Dragon Head by Minetaro Mochizuki

"I remember the train lurching like it had been hit, and then...screaming...the train started shaking...I was thrown out of my chair...then the lights went out. There was this long noise, like a chainsaw cutting through sheet metal...and then everything went black."

Aoki is on his way home from a school field trip when his train ride is interrupted by a devastating accident in an underground tunnel. Everyone is killed in the crash, except for Aoki and two unstable classmates. Cut off from the outside world, trapped in an oppressively hot tunnel, the trio are all alone...or are they? Mochizuki's story and art combine to evoke the terror of a disaster story, keeping readers on the edge of their seats.

SLJ recommends grades 10 and up.

Learn more at Amazon and here.

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

"My mother once explained to me why she married my father. 'Of all the Ph.D. students at the university, he had the thickest glasses,' she said."

Ah, poor Jin Wang! As the American born son of Chinese parents, life in the thick of a suburban middle school is not always easy. He wants cooler friends. He wants the attention of a pretty girl. And he wants to be accepted. But, then again, who doesn't? Jin Lan's story overlaps and intertwines with a tradational Monkey King tale and with the story of hopelessly over-stereotyped cousin Chin
Kee. This graphic novel is an uncomfortably amusing reflection of adolesence AND a cautionary tale for those that would hide from their true selves.

Learn more at HCL, Amazon, and here.

SLJ recommends grades 7 & up.