Like many of you, I now find myself facing an unknown number of hours, days, weeks and possibly months with time to fill while staying safe at home. However, the uncertainty of our collective crisis is making it hard for me to relax enough to focus on reading and absorbing books with dense text.
Fortunately, graphic novels and comic books – all available for checkout on Hoopla Digital – could be the answer. Comics have the potential to transport you to another world without requiring the same level of concentration as traditional, print heavy materials. And, you can count the graphic novels and comics you read towards CLP’s “Stay In and Read” challenge.
Below is a list of a few of my favorite titles, and many are the first or one part of a series. If you find you like one volume, there may be more to available to check out and read.
If you don’t know how to access Hoopla Digital, follow this link to our EResources page or view a video tutorial.
The world of storybook and nursery rhyme characters who live side-by-side with humans is thrown into turmoil when Rose Red’s house is found in shambles and covered with her blood and suspects range from Jack of beanstalk fame to Blue Beard. You can also check out this title on eBook through Hoopla.
The lore of the early days of hip hop has become the stuff of myth, so what better way to document this fascinating, epic true story than in another great American mythological medium the comic book? You can also check out this title as an eBook on Hoopla.
In this debut, which takes the form of a fictional graphic diary, a 10-year-old girl tries to solve a murder. Set against the tumultuous political backdrop of late ’60s Chicago, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is the fictional graphic diary of 10-year-old Karen Reyes, filled with B-movie horror and pulp monster magazines iconography. Karen Reyes tries to solve the murder of her enigmatic upstairs neighbor, Anka Silverberg, a holocaust survivor, while the interconnected stories of those around her unfold. When Karen’s investigation takes us back to Anka’s life in Nazi Germany, the reader discovers how the personal, the political, the past, and the present converge. You can also check out this title as an eBook on Hoopla.
Inexplicably pulled back in time to the antebellum South, a contemporary Black woman, raised in the age of Civil Rights and Black Power, must confront the harsh realities of Black history in America. You can also check out this title as eBook on Hoopla or as eBook on Libby/Overdrive.
Four newspaper delivery girls stumble upon inter-dimensional travel, winged dinosaur attackers, and a nefarious plot to subjugate the youth of the world – all while trying to finish their paper routes in the early morning hours after Halloween 1988. You can also check out this title as eBook on Hoopla or as eBook on Libby/Overdrive.
When two soldiers from opposite sides of a never-ending galactic war fall in love, they risk everything to bring a fragile new life into a dangerous old universe. You can also check out this titles as eBook on Hoopla or as eBook on Libby/Overdrive.