Adjunct instructor Jarrett Dapier's graphic novel, Wake Now in the Fire (Ten Speed Graphic, 2026), was selected by Book Riot as one of the best books of the first half of 2026 in both graphic novels and young adult novels categories.
The book is a fictionalized account of the Chicago Public Schools' decision to remove Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel Persepolis from classrooms in 2013. For his graduate thesis at the iSchool, Dapier (MSLIS '15) interviewed teens who fought to get the ban "mostly" reversed, which ultimately grew into a graphic novel of its own, he said. The story focuses on both the inner workings of one major school system's attempt to ban a book from 600+ schools and the lives of the students involved.
Dapier told Booklist, "I thought from the outset that any story about censorship and teens has to center personal stories in order to show how everything censors object to in the books—sexual assault, depictions of violent police, LGBTQ romance and heartbreak, and so much more—is all the actual stuff of young people's lives."
In selecting the book, Book Riot described Wake Now as "such an empowering, compassionate read" that showed "super smart and complex kids dealing with personal anxieties while contending with censorship and finding ways to protest that speak to them as individuals, from writing essays to leading sit-ins."
Dapier serves as a school outreach librarian for the Niles-Maine District Library in Illinois.