Art-Centered Books for the Teen Winter Challenge

The Teen Winter Challenge is here! Chicago high school students between the ages of 13 and 19 can submit their work for the chance to win a cash prize and participate in an exhibition. Submitted pieces will also be published in a zine, and the library is hosting programs across the city to help you prepare your work for the challenge.

It’s important for artists to take breaks! Give your body a rest but keep your mind focused on the challenge by reading these art-centered books and comics.

Yatora is spending his high school years going through the motions, and he has no plan for his future – until he sees a giant oil painting in the art room that moves him deeply. Blue Period follows Yatora through high school, college exams and on to art school as he works and overworks himself to chase the feelings of passion and awe that first led him to art. Tsubasa Yamaguchi showcases several fellow artists in the manga, inserting their work as various characters’ pieces and citing the real creators in the margins.

At the Wildwood Motel in Indiana, something is wrong with Room 9. Mira and Layla’s college road trip should be a distraction – for Mira, from her grief over losing her brother, and for Layla, from her feelings for Mira. When the girls are stranded in Wildwood, staying in Room 9 is the only option. The room’s strange energy begins to stick to Mira, exacerbating her grief. Perhaps they can resolve whatever’s happening with Room 9 – they just have to do it before it claims Mira. A Guide to the Dark brings Layla’s photography to life, juxtaposing photos with the text to enhance the book’s eerie atmosphere.

Prolific author Daniel José Older’s debut teen novel, Shadowshaper, brought street art to life in a lush urban fantasy setting. Sierra Santiago’s summer project is a massive mural on the side of an abandoned building, and she plans to take her time with it – until her grandfather desperately and ominously urges her to hurry. When Sierra is attacked by a corpse-like creature she finally learns the truth: she’s a shadowshaper, capable of wielding art and channeling spirits to defend her family and her culture.

Goodbye, Eri is about a lot of things: grief, complex family dynamics, teen relationships, and, importantly, film! Yuta’s mother passed away after a long illness. When he screens a documentary about her life Yuta shocks his classmates by tacking on a wild, unrealistic ending. Only one student loves it – Eri, a strange girl who obscures the truth about herself while goading Yuta into making another movie. Fujimoto balances this meditation on grief with outrageous humor, all while expressing love for the medium of film.

In this gut-wrenching novel-in-verse co-authored by one of the Exonerated Five, poet and artist Amal Shahid suffers unjust consequences for a crime he didn’t commit. Accused of assault and battery, Amal is sent to a juvenile detention center. There, he struggles to stay mentally healthy while suffering through the horrors of incarceration, including solitary confinement. In Punching the Air, Zoboi and Salaam emphasize the lifesaving power of art by presenting beautiful, abstract and emotional paintings alongside the book’s poetry.