Cassi and the House of Memories (Stuart) ©2025 by Dean Stuart

“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

What writer Leo Tolstoy failed to take into account in his famous quote is that many families exist somewhere between happy and unhappy, bound together by ties that are stronger than the challenges of divorce, prejudice, or even illness and death. Sometimes those connections are hard to find or disappear beneath the surface for a while, but they often are strongest when times are hardest.

Each of these graphic novels features a character dealing with family struggles, ranging from unrealistic expectations to the death of a sibling, and depicts the sometimes messy process of coming to terms with those issues. The adults in these stories are not without flaws; some are overbearing while others seem to shrivel and disappear. But at the heart of each story is a child, whether seven or seventeen, searching for their own path and trying to reconcile their reality with that of their family members. For readers experiencing these challenges or watching others go through them, these books contain important truths: no one is perfect, and everyone is deserving of love.

MCCLAREN, Meredith. Crumble. illus. by Andrea Bell. Little, Brown Ink. Feb. 2025.
Gr 3-6–Emily loves working at the Om Nom Bakery with her Aunt Gina, where they bake up sweet treats that contain a special ingredient: emotions. Their cookies and cakes provide positive feelings, such as confidence and acceptance, to their customers. Emily’s mother travels around the country giving lectures about their special craft, but she comes home at least once a month for a big family dinner. This happy life is shattered when Aunt Gina dies suddenly in a car accident. As Emily and her mother mourn Aunt Gina, Emily wonders if life will ever be the same again. Worst of all, the one thing she loves to do—baking—is off limits, because bad feelings make the recipes come out wrong. Emily tries it anyway, baking a crumble that makes people feel bad but also crave more. When things are at their bleakest, Emily turns to her mother, and together they form a solution: cooking, which isn’t affected by their feelings, allowing them time to come to terms with their new reality. Bell’s art is colorful and cute but conveys a full range of emotion; both Emily’s joy and grief are captured clearly on the page. This book is heavier than it looks from the cover, but Emily’s loss is depicted in ways that even young readers will be able to understand and identify with.

STUART, Dean. Cassi and the House of Memories. illus. by author. Viking. Feb. 2025.
Gr 4-7–Cassi is a lively chatterbox of a girl who loves spending time with her grandfather, Charlie, who has early dementia. Sometimes he is forgetful or drifts off to sleep, but he also teaches her how to whistle and plays hide-and-seek with her. After her grandmother explains what is happening to him, Cassi takes a trip through the dreamlike world of his memories, hopping on and off a fragmented pathway to visit him at different times in the past. She even intervenes to stop a tragedy in his younger days. Stuart uses a surrealistic style to show Cassi moving between the different spaces of her grandfather’s life, but as she alights in each time period, the people and events feel solid and real. Different motifs, such as music, learning to whistle, and a butterfly, link the pieces of the story together. Stuart does a wonderful job of depicting the fragmentation of personality that comes with the early stages of dementia, and the story is warm and reassuring despite the strangeness of the spaces that Cassi explores.

GLOBERMAN, Jordana. Soul Machine. illus. by author. Annick Pr. Jun. 2025.
Gr 7 Up–In this story, soul weavers create souls from a substance called breth, which is becoming scarce as the big corporation McCorp buys up all the small providers and tries to push a substitute called Digibreth onto the market. Chloe’s older sister Lacey takes her weaving job seriously, but Chloe doesn’t understand a lot of things, including where their absent father is. When she goes to the big city in search of black market breth, she witnesses the dark side of Digibreth but also meets the CEO of McCorp, who takes Chloe under her wing. Eventually, Chloe’s father shows up as well, revealing some troubling truths about their family and his research. The story explores the beliefs we hold about our families, how we feel when they turn out to be wrong, and how we know who to trust. It’s a complicated narrative with multiple settings, but Globerman does a good job of explaining each new concept as it arises, and uses different color schemes for each area Chloe visits. She also prods readers further with a series of “Questions with No Wrong Answers” at the end. Some may find this story tough going, while others will want to read it again and again to fully experience its richly layered world.

LEE, Kazimir. Low Orbit. illus. by author. Top Shelf. Apr. 2025.
Gr 8-12–“Parents are such hot messes,” 15-year-old Azar says, and at least as far as this story is concerned, she’s not wrong. The only child of Malaysian parents, she moved to Vermont when her mother got a new job but her father stayed behind in Brooklyn. They share a Victorian home with Tristan, who uses they/them pronouns, and Tristan’s father, Shannon, who is their landlord and also the writer of a fantasy novel that becomes Azar’s escape from reality. Everyone in this story has issues: Azar can’t figure out how to come out to her mother, her mother is overbearing, her father is keeping a secret, and Shannon no longer writes for reasons that become clear as the story goes on. They turn to each other but also hurt each other, saying things that seem unforgivable, but, in the end, much is forgiven. And, despite their flaws, all the characters are sympathetic and likable. The story is eventful and fast-moving, which makes it hard to put down. Lee’s art is rounded and a bit cartoony but easy to follow, with a subdued palette that works perfectly with the mood and the characters.

BRALY, Matt. Family Force V, Book 1. illus. by Ainsworth Lin. Image. Jun. 2025.

Gr 9-12–Power Rangers style action mixes with family drama in this fast-paced superhero story. Maise is at that awkward age where she wants to spend more time hanging out with her friends and less with her family, but hanging out with her family isn’t optional—they are Moon Troopers who are called into action on a moment’s notice to protect the earth from giant kaiju monsters. Each family member has different skills, and Maise is an important part of the team. When her father is killed by one of the kaiju and an arrogant young man is sent in to replace him, Maise quickly crosses swords with the newcomer and he tries to exclude her. Nonetheless, in the face of a horrifying threat, she must don her father’s suit and step wholeheartedly into her role. This story is as much about kaiju fighting as the family drama, and there is a lot of action between the quieter sequences. Lin’s manga-style art is smooth and easy to read, with a bright palette that fits the subject matter.

MAINES, Nicole. Bad Dream: A Dreamer Story. illus. by Rye Hickman. DC. Apr. 2024.
Gr 9-12–Nia Nal is an alien living in a secluded enclave, because her kind is hated in the outside world. She’s also a trans teenager who inherited her mother’s superpower of seeing the future in her dreams—a power that her sister Maeve was supposed to inherit. Knowing how desperately Maeve wants to be a seer, Nia runs away from the problem, literally and figuratively. She takes a bus to Metropolis, the big city, and tries to keep from sleeping so she won’t dream. Eventually, she does, but more importantly, she finds three supportive friends who introduce Nia to a new way of living and encourage her to be herself. Unfortunately, danger is never far from superheroes, and Nia’s face-off with another alien ends tragically for her family. The story doesn’t have a happy ending, but it does leave the reader with a sense of hope. Hickman’s art shifts easily between the real and the uncanny, as exotic aliens exist side-by-side with humans, and the depictions of Nia’s dreams swirl with colors and figures, both human and animal.

STORM, Jen. Little Moons. illus. by Ryan Howe. HighWater Pr. Sept. 2024.
Gr 9 Up–This poignant story, set on an Ojibwe reservation in Canada, depicts a shattered family trying to cope with the disappearance of their older daughter. At 13, Reanna is the middle child caught between constantly being teased by her older sister Chelsea and sharing a special bond with her younger brother Theo. Then Chelsea disappears on her way home from school, and the family endures the profound grief of not only losing a child, but not knowing her fate. Reanna’s mother reacts by moving out, seeking a new life in the city, while Reanna and Theo move in with their father. Reanna takes comfort in traditional Ojibwe rituals, even as her phone’s photo feature constantly serves up memories of Chelsea. Theo, who doesn’t speak much, nonetheless senses Chelsea’s presence, and as the older folks process their feelings, he rolls balls and toy cars back and forth with an unseen presence. While Chelsea’s fate is never revealed, the story does have a resolution of sorts, with the family coming together around a sacred fire to mourn her and light her way home. The art is straightforward, conveying actions and emotions clearly, but careful readers will see a lot more going on in the panels. This is a book that rewards rereading. In an end note, Storm discusses how her own experience with the disappearance of a loved one led her to write this fictional story.

Brigid Alverson founded and edits “Good Comics for Kids” (slj.com/goodcomics).