiny mice who learn what it takes to be a leader. School Library Journal declares, "Once again, Hayes has created a graphic novel that is inviting, relatable, but, most importantly, fun."

Geoffrey Hayes’ loveable mice are about to find out just how many adventures can be packed in before bedtime. "In the mouse siblings' fourth book ( Benny and Penny in the Big No-No! won a Geisel Award in 2010), Hayes brings beginning readers into the magic hour that precedes lights-out for the night. Sliding from bedtime story–inspired flights of imagination to flashlight-enabled frights to a secret journey outside to rescue a favorite toy from the dark of the playhouse, Benny and li'l sis Penny exhaust themselves as only children know how. As with all TOON books, the pure charm of the story has the added bonus of introducing and richly contextualizing word recognition for the kind of terms kids need to know, like pirates, spooky, BURP!, and princess dinosaur (a perfect rendition of sibling compromise). Hayes' sense of the bouncing rhythms of children's play, grasp of sibling social dynamics in true-to-life scenarios, and especially his adorably huggable, crayon-colored characters have made him the standard-bearer of early-reader comics." —Booklist It’s nearly time for lights out but Benny and Penny just can’t settle down. The moon has gone missing, there’s a flashlight to play with, Benny can’t sleep without his favorite pirate hat—and he left it inside the spooky backyard playhouse!

“Listen to the animals!” An urgent message from the past for today and tomorrow. "Ben Nadler retells one of my favorite fairy tales … turning it into a fast-paced and irreverent graphic novel. The result is funny, engaging and an absolute delight. " —New York Times Book Review Young Randall dreams of adventures until one day he’s sent off on a mission to discover the neighboring king’s secret. When he returns, he’s thrown in a dungeon and despairs until Princess Tilda — the power behind the throne – entices him to compete for her hand. Courage, determination — and Tilda’s trust in him – toss him from one adventure to the next as he dives for a ring at the bottom of the ocean and searches for a Golden Apple from the Tree of Life. BEN NADLER’s modern version in comics highlights the timeless truth at the heart of this Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale in a way that is sure to delight and resonate with today’s young readers.

“Listen to the animals!” An urgent message from the past for today and tomorrow. "Ben Nadler retells one of my favorite fairy tales … turning it into a fast-paced and irreverent graphic novel. The result is funny, engaging and an absolute delight. " —New York Times Book Review Young Randall dreams of adventures until one day he’s sent off on a mission to discover the neighboring king’s secret. When he returns, he’s thrown in a dungeon and despairs until Princess Tilda — the power behind the throne – entices him to compete for her hand. Courage, determination — and Tilda’s trust in him – toss him from one adventure to the next as he dives for a ring at the bottom of the ocean and searches for a Golden Apple from the Tree of Life. BEN NADLER’s modern version in comics highlights the timeless truth at the heart of this Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale in a way that is sure to delight and resonate with today’s young readers.

Can we have pizza now? “This charming voyage tale is based on Viva’s ( Along a Long Road) real-life Antarctic trip, which explains the otherwise unbelievable image of swimming in warm water at the bottom of the world. The distinctive color palette of slate blue–gray, black, cream, and burnt orange provides an otherworldly but extremely attractive vision. The simple story, full of imagination, is punctuated by Mouse’s lists of things that can’t be done on a boat in choppy waters (including draw!) or what to wear in the cold. Readers’ creativity will be spurred by the recurring list structure, allowing them to envision their own additions. Although drawn in minimal style (evoking Viva’s career as a cover artist, creating single, eye-catching images), with a flat, cut-paper feel to the art, beautiful vistas are conjured, especially of the small boat under an open starry sky. The penguins—four different types—are standouts. Like many children, Mouse spends much of his time wanting to go home, until he leaves, then he wants to go back. Readers will, too, again and again.” —Publishers Weekly Join Mouse and a young explorer as they prepare to climb Mount Etna. Help them list what they’ll need: “walking sticks,” “mountain boots,” “sunglasses...” “Can I have pepperoni?” asks Mouse. From sea to snow, young readers will giggle with delight as they experience the magical world drawn by Frank Viva. Over and over again, the bestselling author of Young Frank, Architect will make them relive the unforgettable journey he took to the top of one of the world’s most active volcanoes.

"TIPPY! What is this MESS?" When Tippy wakes up, there's a peacock in her bedroom, a bird in her hair, and mice dancing on the headboard... Yet all Tippy remembers is falling asleep. In her first book for children, award-winning cartoonist Lilli Carré takes Tippy on a nocturnal adventure up a mountain, down a hole, and back home for endless bedtime enjoyment.

There’s so much to see at the bottom of the world! Join a young explorer and his best friend, Mouse, on a sea journey to Antarctica, where they make new friends with penguins and a whale – and have all kinds of fun. Young readers won’t stop grinning as they’re swept away by the strange and magical world created by Frank Viva, the bestselling author of Along a Long Road. As kids TOON into Reading, they will want to circle back to the beginning – again and again.

Lilly is a spunky little girl who delights in the unexpected pleasures of each season. Lilly is a lively little girl who delights in the unexpected pleasures of each season, peering inside shells in the summer and tasting different kinds of apples in the autumn. In this charming and subtle book by one of France's favourite children's book authors, Lilly learns more about the outdoors and introduces the youngest readers to the colours, words and shapes that arise in nature. Silly Lilly's intimate monologues deftly capture a child's sense of wonder, in five whimsical episodes that cycle through the calendar from spring back to spring again.

Reading books is fun . . but what about making them? Armed with new coloured pencils, Henrietta's ready to try. Peek over her shoulder as she draws the story of a brave young girl, a three-headed monster, and an impossibly wide world of adventure. A book unlike anything young readers have seen before! Whether read aloud to a toddler or discovered by a young reader, Liniers's celebration of the creative process is sure to make everyone want to bring out their pencils.

When her two big sisters embark on an adventure to explore a mysterious island, the youngest one doesn't want to be left behind. A celebration of the magical bonds that unite children! What shines through, from this funny story's gut-wrenchingly scary beginning ("There was a terrible plane crash!") to its sweet and satisfying ending, is Liniers's admiration for the imaginative powers of childhood.