Safer Places

Gr 9 Up–In this transformative and imaginative anthology, Anderson takes readers on a journey unlike any other, exploring mundane thoughts, feelings, and experiences, and transforming them into something otherworldly and meaningful. This graphic novel follows a variety of different characters and their stories, including a sniffing forest wizard with magical thread, a boy and his cat, a world where people become flowers, and many other narratives that feature characters dealing with their changing selves, environments, and feelings. A wide array of art styles makes each story stand apart, such as red pencil drawings that take up the whole page, single-colored panels, or comics that seemingly use mixed media, such as paint and colored pencils. Anderson creatively weaves heavy themes such as grief, depression, separation, solidarity, and illness into stories about real people, creating a graphic novel that will touch all kinds of readers in many aspects and junctures of their lives.