YALSA Top Ten List for 2016

The Young Adult Library Services Association (a division of the American Library Association) has released its annual Great Graphic Novels for Teens list, including the Top Ten list.

We discuss previous iterations of the YALSA list in chapter nine of the book as an example of what a comics canon that tried to include diversity (of representation and of taste) as a legitimate criterion might look like. As selection committee chair Jason Poole puts it, "We drew from a record number of nominations and ended up with a selection of quality graphic novels from all sorts of genres, perspectives, and cultures. I am especially excited to see the top ten populated with titles featuring female protagonists, reflecting a shift in the comics industry towards more equal representation of all its readers.” This concern for diversity in the young adult lists results from the influence of librarians and teachers, who bring a distinctive set of reformist professional values to their selections.

Your top ten (in alphabetical order) are:

• Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova (Yen Press)
• Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans by Don Brown (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Lumberjanes Vol. 1 – 2 by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis and Shannon Watters, illus. by Brooke Allen (Boom! Box)
• Ms. Marvel Vol. 2 – 3 By G. Willow Wilson, illus. by Jacob Wyatt, Adrian Alphona, Takeshi Miyazawa and Elmo Bondoc (Marvel Comics)
• Nimona by Noelle Stevenson (Harper Teen)
• Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson (Dial Books for Young Readers)
• Sacred Heart by Liz Suburbia (Fantagraphics)
• A Silent Voice Vol. 1 -3 by Yoshitoki Oima (Kodansha Comics)
• Trashed, by Derf Backderf (Abrams ComicArts)
• The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Vol 1 – 2 by Ryan North, illus. by Erica Henderson (Marvel Comics)

Source: ALA Member News

“Reading without Walls”: Gene Luen Yang named National Ambassador for Young People's Literature

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Official graphic for the 2016 - 2017 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, by Gene Luen Yang and Lark Pien. Source: PR Newswire.

Earlier this week, the US Librarian of Congress named Gene Luen Yang (American Born Chinese, Boxers & Saints, Avatar: The Last Airbender) the 2016–2017 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. During this two year post, Yang will “promote reading, including graphic novels, with an emphasis on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) goals” – a fitting mandate for the former computer science teacher. Yang is the fifth National Ambassador, and the first cartoonist to hold the post.

In chapter 9 of our book, we discuss Yang, Raina Telgemeier, and Jillian and Mariko Tamaki as examples of women and visible-minority creators who have achieved significant critical and commercial success in a field still largely perceived as dominated by white men. Yang’s appointment as National Ambassador, for instance, is only the latest in a long line of honours and achievements – and, as in this case, he has often been the first graphic novelist so acknowledged.

We suggest that the reformist and pedagogical values of librarians and educators have been impressed upon the young-adult sub-field of comics, deliberately rendering it a more diverse and inclusive corner of the comics world. In young adult comics, at least, it seems that the often competing desiderata of merit and diversity have been resolved. However, the young-adult sub-field is also a relatively low-status and unprestigious part of the comics world, especially as the form’s advocates still take pains to distance themselves from its history as a medium for entertaining children.

Much as children’s movies rarely contend for Best Picture and children’s authors are rarely made Nobel laureates, their names do not show up on most lists of great comics. Women and visible-minority cartoonists are the undeniable giants of the young-adult sub-field, but when it comes to symbolic capital they are unjustly relegated to the kids’ table