Since the National Book Award nominees were announced earlier this week, much has been made of the presence on the YA shortlist of Gene Luen Yang's graphic novel, American Born Chinese, which shuttles between a beloved character from Chinese folklore and a adolescent boy's coming of age until the two meet somewhere in the magical realist middle. It's a wonderful book: Yang has a masterfully simple drawing line and an excellent sense of narrative pacing—and he shows how the comics format can be used to tell stories that resonate with both younger readers and adults alike. Delfin Vigil of the San Francisco Chronicle gets a great quote from Yang about the surprise nomination: "I wrote a graphic novel comic book and didn't even think about how it would be received in the book world. I started it in 2001 when everyone was predicting the demise of comic books. This is really nice."

"A win for Yang would be almost as earth-shaking as Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer for Maus," comments Heidi MacDonald at The Beat. "Just to be a finalist is a huge accomplishment for Yang and First Second." And that's true: Keep in mind that American Born Chinese is part of just the second batch of titles from this newly launched comics wing of Holtzbrinck. But reactions from comics fans who know the YA field are guardedly enthusiastic; this year's nominees are considered to be a rather excellent batch. Will the first graphic novel ever nominated be able to hold its own against the other four contenders? We'll find out next month.