Ellen T. Crenshaw is a cartoonist and illustrator for books, editorial, advertising, comics, and children’s media. Her work appears in Beer Advocate Magazine and The Nib, and her other books include Test Your Baby and Test Your Toddler’s IQ (both written by Rachel Federman). Kiss Number 8 is her first graphic novel. In Kiss Number 8 (First Second), nominated for a National Book Award in Young People’s Literature, Colleen AF Venable and Ellen Crenshaw tell Mads’ story. She’s pretty happy with her life. She goes to church with her family, and minor league baseball games with her dad. She goofs off with her best friend Cat, and has thus far managed to avoid getting kissed by Adam, the boy next door. It’s everything she hoped high school would be… until all of a sudden, it’s not. Her dad is hiding something big―so big it could tear her family apart. And then Mads is starting to figure out that she doesn’t want to kiss Adam… because the only person she wants to kiss is Cat. In a starred review, Kirkus called Kiss Number 8 “a story of family and friendship and love in all its forms, perfect for the graphic novel format and elevated by the combined art and narrative…the characters shine, fully human and permitted to be flawed. Hope prevails. A rare blend of tender and revolutionary.”
