Pictures of You: 5 Graphic Novels about the Lives of Teenagers

Don't like comic books and super hero movies? No problem. Here are 5 graphic novels that tell realistic stories about high school students trying to deal with life and all its complications.


G Anthony,J 
Anthony, Jessica. Chopsticks.
After her mother died, Glory's father raised her as a piano prodigy keeping her on a rigid practice schedule with big plans to sell out concert halls. Now a teenager, Glory has disappeared. The story flashes back to the events leading up to the disappearance and we see Glory falling for her next door neighbor Frank and her descent into madness.

G Castelluci,C 
Castellucci, Cecil. The Plain Janes.
After a bomb goes off in Metro City, Jane's parents decide to move to the suburbs. Jane thinks her life is over. But in the lunch room, she meets three outcasts named Jane. The girls decide to start a group called P.L.A.I.N. –People Loving Art In Neighborhoods. They pull a series of pranks that are meant to introduce art to the town (like putting wool caps on fire hydrants), but their plans backfire when the community gets in an uproar about the stunts.

G McKeever,S 
McKeever, Sean. The Waiting Place. Definitive ed.
High school senior Jeffry Dietz's parents move him from the suburbs to the podunk town of Northern Plains. It is a tiny, tourist trap town (population 972) where there is nothing to do. Jeffry struggles to make new friends and avoid new enemies as he and all the other teenagers try to escape the boredom and drama of high school in a small town.


G Novgorodoff,D 
Novgorodoff, Danica. Refresh Refresh : A Graphic Novel. 
Josh, Cody and Gordon are three best friends on the brink of graduating high school. Like many men in their small town, all three of their fathers have gone off to fight in Iraq. They worry about their fathers coming back home alive and about the big decisions facing them after graduation. They cope in different ways on their own, but together they form a type of fight club where they attempt to honor the sacrifices made by their fathers and to deal with their own unspoken pain.

G Thompson,C 
Thompson, Craig. Blankets : An Illustrated Novel. 
Blankets tells the artist's own story of growing up with a strict, evangelical family in a small town in Wisconsin. Life is tough for Craig and his younger brother. Their parents' behavior borders on abuse and their classmates bully them. As a teenager, Craig is a misfit and loner who mostly sticks to his art. Then he meets Raina and her friends at a church camp. Craig starts to question his parent's values and falls in love for the first time.