Her favorite color is, and always will be, yellow. If there's ever a moment when she isn't drawing she's likely to be found baking, tending to her many houseplants, or rolling twenty-sided dice.

She started drawing stick figures in second grade and somehow no one's been able to stop her. Whitney Gardner is an author, illustrator, and cartoonist living by the Salish Sea with her husband and two pugs. Now AJ has to worry about self-preservation while also trying to save everyone he cares about from a real-life threat lurking in the shadows of Spoons Middle School.

And soon enough he's got more of Nia's attention than he bargained for when he learns she's a slayer. When AJ and Nia are paired up for a group project on Transylvania, it may be AJ's chance to win over Nia's affection by dressing up like the vamp of her dreams. But how could a girl like Nia Winters ever like plain vanilla AJ when she only has eyes for vampires? So AJ decides to take matters into his own hands. He even has the same crush he's harbored for years. He hasn't grown or had any exciting summer adventures like his best friends have. It's the beginning of the new school year and AJ feels like everyone is changing but him. A Huffington Post Best Children's Book of 2018Ī middle schooler comes head-to-head with his vampire slayer crush in this laugh-out-loud funny graphic novel that's a perfect coming-of-age story for anyone who's ever felt too young, too small, or too average.

Long Distance by Whitney Gardner