Street Noise Books

Starred Review from Library Journal, “Its unflinching portrayal of oppression and the vital necessity of maintaining idealism in the face of utter despair is as timely as it is deeply stirring.”

Starred Review from Booklist, the journal of the American Library Association, “The potent narrative . . . proves hauntingly timely with today's global unrest, growing militarism, proliferating wars, and even U.S. politics. . . . Readers could well be witnessing an oracular warning of an imminent future.”

From Emmy-nominated journalist Melissa Chan and esteemed activist artist Badiucao comes a near-future dystopian graphic novel about technology, authoritarian government, and the lengths that one will go to in the fight for freedom. 

It's 2035. The US and China are at war. America is a proto-fascist state. Taiwan is divided into two. As conflict escalates between nuclear powers, three idealistic youths who first met in Hong Kong develop diverging beliefs about how best to navigate this techno-authoritarian landscape. Andy, Maggie, and Olivia travel different paths toward transformative change, each confronting to what extent they will fight for freedom, and who they will become in doing so. 

A powerful and important book about global totalitarian futures, and the costs of resistance.

New York Public Library Top 10 Graphic Novels of 2024

American Library Associate Top 10 Best Graphic Novels for Adults of 2024

Starred Review from Publishers Weekly. "It's a revealing visualization of a rare, 'depersonalizing' condition and how Sweeney finds 'drops of disabled joy whenever I can.' Sweeney's subtle and elegant art reflects the nuance of her moment-to-moment struggle."

An evocative and heartfelt graphic memoir about the challenges of living with a progressive disability.

When Maria Sweeney was young, she kept count of her broken bones. As she grew older, she stopped. Living with Bruck syndrome, a rare progressive condition that gives her very brittle bones and joint abnormalities, meant that those numbers climbed and climbed.

Today, she struggles every day, living in an often-inaccessible world. As an ambulatory wheelchair user, ordinary actions like entering a building, sitting at a café, or holding a cup of tea can be drastically different for her than for others.

With lush illustrations, Maria tells the story of her lifelong struggle to obtain care in an increasingly complicated and disinterested US healthcare system. But for every step that presents a struggle, there's also beauty, friendship, art, and growth. She documents the relief she's found in alternative therapies, particularly medical marijuana; in loving community and chosen family; and in nature and her creative practice. A powerfully understated critique of our modern world, Brittle Joints offers a generous, expansive look at how to live and love amidst the challenges of survival.

“This visually spectacular book offers a powerful dive into the depths of fear and trauma and a reminder that the impact of violence spreads far beyond the official victim.” —Rebecca Solnit, author of Orwell's Roses and Hope in the Dark

When someone is murdered next door, it changes everything about the way you live your life.

When Hugh was ten years old, he walked home from school to find his friends next door crying outside – they had just come home and discovered their mother’s body. She had been murdered.

Now an adult, Hugh has a happy social life and a successful career as an artist in Oakland, California. But even so he is plagued by anxiety, anger, and panic attacks. As he attends therapy and looks back on his childhood, he comes to realize the trauma and stress that the murder next door had on his life, and how it still affects him today.

Does trauma ever go away? Or does it just hang around, in the backs of our minds forever? This thoughtful, powerful memoir explores how one event in childhood can make a permanent mark on someone’s life.

Winner of the 2022 Palestine Book Award

“An artistic triumph that will stand as an enduring testament to the spirit of the Palestinian people. Mohammad Sabaaneh is a master.”--Joe Sacco, winner of the American Book Award for Palestine

What does freedom look like from inside an Israeli prison?

A bird perches on the cell window and offers a deal: “You bring the pencil, and I will bring the stories,” stories of family, of community, of Gaza, of the West Bank, of Jerusalem, of Palestine. The two collect threads of memory and intergenerational trauma from ongoing settler-colonialism. Helping us to see that the prison is much larger than a building, far wider than a cell; it stretches through towns and villages, past military checkpoints and borders. But hope and solidarity can stretch farther, deeper, once strength is drawn of stories and power is born of dreams. Translating headlines into authentic lived experiences, these stories come to life in the striking linocut artwork of Mohammad Sabaaneh, helping us to see Palestinians not as political symbols, but as people.

One queer person bravely and creatively uses therapy to navigate the healing from the trauma of a past sexual assault

One day, during an ordinary early-morning run, Cara’s watch dinged with a Facebook friend request. But when they checked the message, the photo slammed them backward in time and froze them in fear. Their rapist wanted to “friend” them.

Cara always had a long to-do list; always had many projects; always was busy. But as their rapist continued to send friend requests and tried to reconnect with them, they began to lose their grip on their work, projects, and relationships. But then Cara connects with a therapist who guides them through a long but powerful process of healing. And Cara works to desensitize, reprocess, excavate and relive the old wounds in order to move past them and heal.

One of the best feminist books of the year! —Ms. Magazine

This autobiographically-inspired graphic novel explores mental health and schizophrenia in a surprising and emotionally honest story with a fantastical cast of animal characters.

Fox Foxerson's got a new roommate. Fox Foxerson's got a new job. Fox Foxerson's got a date. The roommate is only a little strange, sometimes. The job seems to involve . . . filing? It's not very clear. The date seems to be more interested in someone else. Fox would rather be making art.

As the oppressive weight of the everyday routine beats down on Fox, nothing is going right. And it doesn't seem like anyone can help — not Fox's roommate, not Fox's friends, and definitely not the nurses and doctors at the hospital, who don't seem to take notice of anything Fox tries to tell them. Fox needs some time and space to figure things out. This quirky, humorous graphic novel tinged with pathos, immerses readers in the constant question: are you okay? Fox is not okay, but Fox is working on it.

An in-depth piece of comics journalism exploring the persistent use of the deadly chemical Chlordecone to support the banana crops in Martinique and Guadeloupe. 

In 1975, pesticide producer LifeSciences closed their plant that produced the chemical chlordecone, after numerous employees had toxic chemical poisoning, and the local river had been polluted. But in the French Antilles, farmers continued to use the pesticide. Even after it was banned in 1993, planters continued to illegally import and use it. Chlordecone use became so widespread that it was in almost everything people on the islands ate and drank. 

Today, 95% of the inhabitants of Guadeloupe and 92% of the inhabitants of Martinique are contaminated by the chemical, and the islands have one of the highest cancer rates in the world. 

In this richly illustrated work, the author brings her personal experience and connection to the story as she interviews scores of local people as well as scientists and government officials to uncover the true story behind the decision to continue poisoning the water and the soil for the sake of global commerce. We, as global citizens, are urged to consider the decisions we are making through our consumer choices and how they affect the health of the planet and the survival of communities throughout the world.

“The queer community is lucky to have Sharon on our side, using her skills and passions to create a better world for all of us.”—Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

A graphic biography of Djuna Barnes: writer, artist, and queer radical of the Lost Generation in the Roaring 20s.

Djuna Barnes lived in a dazzling world filled with literary salons, innovative writing, and daring new art styles. But it didn’t come easily. She managed to work her way out of an abusive childhood growing up in a polygamous rural utopian community on Long Island. She was determined to live an extraordinary life, and found herself socializing with the likes of James Joyce, Natalie Barney, Peggy Guggenheim, and T.S. Eliot in 1920s literary Paris. Called the most famous unknown of the century, Djuna Barnes stood out for her brilliant writing, her biting wit, and her unique style. Her novel, Nightwood is considered by some to be one of the greatest lesbian love stories ever written. But as the stock market crashed and the Lost Generation left Paris, her life began to unwind.

A fascinating window into the life of a woman whose enormous literary talent and provocative attitude were both celebrated and disdained by the world.

After immigrating from China to New York City, a teenage girl and her family struggle to adjust to the new world they’ve found themselves in.

Yixuan Liu, a 16-year-old Chinese girl, just moved from China to America with her family. To try to fit in to a new school, a new city, and a new culture, Yixuan chooses an English name, Emma.

As she works to succeed in school and make friends, Yixuan/Emma is confused by the anti-Asian and anti-Black racism she hears from her teachers and her friends. She must learn to be herself and stop striving to please everyone else in order to make sense of it all.

Balancing chaotic school life with divorcing parents, her sister’s mental illness, and a new crush, Emma must ask herself, “How do I know who I really am?”

“Often quite funny . . . The layers of identity and story in the memoir and Som's fluid approach to representing the self, feel impressively easy, unbelabored.” —Hillary Chute, The New York Times Book Review

A Lambda Literary Award Finalist

The meticulous artwork of transgender artist Bishakh Som gives us the rare opportunity to see the world through another lens.

This exquisite graphic novel memoir by a transgender artist, explores the concept of identity by inviting the reader to view the author moving through life as she would have us see her, that is, as she sees herself. Framed with a candid autobiographical narrative, this book gives us the opportunity to enter into the author’s daily life and explore her thoughts on themes of gender and sexuality, memory and urbanism, love and loss.

Are you feeling fed up with the current political landscape? Over 100 amazing comic artists show you unique actions any one of us can take turn things around. 

A To Do list for changing the world. Artists share their passion and commitment to make things better in this fun and engaging collection. From simple ideas like signing a petition or going on a march, to more imaginative ones like becoming a 'raging granny' (old ladies who use their innocuous looks to gain entry into places like board meetings or arms fairs, and then create havoc). Many things can be done immediately, with little or no money at all. Others require a bit more planning. But all of them are steps that anyone can take if they want to enact change.

“a tour de force of comics” —Ed Park, The New York Times

One of the Top Ten Graphic Novels of 2020, as chosen by the American Library Association

One of the Best Books of 2020, as chosen by Publishers Weekly

“Fortunately for readers of this raw and intimate graphic memoir, Terry never fully lets go of his youthful vulnerability. . . . Reckoning with sobriety requires connection and humility, as Terry makes the case for with sincerity and beauty, as he ties his recovery to his spiritual homecoming.” —Starred Review, Publishers Weekly

A brutally honest but charming look at the pain of childhood and the alienation and anxiety of early adulthood.

In his memoir, we are invited to walk through the life of the author, Jim Terry, as he struggles to find security and comfort in an often hostile environment. Between the Ho-Chunk community of his Native American family in Wisconsin and his schoolmates in the Chicago suburbs, he tries in vain to fit in and eventually turns to alcohol to provide an escape from increasing loneliness and alienation. Terry also shares with the reader in exquisite detail the process by which he finds hope and gets sober, as well as the powerful experience of finding something to believe in and to belong to at the Dakota Access Pipeline resistance at Standing Rock.

“Ebensperger debuts with a big pink splash in the forthright but lighthearted memoir . . . This entertaining, funny, and warmhearted chronicle of the rocky road toward self-acceptance is a real charmer.” —Publishers Weekly

A gay giant can't hide. This charming coming-of-age and coming-to-terms with oneself story shows us what it feels like to grow up queer in a heteronormative society in the 1990s. 

Filled with pop culture touchstones from Cher to Steven Tyler, from Jurassic Park to Grey's Anatomy, this book navigates both the joy and the pain of puberty surrounded by ignorance and homophobia. How do you love yourself if you've learned so well to hate yourself? For all of us who've ever felt bizarre, damaged, or strange, we are shown that all is full of love, and that true acceptance must come from within yourself.

“Unique in both format and content, this important book is a first choice to help diversify teen graphic nonfiction collections.” —Starred Review, School Library Journal

Follow the daily life of one queer artist from Texas as they introduce us to the lives of ten extraordinary people.

The author shares their life as a genderqueer person, living in the American South, revealing their own personal struggle for acceptance and how they were inspired by these historical LGBTQIA+ people to live their own truth. Featuring biographies of Mary Jones, We'wha, Magnus Hirschfeld, Dr. Pauli Murray, Wilmer "Little Axe" M. Broadnax, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Carlett Brown, Nancy Cardenas, Ifti Nasim, and Simon Nkoli.

Starred Review from Publishers Weekly, “Such reflections will ring painfully familiar to anyone who has stumbled around in the darkness of grief. This vulnerable graphic memoir cuts deep.”

An emotional and heartbreaking memoir of the author’s lifelong struggle with his mother’s death from cancer.

Grief never goes away.

When he was a teenager, Jesse Mechanic’s mother passed away after a long struggle with cancer. In this memoir, he looks back on that time, and on the ways that experience followed him throughout his life. Struggling with school while dealing with attentional problems and the overwhelming tsunami of grief, this book tells the story of Mechanic’s slow work to figure out a life for himself. It’s about obsessive-compulsive disorder, intrusive thoughts, and depression—straight-A’s turning to straight F’s, and smiles to blank stares. It's about what loss can teach us, and how trauma can be both debilitating and beautiful. It’s about standing in dark rooms for long enough for your eyes to adjust.

And graffiti. It’s about that too.

With powerful visuals and thoughtful, poignant text, this graphic memoir challenges readers to keep going in the face of the hardest times.

NPR's 2024 Books We Love list

Starred Review in Publishers Weekly: "Through elegant yellow and black illustrations, Harms's powerful English-language debut traces the ecosystems that pollinators inhabit—and exposes the dangers that threaten their existence. . . Readers will be convinced by this firm and vibrantly drawn warning call." 

What would the future of the world look like without bees?

Bees are vital to securing our food supply. We could live in a paradise where insects, especially bees pollinate fragrant seas of flowers whose fruits we harvest. Instead, vast lawns are now replacing flower gardens, and agriculture is characterized by monocultures. Pesticides and climate change are also causing insect mortality, with dramatic consequences for the global ecosystem. As we destroy the insect populations, honey is just one of many foods that will no longer be available to us, unless we learn to honor our innate connection with nature before it's too late.

In gorgeous, limited palette artwork, using contemplative images as well as informative charts, Hanna Harms brings us into the world of bees: their hives, their colonies, and their interactions with the global ecosystem. This is the perfect gift book for anyone concerned about climate change and the environment.

Life at home is so unbearable that these kids will risk their lives and face colossal challenges to escape to the United States and find safety. 

This book tells the true stories of five brave teens fleeing their home countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guinea, on their own, traveling through unknown and unfriendly places, and ultimately crossing into the US to find refuge and seek asylum. Based on extensive interviews with teen refugees, lawyers, caseworkers, and activists, Tracy White shines a light on five individual kids from among the tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors who enter the US each year. In stark black and white illustrations, she helps us understand why some young people would literally risk their lives to seek safety in the US. Each one of them has been backed into a corner where emigration to the US seems like their only hope. 

“A vibrant graphic memoir full of dark humor, Nervosa is an insightful look into the torment of disordered eating that will be a source of comfort to others who struggle with their mental health.” —STARRED REVIEW, Foreword Reviews

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder. It is not a phase, a fad, or a choice. It is a debilitating illness, manifested in a distorted relationship with food, but which actually has more to do with issues of control. It is often a puzzle for doctors, therapists, parents, and friends. And so those who suffer from it are belittled, or tragically misunderstood, not only by society but by the healthcare system meant to treat it.

A rough-and-tumble Iraq War veteran is young and in love, and the last thing on his mind is food and the ethics of eating meat. But when his girlfriend becomes a vegetarian and animal rights activist, suddenly food is all he thinks about. 

A true story of how love and vegetarianism can triumph over all else. Love, heartache, and the rest of the ingredients that make a reader laugh, smile, stop-and-think, are all found in this enthralling graphic memoir. Amidst the stories of love and frustration, there are treatises on food, vegetarianism, and the ethics of the animal rights movement (some of it juxtaposed against Michael’s graphic wartime experiences). Told with Michael’s sardonic perspective and the delightful artwork of debut graphic novelist Chai Simone, this is a journey of true love gone temporarily astray.

By seeing through the eyes of the world's darkest souls, we humanize them. As these stories infiltrate the mind in a kaleidoscope of pop colors, the reality of the worlds of the dregs of humanity comes ever-clearer.

These are the stories of the hated: drug addicts bathes in nuclear science, futuristic gang members, scifi terrorists, interspecies sex workers, and beyond. In seeing reality through a prism of science fiction we are able to better see ourselves and to cultivate understanding. Once we understand, we can empathize even with those we hate, and when we empathize we may even fall in love with the unlovable.

Only with love can we transform the world.

A contemporary political allegory of power, to remind us of the dangers of following a dictator and surrendering your freedom.

Life is simple for the pigeons. They have no desire to contemplate their future or take control of it. Free from responsibility, they are all too willing to submit to a strong authority. This is precisely what a cruel and power-hungry crow was waiting for—a perfect opportunity to wield his natural talents as a tyrant. The crow enforces law and order, but also terror and arbitrary rules. Everyone seems to accept this situation—or maybe, they are too scared to resist. Until an idealistic seagull steps in, determined to challenge the system through debate and free elections.

Set in a future-adjacent, alternative Los Angeles, this is a story of staggering poverty, drugs, and violence and of an artistic child who finds beauty in the ugly and sublime hope in our conflicts.

HYBRED shows us how in our most marginalized communities lies an astonishing amount of genius which goes unnoticed and is so often tragically wasted. 

Nine-year-old Johnny James lives in The Casque, the poorest neighborhood in Greater Angeles, where he shares a one-room apartment with his mother, stepfather, two brothers, and an army of cockroaches. He spends his days in the sweltering heat of the neighborhood, at the movie theaters, playing tackleball, or drawing – but there’s no money for him to go to school.

As death, addiction, and violence swirl through the neighborhood, Johnny grows up with friends, adventures, and magic around him. And he discovers how to use art, beauty, and personal strength to transcend the forces destined to hold him back.

One standup comedian goes on a journey of self-discovery and explores the pitfalls and power of choosing one's own queer narrative. 

Jackie Locklear is a stand-up comedian who is trans and doesn’t know how to confront that part of himself. His Aunt Sheila’s death spurs Jackie to take a trip to the refuge Sheila built for trans folks, the Chicken Heart Love Commune. The people there represent a range of backgrounds, in contrast with the world where Jackie was raised. But as a city kid still coming to terms with his trans identity, and struggling to process his grief, the bucolic place and its residents don’t make him feel like he fits in. Through the power of humor and acceptance, Jackie is able to make space for himself.

An emotional, powerful story about finding one’s heart and opening up to people who are willing and able to love.

What does love look like when you are not interested in sex?

Growing up, Caitlin Cook knew the recipe for social success from watching television and reading books: two best friends, two enemies, and a boyfriend. So she arranged her life accordingly: making friends and dreaming of the boys she met in school.

But she felt that inside, something was wrong with her. Because though she wanted to get close to people, every time she experimented with sex, she just felt bored.

This graphic novel follows Caitlin Cook, who is asexual but does not yet fully realize it. From evangelical purity politics to the footloose college campus, Caitlin navigates different worlds each with their own sexual orthodoxies, and clumsily attempts to fit into each of them. A thoughtful and immersive coming-of-age memoir about one girl's struggle to figure out and then claim her asexual identity.

A new updated paperback edition of the #1 New York Times bestselling graphic memoir about a father dealing with the sudden death of his young daughter.

Tom Hart's two-year-old daughter Rosalie was a bundle of energy: always running, exploring, and fascinated by the world around her.

But one night, when Tom went to check on her in her crib, he found her silent, still, and unbreathing. Without a sign that anything had been wrong, she had passed away in her sleep. 

This touching and beautiful graphic novel memoir tells the heartbreaking story of the untimely death of the author's young daughter, and the solace that Hart finds in nature, philosophy, literature, and art. Rosalie Lightning is a graphic masterpiece chronicling a father's undying love, and a tribute to much-missed baby girl.

Half of all people on earth have vaginas. But how much do we know about that part of our body? And why are we too shy to talk about it? 

Lili Sohn thought she knew all she needed to know about her own anatomy, but then she was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 29, and she didn’t recognize her own body. So, what is a woman anyway? What if I don’t have breasts or a uterus? You are what you feel, that’s what Sohn discovers in Vagina Love. Come along as she strays from the classical anatomical path created by a patriarchal society, and instead uses vibrant illustrations and disarming humor combined with concrete scientific facts to form an easily accessible and comprehensive guide to the reproductive anatomy of people with vaginas, from periods to menopause, from orgasms to contraceptives. 

Set in Beirut, Lebanon, a city once known to be a vibrant cultural center of the region. It's 30 years after the end of the civil war, and a few months before the disastrous explosion of August 2020. Samar, a young queer comic book artist, wanders between anguished dreams, childhood memories, romantic experiences, and Beirut’s alternative communities. This abstractly autobiographical story tells of the author's anxiety over living in a complex city of changing colors and moods. Three powerful themes: art, sex, and political uprising, are interwoven in a compelling narrative and an otherworldly color palette.

Starred Review from Kirkus Reviews. “The animated evolution of a queer boy from his strict religious upbringing to a liberated adolescence. . . . Tokyo-based couple Mann and Gatts integrate their illustrative and authorial talents in this debut graphic memoir vividly detailing Mann's coming-of-age while cloaking his burgeoning homosexual feelings.”

One of the Best Graphic Novels for Adults 2024 from the American Library Association

Lonnie's Orthodox Jewish community has always been clear: it's not okay to be gay. Growing up in a devout family and going to school at a yeshiva, he's told by his parents, his teachers, and his friends that being gay is a sin and an abomination. But as he gets older, he realizes that he likes boys, and wonders what kind of life he will be able to live. As Lonnie expands his world beyond the yeshiva to theater camp, college classes, and movie nights, he sees that the life he wants isn't compatible with the life of his parents — and his whole religious community.

This emotional graphic novel explores the fissures between identity and religion and charts Lonnie's journey from a kid who loved the rules of the Orthodox Jewish tradition to becoming increasingly independent and defiant, embracing his gay identity and developing his own chosen family.

A breathtaking and gut-wrenchingly real graphic memoir of the struggles of an adolescent girl processing the trauma of childhood sexual assault. 

An immigrant at the age of six, she arrived in a strange new world. Karina was labeled "different" immediately, and a desire to be invisible was born. The "different" label expanded to "weird" and "freak", terms that she fervently embraced. By taking society's critique, owning it, and taking pride in it, she gained power over it. In a life overshadowed by fear, Karina wanted control. If something was going to ruin her life it would be her and her alone.

One of the top ten graphic novels for Spring 2022, as chosen by Publishers Weekly

“Khan debuts with a deeply introspective, elegantly rendered graphic memoir about her experiences, faith, and family in the South Asian diaspora community of East London. . . . It's a powerful debut by a singularly penetrative and eloquent voice.” —Starred Review, Publishers Weekly

What do identity, belonging, and memory mean to one young Muslim woman and her family against a backdrop of history?

As a second-generation Pakistani immigrant living in East London, Sabba Khan paints a vivid snapshot of contemporary British Asian life and investigates the complex shifts experienced by different generations within immigrant communities, creating an uplifting and universal story that crosses borders and decades. Race, gender, and class are explored in a compelling personal narrative creating a strong feminist message of self-reflection and empowerment which is illuminated in stunning artwork.

Sivan Piatigorsky-Roth is obsessed with Princess Diana, in the specific, laser-focused way an autistic person can be. This book is an unorthodox biography of Diana Spencer told through a particular autistic and transmasculine lens, examining issues of identity and self-determination, and the mythological parallels in the lives of the royal family and the author.

Ype is a gay man living in Amsterdam with his boyfriend Nico. When asked by Nico to accompany him on a work trip to America, Ype must confront his deep fear of flying. While doing so, Ype finds he also has to come to terms with his social and sexual anxieties, his neurotic nature, and a serious case of imposter syndrome. What follows is a moving and deeply personal story, filled with humor as well as drama —surprising, honest, and unforgettable. Ype embarks on an adventure that leads him to his ultimate fantasy: being the last person on earth. Encouraged by a sentient robot vacuum cleaner called Chupi, he finds out what it really means to be true to yourself.

Once, years ago, while walking her dogs in the woods, Elizabeth found a dead body. 

Trauma can make truth hard to find. Have you ever experienced a terror, grief, or confusion so great that when you try to share it you can only find shattered images floating in darkness? You try over and over, but can’t tell the story, to yourself or to anyone else. Look Again presents us with six variations of the same event, seen through the different lenses caused by other life revelations. It explores the fragmenting nature of trauma by tracing the convoluted evolution of the author’s story, a process often experienced by trauma sufferers and their loved ones.