Best-selling and award-winning author Shannon Hale tells her own story of growing up in a complicated but loving family, her struggles with cliques, and writing stories.

By drawing on his father's personal history as a Holocaust survivor, Art Spiegelman created a graphic memoir that shakes the dust off of history and breaks your heart. He underscores it and makes it digestible by, controversially, turning the people into animals.

I've never been to NYC, but I've read about it and love films and TV shows set there. Originally created as a guidebook for her daughter before she moved into the city, Chast's signature cartoon style and charming wit grace every page.

As Chast's parents became less able to care for themselves, she took on the role of caregiver. This painful and humorous memoir may ring too true to those with aging parents. It's a loving but honest tribute to the joys and challenges of family.

Body image for girls and women gets a lot of press (both helpful and less so). In this graphic memoir, Mark Tatulli shows that being short and skinny as a boy can lead to tough times, as well. But imagination doesn't discriminate between genders, heights, or sizes.

When Kim Hyun Sook goes to university, she anticipates the arguments with her mom over going to school. What she doesn't figure on are the quiet but dangerous acts she will perform in the name of democracy. I couldn't put this one down.

The summer after eighth grade, Dan Santat grudgingly took a school trip to Europe for three weeks. To quote a friend of mine, "Poor baby." As the days go on, he encounters great works of art, architecture, first love, and many flavors of Fanta. Made me want to travel. And I have issues with travel.