The Racc Pack is up for giveaway throughout February!
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Here in Canada, we are blessed with a plethora of incredible creators making fresh and exciting graphic novels. We especially have a great bunch of folks specifically working on graphic novels for young readers, so today I want to highlight some of my favourites.
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Fake Blood, by Whitney Gardner
I’d be remiss to not include Fake Blood here. It’s the graphic novel that started it all when it comes to my friendship and collaboration with Whitney Gardner. Fake Blood is such a delightful premise where boy meets girl…boy develops crush on girl…boy realizes that girl loves vampires, and an idea forms to catch her attention: pretend to be a vampire. Of course! After committing to the role though, as it turns out, what she actually loves is vampire hunting. A delightful graphic novel that highlights Whitney’s clever writing, her fun ideas, and incredible storytelling skills.
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Swim Team, by Johnnie Christmas
Johnnie Christmas is a new modern master of kidlit—he’s a creator who knows how to get you invested in a character and bring you on a journey with them. In Swim Team, young Bree is in a brand-new city, state, and school. She has to make all-new friends and figure things out from scratch—something that many young readers can relate to. On top of having to navigate being the new girl in school, the only elective that's left for Bree involves something that she's very afraid of: the water and learning how to swim...and at a school that is deeply invested in its swim team. She wrestles with anxiety and self-doubt that's displayed brilliantly in the story as dark, cloudy word balloons that gather around her, sometimes becoming overwhelming. Swim Team is a masterpiece that shouldn’t be missed.
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Living with Viola, by Rosena Fung
Creators like Raina Telgemeier are voraciously sought-after because they write stories that are so incredibly relatable to young readers and help them understand that they’re not alone when they feel different. Rosena Fung is one of those creators who is telling stories that do exactly that. Living with Viola is a slice-of-life contemporary graphic novel that highlights feelings that young people experience but maybe don’t yet have the language for. Fung explores growing up with feelings of anxiety and conveys her main character, Livy’s, intrusive thoughts and struggles in the form of a living embodiment of them named Viola. Fung skillfully navigates heavy themes in a way that makes them easily digestible, relatable, and a joy to read.
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Shirley & Jamila Save Their Summer, by Gillian Goerz
I never get tired of seeing the city I live in featured in stories, and I was delighted to see parts of Toronto heavily showcased in this book (both the first and second volumes). Shirley & Jamila are unlikely friends who come into each other's company when they realize that they both get what they want out of their summer together. While this graphic novel is about friendship and trying new things, it’s also a fun and exciting mystery as we discover that Shirley is the best kid detective around! And of course, we go along with her and Jamila as they take a case and get to the bottom of what’s going on with a missing pet gecko.
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Cat’s Cradle: The Golden Twine, by Jo Rioux
Cat’s Cradle is a stunning and delightful story for readers of all-ages. Beautiful illustrations and colours make everything pop off the page, and the world building within the story—everything from the characters to the magic to the monsters—is so fun and captivating. Readers are sure to enjoy meeting Suri, the plucky, adventurous heroine of the story and join her on her journey as she tries to become a monster tamer. The Golden Twine is the first in the series, with two additional volumes; The Mole King’s Lair, which is out now, and Suri’s Dragon, which is set for release later this year in November.
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Learn more about The Racc Pack:
Live life in the trash lane with this first entry in a hilarious middle grade graphic novel series about a family of sneaky raccoons from graphic novel superstars Stephanie Cooke and Whitney Gardner!
Meet the Bin family, a trio of raccoons in the risky business of dumpster diving for all their needs. With Dusty’s brains, ReRe’s muscle, and Scraps’s gadgets (please don’t tell him he’s almost definitely an opossum), the Binses are determined to leave no garbage bin unturned in their pursuit of the tastiest, most delicious trash they can find.
When the family discovers a new upscale grocery store that’s throwing away their perfectly good food at the end of each day, the Binses hatch a heist so daring it’ll have them rolling in garbage all winter long. But a critter-despising CEO, Jeff Beans, and the high-tech defense system he’s installed means liberating that trash is going to take all the skills the Racc Pack have…and maybe some help from a cat burglar with a mysterious past.