There are two sides to every story, and award-winning author Gene Luen Yang has gracefully captured that truth in his graphic novel accounts of the Boxers (First Second, $18.99) and the Saints (First Second, $15.99), also available as a boxed set (First Second, $34.99) that is a finalist for the National Book Award. Led by Little Bao, the Boxers are fed up with foreign missionaries and the violence that has rocked the Chinese countryside. To battle Western forces, Little Bao calls on ancient Chinese gods and recruits and trains Chinese men in Kung Fu. In Saints, young, rejected Four-girl, the fourth daughter in her family (four being a number which is synonymous with death), is desperate to find a place to belong. Eventually she does with the Saints, who even christen her with a proper name. These riveting stories of the Boxer Rebellion show that history is never as straightforward as textbooks make it seem. Ages 15 and up. KLP