Alison Halsall, associate professor in the Department of Humanities, has received the Honor Book Award in 2025 Children’s Literature Association Book Awards for Growing Up Graphic: The Comics of Children in Crisis. The award recognizes outstanding book-length contributions to children's literature scholarship and criticism. Halsall’s widely praised book is a monograph of comics that depict difficult experiences affecting young people, including the complexities of queer graphic memoirs and narratives of belonging, illness, disability and Indigenous experiences. Pat Lawrence from Children's Literature Association Quarterly said, “Halsall seeks to enrich comics scholarship by bringing to it a deep understanding of childhood’s many narrative and political entanglements—a task that is timely and compelling. The book provides a wealth of insights and opportunities to continue the conversation, and in this way, it can be the foundation for many fruitful investigations into children’s culture and graphic narrative to come.”
Halsall received her PhD from York University. Her research interests include arts and culture, children and youth, social justice narratives, comics and graphic narratives, LGBTQ+ and Taylor Swift.
Learn more about the book on the Ohio State University Press website.