My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris

In this debut, which takes the form of a fictional graphic diary, a 10-year-old girl tries to solve a murder.

2025 Whiting Award WINNER in Fiction

Kirkus Reviews Best 100 Books of the Century (So Far)

Set against the tumultuous political backdrop of late ’60s Chicago, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is the fictional graphic diary of 10-year-old Karen Reyes, filled with B-movie horror and pulp monster magazines iconography. Karen Reyes tries to solve the murder of her enigmatic upstairs neighbor, Anka Silverberg, a holocaust survivor, while the interconnected stories of those around her unfold. When Karen’s investigation takes us back to Anka’s life in Nazi Germany, the reader discovers how the personal, the political, the past, and the present converge.

Full-color illustrations throughout.