Trek Afar With These 6 Transportive Graphic Novels and Memoirs About Travel

Among the copious things I love about graphic novels and memoirs, I especially adore how transportive they can be. While reading other texts, my brain works a little, or a lot, to imagine the story unfolding, people interacting, facial expressions, hair styles, the living room setup, and the day-to-day appearance of the sky. With images featured from beginning to end, I can relax a smidge more than I do with other formats. It feels like an art museum delivered to my hands. I amble from page to page, my eyes traveling from text to artwork, on a bit of a brain vacation. Just one of many reasons my cache of comfort reads includes so many graphic novels.

After marathon reading some lovely, sprawling historical fiction, I yearned for a book holiday, and that all of these titles explore vacation was an added bonus. As summer comes to an end, life can get serious. You may seem tied to your responsibilities, even with those inspiring fresh notebook and new pen sensations that arise as the -ber months approach. If you need a quick escape, I’ve compiled six graphic novels and memoirs, consisting of travelogues, romance, and coming-of-age stories, to transport you.

The American Dream?: A Journey on Route 66 Discovering Dinosaur Statues, Muffler Men, and the Perfect Breakfast Burrito by Shing Yin Khor

After residing in Los Angeles for 10 years, four as a U.S. citizen, Khor, who grew up in a touristy locale of Malaysia, chases their dream of driving Route 66. On a tight budget, they—with their tiny terrier, Bug—navigate a Honda Fit eastward. Starting at California’s corner of Lincoln and Olympic and ending in Chicago, they camp along the legendary highway and take small detours to reunite with beloveds and sleep somewhere more comfortable than the back of a compact car or a mud-slathered tent. I keep returning to the stunning watercolors of Blue Mesa’s expansive night sky in the Petrified Forest National Park, to poignant passage after passage in this moving travel narrative. A favorite: “My heart has always existed in pieces, between continents and countries and states and borders, and trails I’ve walked and roads I’ve driven. Perhaps that is actually perfectly acceptable. Maybe ‘home’ doesn’t matter.”

¡Ay, Mija!: My Bilingual Summer in Mexico by Christine Suggs

In this sweet graphic memoir about family, language, and belonging, Christine travels from Texas to Mexico City to stay with their grandparents for two weeks before their mother joins them during the summer before 11th grade. In black, white, and shades of blue and brown, the captivating drawings entail floor plans, maps, and illustrations from the 16-year-old’s sketchbook as well as their time with family, eating elaborate meals, dozing off on the couch, and voyaging to their El Ciervo country home and popular locations like Chapultepec. We even get a glimpse of Christine’s cherished places: a tree in their grandmother’s garden nicknamed “mi casita” where they draw until their hand hurts, and the shower with the “always open” window that lets in birdsong.

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French Milk by Lucy Knisley

Set during the author’s 22nd birthday, this heartwarming travelogue follows a mother and daughter in France as they spend six weeks together in a unique apartment rental. With occasional cigarettes and constant pastries, the two tour art museums, cemeteries, markets, and eateries. This brims with exactly what I would want to remember from my own journeys: the books finished, dishes devoured, grocery items and souvenirs purchased, places wandered alongside observations. Accompanied by photographs, readers witness the nagging guilt of being sad in Paris, Knisley adding a kiss to Oscar Wilde’s lipstick-adorned grave at Père-Lachaise, falling in love with fondant, and the beautiful intimacy of shared moments: “Every time we opened the umbrella, it stopped raining.”

Heartstopper, Volume 3 by Alice Oseman

In the third installment of Oseman’s iconic graphic novel series, the Year 10 and 11 teenagers from Truham and Harvey Greene Grammar Schools visit Paris for six nights and seven days on a school trip, sleeping four to a room. While they confront their bullies, express their feelings, and deepen their relationships, we learn more about Charlie and Nick’s loveable friend group. Following them on their adventures through France—Montmartre, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and Shakespeare and Company, this touching meditation on awe, fear, and trust swarmed my heart with delight.

It Won’t Always Be Like This by Malaka Gharib

Delving into expectations, hope, and rebellion, this tender nonfiction title reflects on Malaka’s summers with her father and their blended family in Egypt and, later, Qatar. During Gharib’s first summer abroad, they, along with her new stepmother, dwell in a beach villa at the Sinai hotel her father manages. Through buffets, swimming pool sessions, and pop song English lessons, Malaka and Hala bond. As the living spaces change from a Cairo suburb to their Doha home with jaunts elsewhere, a coastal town in Alexandria, and a tense road trip to El Arish, Malaka’s diaries and music remain constant companions.

Roaming by Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki

In this bittersweet graphic novel examining adventure, friendship, and growing up, the Tamaki cousins of This One Summer and Skim fame reunite for a spring break rendezvous in New York between longtime besties Dani and Zoe. For five days, they and Dani’s new friend Fiona, a fellow art student familiar with the city, see Times Square, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Flatiron Building, and Coney Island. No matter the hour of day, no matter the changing mood, the color palette—black, white, lavender, and apricot—imbues the trip with a constancy. The hues remind me of dusk, of how we remember a moment, or a time, in a certain light, and it brings back such a precise impression.

If you crave additional books centering on travel, peruse these graphic novels and memoirs featuring road trips, a diverse list of travel memoirs, and the best beach reads.

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