Sand Chronicles - a 10 volume collection
by Hinako Ashihara
Age appropriateness: High school aged students (sexual tryst between adults, body development)
Synopsis: Twelve year-old Ann Uekusa and her mother leave the large city of Tokyo to move to her mother's parents home in the small town of Shimane when her parents divorce. Ann initially feels stifled in a small town, and she really struggles with her grandmother's strictness and traditionalism. Soon, she makes friends and adapts to her new reality. Then, her mother commits suicide, and she leans on Daigo...a boy she met in her new town. Their romance becomes the focus of the book.
Awards: YALSA 2009 Top 10 Great Graphic Novels for Teens, 50th Shogakukan Manga Award for Sunadokei
Remember, there are 10 volumes to this series!
REAL (10 volumes available)
by Takehiko Inoue
Age appropriateness: 16 and older
Synopsis: Tomomi Nomiya is ridden with guilt when a girl on the back of his motorcycle ends up being paralyzed for life due to an accident. He quits his basketball team, and eventually even quits school. Eventually, he meets a wheelchair basketball player named Kiyoharu Tagawa, and they start playing an outdoor basketball circuit. Kiyoharu lost a leg due to cancer. Eventually in the story, a third player joins their team - the captain from Tomomi's basketball team. He was hit by a car and lost control of his legs.
Awards: YALSA 2009 Top Ten Graphic Novels for Teens
Orbital (Three volumes: Scars, Raptures, and Nomads)
by Sylivain Runberg
Age appropriateness: 12 and up
Synopsis: In the 23rd century, humans and Sandjarrs are allowed to join an intergalactic, multiracial organization set up 8,000 years before. The humans are seen as a belligerent, underdeveloped race by the other members of the organisation and have been kept out of it until now.(Synopsis courtesy of Barnes and Noble).
Teamed with an alien partner, a human tries to keep the galactic peace on behalf of an interstellar coalition that despises him. (Synopsis courtesy of ALA)
Awards: YASLA 2010 Great Graphic Novels for Teens