“You have to buy the books they want,” Kochel says.
When Kochel first came to Druid Hills in 2016, her library didn’t have any graphic novels. No manga. She applied for grants, got all the money she could from her PTA, and even held a fundraising concert with the Grammy Award-winning Indigo Girls. (Singer Emily Ray is from Druid Hills and her mother was a school librarian.) “We buy and buy and buy what the kids want us to buy,” says Kochel.
For Kochel, that means scary, spooky stuff, true crime, adventure, romance, and more. For Tamara Cox, a South Carolina high school librarian, it’s “mysteries, mysteries, and mysteries,” she says. “Any time I see a new mystery book, it’s pretty much an automatic order for me,” she says.
Kids love graphic novels—and that’s fine with Kochel and Cox. “Julie Stivers, the 2023 School Librarian of the…
