(2) YA Illustrated by Jim Rugg. Despite their victory in The Plain Janes, the community-art champions and odd-girls-out face even greater challenges in their second graphic novel. The authorities close in as they struggle with community relations, internal conflict, and romantic and family woes. Text and art complement each other with precision and wit, focusing and amplifying the story's emotional content without overstating it.

Reviewer: Claire E. Gross | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2008

(1) YA Illustrated by Jim Rugg. In Boy Proof, Jane was injured in a terrorist attack. Now her family's moved to suburbia, where Jane forms P.L.A.I.N. (People Loving Art In Neighborhoods) and plans "art attacks" while continuing correspondence with a comatose man. The graphic novel's core is Jane's struggle to see the world's beauty. Rugg's warm gray-scale scenes convey the drama, impact, and joy of unfettered expression.

Reviewer: Claire E. Gross | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2007

(2) YA Illustrated by Jesse Hamm. Grace Kwon is blithely celebrating her eighteenth birthday when three visitors arrive: herself at ages six, twenty-nine, and seventy. Grace must resolve her three principal issues--self-esteem, loneliness, uselessness--to return life to normal. Occasionally overburdened with message, this graphic novel is strongest when it eschews sentiment. The black-and-white illustrations are notable for the sense of comedic timing embedded in the panel pacing.

Reviewer: Claire E. Gross | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2007

(4) 4-6 Colored by Steve Hamaker. The creator of Bone tries his hand at superheroes in this revival of a DC classic. Life gets interesting for orphan Billy Batson after he starts timesharing his body with Captain Marvel. He faces giant robots, angry monsters, and a fiendish U.S. attorney general, and he discovers he has a sister. Politics are clumsily incorporated, but Billy and friends are smart, fearless, and likable.

Reviewer: Becca Schaffner