Young folks’ identity quests, detailed in graphic novels

It’s one of the most fundamental stories there is. A young person, yearning for more, goes on a quest and finishes that journey older, wiser, more accomplished — and with a new sense of life’s richness and possibility. And what better format for these tales of self-definition than the graphic novel, entwining words and pictures to capture the essence of lessons learned, victories won … and kooky Mexican toys?

“Mexikid” by Pedro Martin.

(Ages 10 through 14. Dial Books for Young Readers. $14.99 paperback.)

There are dream vacations, and then there’s the one Peter (or, sometimes, Pedro) ends up on: an epic road trip, with his parents and eight siblings, heading from California to Mexico in the late 1970s to collect his grandfather and bring him home to live with them.

There is so much in Pedro Martin’s graphic memoir — it’s as packed as the family’s RV, filled with jokes, history, and notes on daily life and culture for a kid who manages to “slip and slide between an American-style name and a Mexican one,” as Peter/ Pedro tries to figure out his own in-between identity.

We meet his abuelo — an epic figure from the Mexican Revolution — and a huge cast of cousins, aunts, uncles, friends and neighbors. The story swerves from the excitement of knockoff Mexican toys (“Mexican ingenuity + no oversight = fun!”) to sibling torment to ill-advised haircuts, and into questions of identity, connection, love and endurance — as the family deals with the painful task of relocating Abuela’s grave and helping Abuelo start a new chapter.

As one sibling says, it seems “like we all got older on this trip” — in a good way, as they learn they could handle more than they’d ever imagined, and as Pedro finds his “true, 100% authentic, somewhat mostly Mexican self.”

“Hoops” by Matt Tavares.

(Ages 8 through 12. Candlewick Press. $22.99.)

It’s a Friday night in Wilkins, Indiana, and some things never change: Fans pack the stands for a basketball game, with boys on the court and girls on the sidelines, cheering. “Someday that’ll be us out there,” one girl says to another, looking at the cheerleaders … but her friend has a different vision. When senior year arrives in 1976, something new happens: A girls’ basketball team is created, finally giving Judi and a handful of other pioneering players the chance they’ve dreamed of.

Inspired by the true story of a championship team that started with only hope and talent, “Hoops” follows the battle of Judi, Cindy, Lisa and their teammates — shut out of the high school gym, carpooling to games because no bus will take them, making their own uniforms from T-shirts with numbers made from electrical tape.

It’s a personal story, as Judi tries to explain her dreams with friends who don’t understand — but also a universal tale of underdogs scratching their way to a state championship and to the grudging respect of those who had dismissed them.

Judi’s quest ends at a storied fieldhouse hosting the finals, but of course that end launches the stories of succeeding generations of players, even in Wilkins, where things (almost) never change.

“Enlightened” by Sachi Ediriweera.

(Ages 12 and up. Atheneum Books for Young Readers. $13.99 paperback.)

The story opens with young Siddhartha playing marbles, savoring a taste of a normal childhood — then crashing against the fact that he is a sheltered prince, forbidden from leaving the palace grounds to experience the real world.

“I don’t want you to suffer, my son,” his father, the king, tells him. “Please try to understand.”

That need to understand the world, and why people suffer, however, drives Siddhartha to leave his family and begin a quest for meaning — through poverty, hunger, meditation and endless questioning. This is, of course, the foundation story of Buddhism, but it’s also a profoundly human story of curiosity, guilt and longing.

Author/illustrator Sachi Ediriweera does a beautiful job of illuminating Siddhartha’s personal struggles, but he also uses swirling, twining illustrations to bring life to abstract ideas about desire, suffering and Buddhism’s eightfold path. As Siddhartha’s journey to enlightenment ends, his quest begins again as he ponders “those whom I left behind” and realizes, “I could show them the way.”