Checked Out with Green Hills Public Library District

Episode 15- Hooray for YA! (and Graphic Novels, Too!)

• Green Hills Public Library District • Season 2 • Episode 15

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In episode 15 of Checked Out Tessa and Sara are joined by Youth Programming Librarian Josie, to talk all things Young Adult Books and Graphic Novels. Join them as they blast to the past with book recommendations and teen memories!   

Interested in hearing your favorite book, topic, or genre discussed? 
Send a recommendation to ghpl@greenhillslibrary.org  

Check out the media we talked about here: 

https://ghs.swanlibraries.net/MyAccount/MyList/87509

SPEAKER_02:

Hello everyone, welcome back. This is episode 15. Hooray for YA and graphic novels. I'm Sarah.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm Tessa, and this is Checked Out with Greenhills Public Library.

SPEAKER_02:

This episode is another special episode because we have a very special guest with us. Joining us today, we have Josie. She is our youth programming librarian. Josie, would you tell us a little bit about what you do here at the library?

SPEAKER_00:

Hi everyone. I am the youth programming librarian. I get to plan and run programs for kids ages 0 to 17. So it's kind of fun. I get to do babies and teens and everything in between. I also collaborate with our adult programming librarian, Olivia, to host all ages programs as well as family programs.

SPEAKER_02:

Awesome. That's very exciting. I've been to a few of Josie's programs just to observe, and she always puts on such a good event. Her family story times are fantastic. So if you haven't been to one yet, you should definitely try to come to her next one.

SPEAKER_01:

Josie, you want to give us a little bit of background on your experience in libraries, what got you into libraries, kind of just let us into that side of your life for you.

SPEAKER_00:

Sure. So when I was in high school, I was really close to my uh school librarians, which I thought was really fun. Um, one of them was actually my neighbor, so we would like to walk to the library together. It was really cute. Um, but from there, that's kind of where I got my library started, is I really liked making the connections with people in the library and having like a special space to be. From there, I actually ended up working at uh a high school library for a little bit before I became a youth programming librarian here. At the school library I worked at, I had a really fun opportunity to run some programs. We did like manga march madness week, where we did lots of different crafts and did some trivia, and then I got to help catalog books as well as really make these good connections with the kids at the school, which is one of the things I love most about my job here. I do love the programming aspect and planning aspect a lot, but I love to be able to connect with the kids in the community. Like that means a lot to me. I love seeing the babies grow up and the teens get to like open up and actually talk to one another, which is really cool. It's fun to see what programming could do to bring kids and families into the community all together.

SPEAKER_02:

That's amazing, Josie. I think that the reason that you're in this field is so beautiful and really important. And I love being able to watch you grow in this community and make those connections. And I'm happy that our community has you.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, we're super lucky to have you in the youth department, and I know that all of the kids are too. But one part of your job you didn't mention is collection development. You purchased for our young adult collection. So we were hoping to kind of talk a little bit about YA, but then I also know that you love reading graphic novels and you have a lot of opinions on that as well. So for this episode, we're gonna delve into both of those kinds of things and get Josie's recommendations, favorites, and different thoughts on it. So, Josie, what do you love about young adult material?

SPEAKER_00:

There's a lot that I love about young adult material. Something about it feels uh very real to me, even if it's like a total fantasy, like the Hunger Games. I have an easier time getting submerged into a story. I think for me, it's the idea that, yeah, young adult can be a little silly and unrealistic at times, but knowing that age it meant for is putting myself back into the teenage shoes, which makes me feel like anything is possible again. On the other hand, I think some of the more realistic stories help me and the teens grasp onto bigger social concepts by telling stories rather than uh reading difficult, like nonfiction text sometimes. It puts social ideas on the table in a just a digestible context and honestly gives young people the chance to feel what it's like to be in someone else's shoes.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it is something that I've definitely mentioned on the podcast before. I love YA. I will always revisit YA. I always think there's like so much merit in it. Um, like you said, especially in fantasy, because it's for a younger age range, it can be a lot easier to digest. I loved what you said about because it's for a younger age range and like that kind of mindset that there is some believability to even the most unbelievable things. I also in my little notes, I said that I often, which is kind of what you were talking about with like social issues and stuff. I find that YA often has a lot more diversity in characters and storylines than things that are gaining a lot of popularity in like the adult space. And I think that's very important, first of all, for that age range to be able for everyone to be able to see themselves. But I think it also is setting up readers at a younger age to like expect that kind of thing, which is great for adult moving forward too.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and I think that we can all agree here that YA is not just for that, you know, 12 or 13 to 18 range. It can be read by adults because there's so much to take away from it. You mentioned, Tessa, the diversity that YA authors have more in their books that we don't typically see in adult books, or we do see, but it's not as prevalent as it should be. And as an adult, being able to read YA material does bring you back to that age range and makes you become more understanding of what our current generation is going through, what they're feeling, um, how they're dealing with issues. It also opens up the door to some issues that you might not fully understand as an adult because we're getting so much information thrown at us all of the time. And it is more digestible when it is geared towards an audience that is, you know, younger and needs it to be broken down in a different way. And so if the material is there and it's enjoyable, then yeah, we should definitely be reading it, even if it's not necessarily geared towards adults.

SPEAKER_00:

I totally agree with that. Uh thinking about that makes me think about how you said like opening up doors to um like other perspectives. And I also think about mirrors and how we see ourselves in these books. And like for me, if I saw something that was like uh like shared someone shared an identity that I have, but also had something different, it like opens that door to see the new thing, but I also can see myself in it, and so I have a better time relating to it and understanding the next part of it as well.

SPEAKER_02:

You mentioned a mirror of yourself in these books, and I want us to kind of weave in graphic novels because a lot of the times, at least for me, the graphic novels that I read, I can picture myself in these books. And it's easy because I I have the images. So a lot of the times I'm like, oh my God, that's an outfit that I would wear, or this is a place that I would be at, or these are images that I can connect with and relate with. Whether or not I can actually connect or relate with the story itself, there's that added element of the drawings and the images that helps me connect with it, which is my way of segueing and asking you, Josie, what are some things that you enjoy about graphic novels?

SPEAKER_00:

Something that I really like graphic novels is kind of what you've said as well, Sarah, about how we can like see ourselves in there as well. But also I love getting lost in another one. I do like to read graphic novel memoirs the most because that's when I really I really get to see like the character or like someone that's like someone's mom, and then I think about the little cartoon in my head, and I'm like, that's so-and-so's mom. Like now I know. Like, and then I kind of picture the story from there, and then when the characters or the scenes change, it's fun to see how the illustrations change as well. I feel like adults kind of frown on them, looking for especially for kids and stuff, and and especially in the the YA genre too, because I feel like everyone's like want you to be past the point of reading graphic novels, but there's so much good stuff about them that like outweighs everything else. For kids and young adults, it's really nice because it has like a higher vocab sometimes, and using the context clues of what the illustration looks like really helps put um what is happening together that sometimes like a block of text would not do for you. Like personally, like I have ADHD and I see a block of text and I'm so overwhelmed by it. But when I'm going through a graphic novel, what's so nice is that there's like a little bit of text, and if I don't get it, and I don't have to I don't have to read it over and over again, I could just look at the picture and get some clues from there and get a better idea of the story arc as a whole.

SPEAKER_01:

That's a really good point about graphic novels. And like you said, I feel like people who don't read them often look at graphic novels as, oh, you don't actually want to read, where it's such like a good stepping stone for people as they are like starting out in their reading journeys. But also it's always gonna be something nice to come back to, even if the content is super heavy, like in a graphic memoir, it's still a a breath of fresh air if you're going from reading, like I know you're finishing school right now, if you're going from reading your massive blocks of texts for your class readings, or like for me, reading like a really long-winded fantasy book, and then to be able to get through something so quick because you are able to look at the pictures versus reading those big long blocks of text. That's something that I always like in graphic novels, and also I agree with you, I'm not a huge nonfiction reader, but graphic memoirs, they're always gonna hit, especially because the the art is also so personal to that person that it has like an underlying level of like this is really about them and really what they're trying to say.

SPEAKER_02:

I think it's really important to note that the illustrations in a graphic novel are part of the story. You cannot have this story without those images. I mean, you can, but the images round out the story so well and make it whole. And that's the way that the author chose to tell that story, and and they chose that medium for a reason. And so we would be remiss to not spend time looking at those illustrations and seeing them as part of a bigger whole. I have to ask you, Josie, have you ever watched Lizzie Maguire with Hillary Duff?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, cool. Because I feel that like that show is a marriage between graphic novels, because you mentioned like you see the little cartoon in your head and YA, because it is about this teenage girl that is growing up and going through issues in high school and with her family and friends, and she's got her little cartoon version of her that like pops up and is like a little graphic on the screen. And so I just thought that that was kind of funny. And I had to ask if you watched that, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

Crazy connection. Yeah, I liked it.

SPEAKER_02:

It was a deep cut. Thank you. It was because I do feel that at least for me, YA is very nostalgic because I don't reach for it as much as I should in adulthood. That's what made me think of it, and like the little cartoon that you said that you see in your head sometimes.

SPEAKER_01:

So speaking of nostalgia, I have some more recent YA recommendations, but I also have a whole section in my notes that is just nostalgic YA books. Because honestly, we grew up at like the height of young adult fiction, and we are all so lucky for that.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I would not have it any other way. I'd be actually very upset and sad if I did.

SPEAKER_00:

I totally agree because when I was a teenager, I think I read like every single book that had a movie after it, and I was like, that was the best thing ever. The John Green's The Fault in Our Stars, I stayed up till like midnight to go see that for the for the first time when I premiered, and it was really, really cool just to see all the differences. And I do uh also say okay, okay, a lot.

SPEAKER_01:

I I also do. Or if I say okay and someone says okay back, I will always say maybe okay will be our only. It j it lives on. It was a really good moment in time, like truly. The Hunger Games, Divergent, oh god.

SPEAKER_00:

That was like a really good science fiction mix, too. Yeah, I was also thinking about like romance. I think Sarah Desson was like the goat of early Twends romance.

SPEAKER_02:

I've never read one of her books before.

SPEAKER_00:

What?

SPEAKER_01:

You're like the romance girly, they're like low key kind of tragic, also.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah. I see like a lot of my friends in like the romance community that are screaming, howling and hooting about her books and how she's so good. And I've just never picked one up.

SPEAKER_01:

See, my thing with it though is now I fear that you've missed I think you've missed it because I have not revisited them and I would be fearful too. I think that there's probably some weird, outdated, cringe, yeah, situation. But oh my god, what is that one called?

SPEAKER_00:

Along for the ride. Those ones.

SPEAKER_01:

They made a Netflix movie of that though. Do they really? Yeah, it was pretty good. It was a weird thing though, because I was like, oh yeah, I read that book when I was like 12. And then when I was watching it, I was like, why do I actually vividly remember this story? I have to figure out. It's like someone's dead. A lot of them. Someone like you. This what do you know about that one?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh yeah, that one is like bad. The best with the covers. Like, it was like, because you know how like more adult romance books have like a shirtless man and like a fairy woman. Like, these were like the teen concept art that was like perfect for the time because it had that element.

SPEAKER_02:

She's so cute. I feel that I just need to read them, or at least one, just so that I can have the experience.

SPEAKER_01:

Let's do it. I was just saying, yeah. I would go back and I would reread.

SPEAKER_00:

I say along for the ride. Along for the ride. It seems like beachy, you know. Okay, I like a good beachy book.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, little vibes. Oh, I love Coast. The Summer I Turn Pretty before the Summer I Turn Pretty. Yeah. Okay, that's for me. Although the Summer I Turn Pretty is very old.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. It is. It is it was like our R teen era. Like that I remember reading when I was young.

SPEAKER_00:

Really? Yeah. All I remember is like when uh all the boys I loved before came on Netflix, and I was like, oh my god, I gotta go read these now. And then the summer I turned pretty came out, and I was like, what is happening? Who is she? She must be new, and then I was like, Oh, no, she's not.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, one of my most nostalgic reads is in fact the entirety of the Shadow Hunters Chronicles by Cassandra Clare. Listen, there's like 16 books in that extended universe, and I don't even know when the most recent one came out, maybe like two years ago. And listen, I'm still there. I'm still read-I'm too deep. I'm too deep in. But I started reading them when I was in eighth grade. So, like City of Bones, that movie, you know that movie? No one knows that movie? Okay, great.

SPEAKER_02:

It's like the Hunger Games, I feel for me. Like, I will always revisit the Hunger Games, and like I understand that now it is still like very prevalent and people love it of all ages, but like for me, I read those books when I was young, and I was going and watching the movies in theater when I was in middle school. So for them to like kind of have a resurgence, I will always pick up what Suzanne Collins is writing, like without a doubt.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I have a vivid memory of reading the first book shortly after it came out because one of my teachers in fifth grade was like, You guys need to read this. I'm like, fifth grade? That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00:

I remember when it released on like the Kindle when the Kindle was like kind of newer, and it like came out at midnight, and I was like under the sheets at midnight, like with the flashlight.

SPEAKER_01:

It really is like that. Yeah, wow, love them. Have you read the new ones? No, I have not read the new ones. You could probably skip Ballad Song Reds and Things. You can watch that movie. Oh. Okay. You'll get what you need from it, I feel. Um, but you should read Sunrise on the Reaping. That's um Hey Mitch. That Hey Mitch, okay. That's what I'm saying. By Jabber Nathie. I love that match.

SPEAKER_02:

I do too.

SPEAKER_01:

I need to reread that. That was a good one. That released this year, didn't it? What's your nostalgia besides Song Rames?

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, so a nostalgic read for me that's like kind of funny was the book called My Life with the Walter Boys. Yeah. What's really funny about that is when Wattpad was huge, when Wappad was huge, that was something I was like obsessed with. I'm not really sure why, but I like loved the idea of like having a ton of siblings in the house because like my my siblings are older, and I was like, what would it be like to live with seven boys? Um you just recently we read that, didn't you? Yeah, that's what I was thinking about. Because I I found the book at like the Yam Festival, the YA Midwest Festival, and I saw the book there, and I was like, this seems really similar to something I read, and I was like, oh my gosh, it's from Wattpad. It like made my life, so it's like the perfect nostalgic read, you know?

SPEAKER_01:

Show or a movie on Netflix?

SPEAKER_00:

I think it's a show. I think it's a show on Netflix.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it wanted to be the summer I turn pretty so bad.

SPEAKER_02:

But with like cowboys, because isn't it like ranch vibes? Yeah, it's like ranch vibes, it's funny. All I know was that big shout out for Wattpad because that was also my that was my young adult reads. Like that is what I was reading.

SPEAKER_00:

Everything was about one direction though, and I was like, the concept of Harry Styles like possibly seeing me in the crowd and like bringing me up on the stage was like the perfect thing for my teenage self.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, exactly. Like the One Direction ones, that was for me. Eighth grade Sarah was not doing her algebra homework because she was too busy reading about Harry Styles falling in love.

SPEAKER_00:

But the cool part about some of those were too is they weren't like they're obviously not published author, so you don't know if this is like a 50 year old lady or like a 12 year old girl. I don't know. It was crazy. I thought it was so much fun, it was so creative.

SPEAKER_01:

It was.

SPEAKER_02:

It could be like my best friend sitting right next to me in class, and I wouldn't even know. Okay, so using One Direction as my segue, I think that One Direction should always be the segue, if you ask me, but another nostalgia. Read that I have that stemmed from Wattpad that also got published traditionally is after by Anna Todd. And I want to preface by saying I completely understand this is a product of its time. Is it problematic? Yeah. There are some things that go on, and some characters and some you know plot devices that are used that are not the best. But I was sat. I remember the summer that chapters were being released, and every time they were released, I was like ready. I was refreshing. I was waiting. It like I was there. I was in that moment. And I just love that feeling. And I think that I need to go back to that feeling.

SPEAKER_01:

And I'm gonna say something controversial yet brave. The movies are good. The first movie specifically is good.

SPEAKER_02:

The soundtrack of the first movie goes crazy. It's so good. Complicated, slowed down on replay. I have a playlist that is that. So this is it's so good.

SPEAKER_01:

I swear, you guys can listen to it.

SPEAKER_00:

Podcaster and playlist creator.

SPEAKER_01:

On that note, I would love for us to go through some more modern YA reads that we really loved. Joe's maybe even stuff that you might not have gotten to yet, but you know from like purchasing and stuff.

SPEAKER_00:

So one of the YA books that I kind of am in the middle of right now, it's a companion book to You've Reached Sam. This one's called You've Found Oliver. Oliver lost his friend Sam and has been texting the number ever since. And nothing happens until one day Oliver is like really missing his friend Sam and decides to call the number and someone answers. And it's kind of like a weird paranormal thing. Dum dum dum. Well, I haven't read You've Reached Sam. That's what I think is funny because it like can go without it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. You've reached Sam is really good, but really sad.

SPEAKER_00:

This is kind of sad too.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But there's also like a little love story, so it makes it all fun.

SPEAKER_01:

A kind of paranormal-esque recommendation that I have of YA is the Invocations by Crystal Sutherland. It follows three teen girls who are all kind of going through something a little bit spooky. There's one of them is like actively like dying because of a paranormal curse-like situation. And all three of them, they're like unlikely friends. That's another thing in YA that I think is very common is to see found family or unlikely friends, which I think is super important for the age range that it's initially intended for, to see that maybe it's not the first person that you would be in a class with that you would pick to be your friend. Um, but that you can still have like really meaningful relationships with them. This book is also sapphic, which is great. A lot of the recommendations I'm gonna have are queer, which in why we've come a long way with queer stories. It used to be very much problem novels where it's all about coming out or being victimized for being different. And I think that we've definitely in more recent years kind of gotten away from that. The stories themselves are important, but it's also important to just see a queer teen live their normal, well, in that case, with the paranormal, it's not very normal, but like their everyday life and experience, and it doesn't have to center around that. But the invocations is really fun, it's really quick. The covers also very pretty. That's another thing in YA. The covers are usually so true, really good.

SPEAKER_00:

That really makes me think of um We're also good at smiling by Amber McBride. It's a novel in verse, and it's kind of funny because it's got that like paranormal aspect to it, but they're also like fairies in a forest, but they're discussing their mental health, and it is like the most beautifully written thing I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_02:

I need to read that. Yeah, I love a novel in verse, and it's really it's really quick too.

SPEAKER_00:

So that what's nice, and I I love novels in verse as well because that is also kind of accessible because you kind of you get that bigger vocab, but there's not that big that big amount of text, but you're able to use the clues of the poem and use your own creativity to figure out what things mean in the story.

SPEAKER_01:

That's something that I don't see in adult almost ever. Like bring adult novels in verse. I would say bring them back, but I don't know that they ever really were here.

SPEAKER_02:

Very rarely, I think, too. Not many are in verse, no.

SPEAKER_01:

I feel like when you look at adult stuff, you're gonna have like poetry collections, but not necessarily like the through line of like an actual novel in verse. And I think someone should do it. Someone that gotta step up.

SPEAKER_02:

Maybe it'll be Sarah. It won't be me. So I have a few YA recommendations. Mine are both by Lynn Painter. The first is the do-over, and the second is better than the movies, but I like the do-over a lot more than better than the movies. It is sort of like a groundhog's day situation. She keeps waking up, reliving the same day over and over again. It just happens to be Valentine's Day, and there are multiple things that go wrong in this day, and she keeps bumping into or finding herself with another guy that is in the book. And um, I think that it's a fun story, but also has layers of grief and dealing with familial relationships that I think is really interesting. And Lynn Painter does that a lot in her books. And so for this one, it felt kind of like a little bit of a warm hug or like a little rom-com.

SPEAKER_00:

And I really enjoyed it. One of the YA books I like cannot ever get out of my head is All My Rage by Saba Tahir. Not only was it like an amazing book, but it also won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. So it's not just recommended by me, but like the higher ups in literature. This story is just so amazing. It weaves stories from the past and the present. It tells a lot about uh what like family means and when things aren't perfect with your family and like how you still want to take care of them, anyways. There's also a lot to say about friendship and the lengths you'll go to for the people surrounding you. I don't want to say too much about it though, because it like interweaves so many different stories and has so much beautiful things to say that I feel like if I said one thing, it would open up to all of them. But like that one is the one I think if I were to say any books that I've ever recommended, that'd be the one to read first.

SPEAKER_01:

One of my recommendations is also by Sabah here, and it's uh the Ember in the Ashes Quartet. It is peak YA fantasy. It is such a heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, suspenseful, rich and world-building. Like it's a masterclass in YA fantasy, and this must be a common theme with Sabati here, but I also don't want to tell you too much about it. There are so many layers, and where we start is so not where we end up that I think to just go into it knowing as little as possible. But if you like YA fantasy or just fantasy in general, I would recommend it. It's definitely a YA fantasy that I would recommend to adults as well, even people who often read fantasy. It's just super, super well done. Honorable mentions in my YA fantasy situation to just do really fast. Um, We Hunt the Flame, that duology. Really well done, really rich in culture, and Light Lark by Alex Astor. Classic love triangle situation that reads a little bit upper YA. I would say that's definitely more like 16, 17, 18 versus like your 12, 13s. New adult, maybe yeah, but it's technically like classified as YA. Great love triangle. Writing is okay, setting is really fun, but I I would recommend trying it. It's very much just a silly goofy time.

SPEAKER_02:

I will serve as our bridge between YA and graphic novels with my next recommendation. This one is Huda F R You by Huda Fami. Also on mine. Yeah. I think it's such a sweet and funny and important graphic novel, and you can take something away from it at any age, seeing as how all three of us have read it and we're in our 20s. It touches upon identity and finding yourself as Huda, who is, you know, moving to a new town and starting in a new school, is learning who she is and her place in this new environment. And it is part of a little series. There are a few other ones that have come out since its release. I haven't read them, but I'm eager to because I just think that it's such a cute and fun story, and again, an important one too.

SPEAKER_00:

I've actually read the other two, loved them. Who is so funny, and I think that like adds to every story because she talks about um like kind of hard subjects with like her family. I just think it's amazing how she can like balance the funny and the real. And also just the the the illustrations are so much fun too. Because it it really like it lights the mood when it needs to, it darkens the mood when it needs to, and it's got that classic black outline around the illustrations that just make everything look so clear, it looks really nice. So we all know I really like the graphic novel memoirs, and like the one that like really got me into that was Dancing at the Pity Party by Tyler Fetter. She is kind of like what we talked about, like uh maybe like she starts at like the older end of the the teen spectrum. Okay. Um, she is like about to go to school, like go to college, and then she finds out her mom is sick, and the story kind of takes us through what like the grieving process is like before like beforehand, like knowing what is about to happen. And what what's crazy to me is she's like so hilarious about it, and but it's like real because I feel like when you're grieving, things could be so different, and everyone feels like such different emotions all the time. So it's really fun to see and like connect with with Tyler to do that. And I also really liked the illustrations in there because they were super simple. Also had the the black outline that I really liked, but they're all pastel, everything was like pretty in pink, and I'm like, that is such a good vibe. Like it makes you kind of like it feels makes you feel very warm inside. Um, like you get the comfort of immediately knowing that, and then like having such a deep topic, like losing a family member and having to grieve afterwards, and then just having pink in there makes it all like have a good combination of it all.

SPEAKER_01:

One of my recommendations that plays a lot with color, which I think you've read too, Josie, is Lore Olympus. I've only read the first one of it. I know there's like a million. Kind of a different turn here. It's uh about Greek mythology and like those characters, but the colors are so specific in Lore Olympus. It's very blue, it's very pink, those characters that when they appear on the page, they're going to be in those specific colors. Going back to what we originally said with graphic novels and how important the art is to it. I think color is also very, very important.

SPEAKER_02:

Similar to Josie, I love a graphic novel that is a memoir. And one that I really enjoyed is Family Style by a tin fam. And it tells about his family's immigration from Vietnam to America, and it centers a lot around food, which is another thing that I really enjoy reading about. Getting to see his family's story told through food and their immigration story was so beautiful. Um, the illustrations also are very beautifully done. I think that again, it's such an important part of the story. So seeing that shading come in on certain parts where he's feeling a little bit more down or their family is having a difficult conversation rather than the parts that are more upbeat and light, and seeing the that reflected in the color and the illustration, it was just such a magical experience and a book that will always sit with me and one that I really enjoyed. And kind of circling back to my whole like mirror thing with graphic novels, it reminds me a lot of Alice in Wonderland, like through the looking glass, where like you're looking at this other person's story, but when you're seeing those illustrations, you become a part of it in some way. And that's kind of how I felt with this book. My family also did immigrate here, and being able to see someone's immigration story told through those illustrations really felt like, oh wow, this is similar to my own family's story, and that was really nice.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, another recommendation of mine uh is kind of funny. I found this author on Instagram because she um actually makes these illustrations that she puts out. Her name is Liz Meddings. What's really cool about them is that they're about a sad little ghost. So the the graphic novel's name is The Sad Ghost Club, which is her also her Instagram handle. It's really a sweet story because it talks about depression and social anxiety, but also has like a realistic but fun spin on it. The illustrations are super cute, they're um in black and white and sometimes like has like a just a little bit of shading in them. So it's simplistic and it and this one, uh the first one follows a little sad ghost that wants to go to a party and it talks about like all the different aspects of what makes it hard for someone with some social anxiety to go to a party and like wanting to leave when you're at the party, and it's just it kind of captures everything in there, but it's just so sweet because it's a ghost. I also really like it because it really breaks down those barriers and the stigmas behind mental health, and I think that by using a cute little ghost really helps bring that back to everyone's level because we we can relate and we have those feelings, and then we can like we can open the door into what it might be like for other people.

SPEAKER_01:

My last recommendation I love that you had something that was sweet and nice and kind. Mine is not. Um Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees is so so good. So good. Shout out Patrick for that one. Yes, it is about a serial killer bear.

SPEAKER_02:

That's it, that's the story. That is the story Five Nights at Freddy's a better version.

SPEAKER_01:

It overmelts, yeah. Um and I don't want to say anything more than that because that's all Patrick had to say to me for me to say that it was going to get read by me. Me and Sarah read it in very quick succession of each other, and I do think there's a second volume coming out. I think there might be some issues already out in the, but like an actual like bound volume, I don't think is out yet.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I think there's supposed to be one that is gonna be out.

SPEAKER_01:

Incredible, because that was my main critique because originally we did not think there was going to be.

SPEAKER_02:

I will end us off with my last graphic novel recommendation, and it is Lunar New Year Love Story, and this is a recent read for me. It's also YA. This is by Jean Luen Yang, and I loved it. This is another story that kind of deals with finding yourself and grief and and your identity, and the illustrations are so beautiful. That was one of the things that I really loved about this because there's dances that happen in the storyline and they just kind of jump off the page when you're reading them. And I think that without those illustrations, that it would be really lacking because I wouldn't be able to picture it as well as I did with the illustrations. And it's just such a beautiful and cute story, and so I definitely recommend it.

SPEAKER_01:

We hope that you guys found something within this episode. We were a lot of different places talking about a lot of different things, but I think that our point of graphic novels and YA is there is truly something for everyone. So we hope that these recommendations were able to give you something to go off of. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast, Josie.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, thank you for having me. Yeah, this was an excellent conversation. You brought so much to the table. So thank you for being a willing participant. If you all haven't already signed up for one of Josie's programs, you definitely should. Um, she's got a lot of things that are going on in January and February that you can get registered for soon. So please make sure that you keep a lookout for our newsletter and online on our website to see what fun things Josie has planned. While that concludes the main segment for today's episode, Tessa and I still have our book talk discussion that I'm very excited for. Um we both read in quotation marks, Maybe question mark, mate by Allie Hazelwood. Tessa, why don't you start us off?

SPEAKER_01:

I'm a little bit less excited to have this conversation. I got 20% in, and it's a soft DNF for me right now. I'll go back to her. I'm not I'm not opposed to it. It's just simply not in the cards for me right now. And I was gonna try to force it for this conversation.

SPEAKER_02:

Which I'm glad you didn't.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I for the sake of like it would have just been bad for no reason. There will be a time where I will want to read it. I do have some some notes. What is Allie Hazelwood doing with a man bun? We can leave that. We can leave that behind in 2016. That doesn't have to be something that we use as a descriptor to say that someone's attractive. Number two, the names and words that that man was saying sometimes was very frightening to me. That's not to say that they were mean, just his general like vernacular was a little bit off for me. But I did very much like because I listened to what I did read of it. I liked listening to Cohen and Serena speak to each other. But I just I had to get out of there. It was not it was not the time.

SPEAKER_02:

In response to your list, I'm there with the man bun. It needed it didn't need to be there. But I understand why she did it, because he's supposed to be like this rooting lumberjack man.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm so fine with it, but we don't need to say man bun. I'm fine with the long hair, I'm fine with it being in a bun. I am. You just don't like the term man bun. And like, why did she have to be like, have you ever heard of a man bun? As if we haven't. Right. Like it's giving when she had that girl with galaxy legging.

SPEAKER_02:

Exactly. And that was a bad time. We're not gonna talk about it. I could be here all day long. Um, your second point, I'm here with you on the terminology and phrases and name-calling that he was giving to villains. We can't use any of it here, but just think of in like a Disney channel show when they want to like be mean to each other and like call each other names, but make that like with bad words or like curse words. Exactly. It was it was bad.

SPEAKER_01:

It was very much yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And one thing that I pointed out too, even though I enjoyed it, I rated it for stars. That really was unsettling to me. Their banter, though, was good and their relationship did develop throughout the story and was enjoyable as someone that lives in the realm of romance. So that's why I rated it semi-high for me.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, like I said, one day I will return and I will like it because I really, really enjoyed Bride. It's just not Not the journey I was on at this time. And if I would have finished it, it would have been like a two-star for genuinely no reason. You know, like I've just been like, this was just not what I wanted to read. And I know that that wouldn't be like my true rating of it.

SPEAKER_02:

So yeah, I'm definitely glad that I stuck it out after my initial distaste. And I hope that one day you do return to it so that we can uh talk about some storyline and plot elements that are going on in there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you got a whole page of notes.

SPEAKER_02:

I did, I took notes. There was a lot going on, and yeah, so I had to take notes. Um, I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, so I won't get too deep into it, but overall, it was a four-star read for me. Soft ENF for you. Hopefully, fingers crossed, you'll come back to it one day. I will say though, that it is it's an adult read. So keep that in mind. It is open door, it is Ally Hazelwood. Just keep that at the forefront of your mind if you're picking this book up. Do you want to announce our next book talk read?

SPEAKER_01:

For our next book talk discussion, we are gonna be reading I Medusa by Ayana Gray. It is, as the title might have clued you in, it is being pitched as a villain origin story about one of the most iconic monsters in Greek myth. So Medusa. I know that we both we love a Greek myth anything, really. Like I'm willing to give anything Greek myth inspired a shot. Shout out Percy Jackson, Rick Riordan 15 years ago. I'm excited about this one. I think it is a little bit different from the books that we usually pick for these discussions.

SPEAKER_02:

Same. I'm also really excited. I think the cover's sick. I think the title's sick, and I love a villain origin story and Greek mythology. So it it's looking good for me here. I agree. Well, that concludes this month's episode. Thank you so much for tuning in. As always, if you have any questions or recommendations, please feel free to email us at ghpl at greenhillslibrary.org.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you guys so much for listening. This has been episode 15. Hooray for YA in graphic novels. I'm Tessa.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm Sarah, and we're checked out.