Shuster award-winning cartoonist Scott Chantler’s YA graphic novel The Captive Prince is a charming and accomplished third instalment in a series about three thieves on the run in a medieval fantasy world where humans coexist with both giant and elf-ish races. The story is told primarily from the viewpoint of Dessa, a teenaged acrobat who has literally run away from the circus with her friends Topper and Fisk, searching for her lost twin brother and staying one step ahead of the Queen’s Dragoons.
In this book, the trio rescue a kidnapped prince called Paladin, who insists that they stay as his guests at the castle. His father, the king, is not so welcoming. Dessa finds herself the object of Paladin’s affection, endangering an alliance with another kingdom; meanwhile her pursuers are closing in. The Captive Prince is a solid adventure story, well-suited to Chantler’s clear compositions and strong character design skills.
Binky Takes Charge is an endearing graphic novel for young readers about a cat that is secretly a lieutenant in the space program – which, for cats, means the space outside the house. Binky is expecting a new recruit to arrive soon and is prepared to instruct the new kitten in everything he or she needs to know to survive in the house and yard. Binky is surprised, then, when the new recruit turns out to be a puppy; and being such, apparently unteachable. 
This is a very clever YA graphic novel by Jane Yolen and Mike Cavallero, the second in a series about a teenaged fencing prodigy called Aliera Carstairs. Aliera discovers that her finding skill is no accident; she is the Defender of Faerie, and her lab partner Avery is a troll sworn to protect her. 
I had the pleasure of reading an advance copy of Bigfoot Boy: Into the Woods by 
Sheridan alumnus Vera Brosgol hits a home run with her debut YA graphic novel Anya’s Ghost, about a teenaged Russian immigrant who has worked hard to assimilate but still feels like an outsider. Anya discovers that things could be much worse when she falls down a hole in a field and lands next to the long-lost remains of Emily, a girl who died under sinister circumstances during World War I. Emily’s ghost haunts the skeleton, unable to stray far from it, but when Anya is rescued she accidentally sweeps one of Emily’s small finger-bones into her backpack and brings Emily with her. Not surprisingly, Emily does not want to go back, so she promises to help Anya with her problems, fetching answers for tests and finding out how to attract a certain boy. The more Emily does, however, the more Anya starts to suspect that Emily is not as helpful as she appears.
