Jules Feiffer’s first graphic novel for young readers is coming later this year.
HarperCollins will publish Feiffer’s Amazing Grapes this fall, the press announced in a news release. It describes the book as “a surreal and affecting new graphic novel for middle-grade readers that brings the fantastical to life with Feiffer’s signature style in a zany, whimsical adventure about a family on a quest to find their mother and save another dimension.”
Feiffer was a staff cartoonist at the Village Voice for more than 40 years. He is also a playwright (Little Murders, Knock Knock) and screenwriter (Carnal Knowledge, Popeye) and the author of children’s books including Meanwhile, The Daddy Mountain, and Rupert Can Dance.
In a statement, Feiffer said, “Writing for young readers connects me professionally to a part of myself that I didn’t know how to let out until I was sixty. That kid who lived a life of innocence, mixed with confusion and consternation, disappointment and dopey humor. And who drew comic strips and needed friends—and found them—in cartoons and children's books that told him what the grown-ups in his life had left out. That’s what reading did for me when I was a kid. Now I try to return the favor.”
HarperCollins also announced that in June it will celebrate the 25th anniversary of Bark, George, Feiffer’s children’s book that spawned a 2020 sequel, Smart George.
Amazing Grapes is scheduled for publication on Sept. 24.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
