Buzzing (a Graphic Novel)

ALA 2025 Rainbow Book List Pick "¢ 2024 Eisner-Nominated for Best Publication for Kids "¢ A 2024 ALA Notable Children's Book "¢ New York Public Library Best Book of 2023  ★ "Heartwarming [and] authentic" "”Shelf Awareness, starred review A moving middle grade graphic novel about friendship, belonging, and learning to love yourself despite the voices in your head. Isaac Itkin can"™t get away from his thoughts. As a lonely twelve-year-old kid with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), everything from studying to looking in the mirror becomes a battle between him and a swarm of unhelpful thoughts. The strict therapy his mother insists on doesn"™t seem to be working, but when a group of friends invites him to join their after-school role-playing game, the thoughts feel a little less loud, and the world feels a little brighter. But Isaac"™s therapist says that exposure to games can have negative effects on kids with OCD, and when his grades slip, his helicopter mother won"™t let him play anymore. Now Isaac needs to find a way to prove to himself, to his mother, and to the world that the way to quiet the noise in his head may have been inside him all along.