Every year graphic novels become more and more more popular with my students.  Or maybe I’ve grown to enjoy them more and promote them more.  Whichever is the case, I cannot stock my room with nearly enough of them.  I’m glad to have another one to add to my collection–Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks–especially one that will appeal to a wide variety of readers.

Maggie is not only starting with her first day of high school.  It is also her first day of public school because she has been homeschooled for years before.  She does have three older brothers to watch out for her, but she struggles to find her own place and her own friends in the huge school.  She’s also missing her mother, who left for some unknown reason.  Maggie eventually meets Lucy and Alistair, who eat lunch with her and join her in small town adventures.  Of course, there is past high school drama issues to deal with–and not just on the stage with a musical about zombies.  Oh yeah, one more thing–Maggie is haunted by a ghost from the old cemetery.

I have a couple of students in mind for this book already, and I think it won’t sit on the shelf for long with it’s mix of real-life drama and hint of spooky ghosts.  For those who are into the art and story, Friends with Boys started as a webcomic.  You can still read a preview of the beginning of the book and go back to read the blog posts that Hicks wrote as she created the story as a serialized comic for the web.

I am taking part in the Slice of Live Challenge sponsored by Two Writing Teachers,  where teachers write and share every Tuesday through the year and every day during the month of March.  Join yourself or head over to check out what’s going on with the other slicers.  If you are taking part in SOF, leave a link to your blog.  I’d love to read it.