Samuel Sattin & Rye Hickman
Buzzing
(Little, Brown Books For Young Readers, July 2023)
One of the American Library Association (ALA) Notable Children’s Books of 2024
Named a New York Public Library Best Book of 2023
Read The Starred Review of Buzzing on Shelf Awareness
One of Amazon’s Best Books of the Month: Ages 9-12
Read The Publishers Weekly Review of Buzzing
Featured in The School Library Journal
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.
Praise For Buzzing
“A wonderful geek-friendly found-family story.”
— School Library Journal
“Buzzing blooms with insight, inspiration, and compassion.”
— Shelf Awareness, starred review
“There are lots of graphic novels about kids experiencing anxiety or intrusive thoughts, but not many featuring boys, which makes this stand out. Hand to kids who related to Lee Durfey-Lavoie and Veronica Agarwal’s Just Roll with It (2021) or Kathryn Ormsbee and Molly Brook’s Growing Pangs (2022).”
— Booklist
“A cleverly rendered interpretation of OCD embedded in a wholesome graphic novel drama.”
— Publishers Weekly
“A nuanced and diverse coming-of-age story.”
— Maia Kobabe, author of Gender Queer: A Memoir
“A positive, sympathetic introduction to living with OCD, with appeal for readers who have the same diagnosis as well as those who do not…An original exploration of living with mental illness.”
— Kirkus Reviews
Read The School Library Journal Review of Buzzing
Featured in Publishers Weekly‘s “Spring 2023 Announcements: Middle Grade Comics & Graphic Novels”
Read The Kirkus Reviews Review of Buzzing
Samuel Sattin is a writer and coffee addict. In May of 2022, he launched a Kickstarter with the artist team Gurihiru for Unico: Awakening, in coordination with Tezuka Productions in Japan. He is also the writer of forthcoming books, including Buzzing (Little Brown for Young Readers, Spring 2023), Side Quest (Harper Collins, 2024), and both The Essential Anime Guide and A Kid’s Guide to Anime and Manga, co-written with Patrick Macias (Running Press, Fall 2023). He adapted the Academy Award Nominated Cartoon Saloon Irish Folklore Trilogy Wolf Walkers, Song of the Sea and The Secret of Kells to graphic novel format, has written screenplays for PBS Kids, and previously wrote books such as Bezkamp, Legend, and The Silent End. His non-fiction has appeared or been featured in The Nib, NPR, and elsewhere. He graduated with an MFA in Comics from California College of the Arts and a Creative Writing MFA from Mills College, freelances in animation development, and works as a studio writer for Schulz Creative Associates, AKA: Snoopy Central. He currently resides in Northern California.
Rye Hickman is an illustrator/comic artist, and co-creator of Lonely Receiver, Moth & Whisper, The Dead, Test, artist on SFSX and colourist on The House, Feathers, Kingdom Bum. They are a graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design’s Sequential Art program.