Other cultures (YA comics)

Authors from different places offer different perspectives and different ways of telling stories and can give us insights into other cultures.

In this list, we're presenting comics and graphic novels that were written by authors from other parts of the world, and there are a fair few memoirs detailing the authors' personal experiences too.

Updated August 1, 2024
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Wellington City LibrariesYouth team at Wellington City Libraries
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Frontera
Anta, Julio
Paper Book
2024 Eisner Award Nominee for Best Publication for Teens 2024 YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens  2024 Children's Book Council's Young Adults' Favorites Award 2024 Texas Maverick Graphic Novel Reading List Mateo makes the dangerous journey back...
Amazona
Canizales
Paper Book
This socially conscious thriller from graphic novelist Canizales examines the injustices of his home country in a stark, distinctive style. Andrea, a young Indigenous Colombian woman, has returned to the land she calls home. Only nineteen years old, she comes to mourn her lost child,...
Messy roots : a graphic memoir of a Wuhanese American
Gao, Laura
Paper Book
"Messy Roots is a laugh-out-loud, heartfelt, and deeply engaging story of their journey to find themself--as an American, as the daughter of Chinese immigrants, as a queer person, and as a Wuhanese American in the middle of a pandemic."--Malaka Gharib, author of I Was Their American Dream ...
Almost American girl : an illustrated memoir
Ha, Robin
Paper Book
Harvey Award Nominee, Best Children or Young Adult Book  A powerful and moving teen graphic novel memoir about immigration, belonging, and how arts can save a life--perfect for fans of American Born Chinese and Hey, Kiddo.  For as long as she can remember...
Displacement
Hughes, Kiku
Paper Book
A teenager is pulled back in time to witness her grandmother's experiences in World War II-era Japanese internment camps in Displacement, a historical graphic novel from Kiku Hughes. Kiku is on vacation in San Francisco when suddenly she finds herself displaced to the...
Banned book club
Kim, Hyun Sook
Paper Book
A Junior Library Guild Selection "Highly recommended for readers passionate about activism." -- SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, Starred Review "Sure to inspire today's youthful generation of tenacious changemakers." -- BOOKLIST, Starred Review ...
The magic fish
Nguyen, Trung Le
Paper Book
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR by New York Public Library . Kirkus Reviews . Booklist . Publishers Weekly In this gorgeous debut graphic novel, fairy tales are the only way one boy can communicate with his Vietnamese immigrant parents. But how will he find the...
Oxygen mask : a graphic novel
Reynolds, Jason; Griffin, Jason
Ebook
A Caldecott Honor winner! Prepare yourself for something unlike anything: A smash-up of art and text for teens that viscerally captures what it is to be Black. In America. Right Now. Written by #1 New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Jason Reynolds....
The complete Persepolis
Satrapi, Marjane
Paper Book
Here, in one volume: Marjane Satrapi's best-selling, internationally acclaimed graphic memoir of growing up as a girl in Iran during the revolution has for twenty years been a classroom staple, a feminist manifesto, and one of the most popular and widely known graphic novels of all time. <...
The complete Maus
Spiegelman, Art
Paper Book
The definitive edition of the graphic novel acclaimed as "the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust" (Wall Street Journal) and "the first masterpiece in comic book history" (The New Yorker) * PULITZER PRIZE WINNER * One of Variety's "Banned and...
Maus : a survivor's tale
Spiegelman, Art
Paper Book
The definitive edition of the graphic novel acclaimed as "the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust" (Wall Street Journal) and "the first masterpiece in comic book history" (The New Yorker) * PULITZER PRIZE WINNER * One of Variety's "Banned and...
Boxers
Yang, Gene Luen
Paper Book
Gene Luen Yang writes, and sometimes draws, comic books and graphic novels. As the Library of Congress's fifth National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, he advocates for the importance of reading, especially reading diversely. His graphic novel American Born Chinese, a...
American born Chinese
Yang, Gene Luen.
Paper Book
A tour-de-force by rising indy comics star Gene Yang,American Born Chinese tells the story of three apparently unrelated characters: Jin Wang, who moves to a new neighborhood with his family only to discover that he's the only Chinese-American student at his new school;...

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