COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS
2024 curated booklist
Stories told through through narrative art (illustrations and typography) with a panel layout, either as a complete story presented as a book (graphic novel) or a periodical (comic).
Heartstopper Vol. 1
Alice Oseman
Charlie, a highly-strung, openly gay over-thinker, and Nick, a cheerful, soft-hearted rugby player, meet at a British all-boys grammar school. Friendship blooms quickly, but could there be something more…?
Charlie Spring is in Year 10 at Truham Grammar School for Boys. The past year hasn’t been too great, but at least he’s not being bullied anymore. Nick Nelson is in Year 11 and on the school rugby team. He’s heard a little about Charlie – the kid who was outed last year and bullied for a few months – but he’s never had the opportunity to talk to him.
They quickly become friends, and soon Charlie is falling hard for Nick, even though he doesn’t think he has a chance. But love works in surprising ways, and sometimes good things are waiting just around the corner…
Category: Young Adult, Romance, Comic, Series
Representation: Bisexual, gay, diverse genders, diverse sexualities, lesbian, transgender
Content Warnings: Mental illness, disordered eating/eating disorder, self harm
ISBN: 9780063067776
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Messy Roots: a Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese American
Laura Gao
After spending her early years in Wuhan, China, riding water buffalos and devouring stinky tofu, Laura immigrates to Texas, where her hometown is as foreign as Mars–at least until 2020, when COVID-19 makes Wuhan a household name. In Messy Roots, Laura illustrates her coming-of-age as the girl who simply wants to make the basketball team, escape Chinese school, and figure out why girls make her heart flutter. Insightful, original, and hilarious, toggling seamlessly between past and present, China and America, Gao’s debut is a tour de force of graphic storytelling.
Category: Autobiography, Non-Fiction, Comic, Young Adult
Representation: Lesbian, diverse sexualities
Content Warnings: Racism, homophobia, religion, sexual activity
ISBN: 9780063067776
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Beetle & The Hollowbones
Aliza Layne
In the eerie town of ‘Allows, some people get to be magical sorceresses, while other people have their spirits trapped in the mall for all ghastly eternity.
Then there’s twelve-year-old goblin-witch Beetle, who’s caught in between. She’d rather skip being homeschooled completely and spend time with her best friend, Blob Glost. But the mall is getting boring, and B.G. is cursed to haunt it, tethered there by some unseen force. And now Beetle’s old best friend, Kat, is back in town for a sorcery apprenticeship with her Aunt Hollowbone. Kat is everything Beetle wants to be: beautiful, cool, great at magic, and kind of famous online. Beetle’s quickly being left in the dust.
But Kat’s mentor has set her own vile scheme in motion. If Blob Ghost doesn’t escape the mall soon, their afterlife might be coming to a very sticky end. Now, Beetle has less than a week to rescue her best ghost, encourage Kat to stand up for herself, and confront the magic she’s been avoiding for far too long. And hopefully ride a broom without crashing.
Category: Comic, Fantasy, Children, Children’s Intermediate Book
Representation: Lesbian, non-binary
Content Warnings: Violence
ISBN: 9781534441545
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Mooncakes
Wendy Xu And Suzanne Walker
A story of love and demons, family and witchcraft. Nova Huang knows more about magic than your average teen witch. She works at her grandmothers’ bookshop, where she helps them loan out spell books and investigate any supernatural occurrences in their New England town.
One fateful night, she follows reports of a white wolf into the woods and comes across the unexpected: her childhood crush, Tam Lang, battling a horse demon in the woods. As a werewolf, Tam has been wandering from place to place for years, unable to call any town home. Pursued by dark forces eager to claim the magic of wolves, and out of options, Tam turns to Nova for help. Their latent feelings are rekindled against the backdrop of witchcraft, untested magic, occult rituals, and family ties both new and old in this enchanting tale of self-discovery.
Category: Comic, Young Adult, Fantasy
Representation: Lesbian, non-binary
Content Warnings: Violence, character death, abuse
ISBN: 9781620109731
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me
Mariko Tamaki
Laura Dean, the most popular girl in high school, was Frederica Riley’s dream girl: charming, confident, and SO cute. There’s just one problem: Laura Dean is maybe not the greatest girlfriend.
Reeling from her latest break up, Freddy’s best friend, Doodle, introduces her to the Seek-Her, a mysterious medium, who leaves Freddy some cryptic parting words: break up with her. But Laura Dean keeps coming back, and as their relationship spirals further out of her control, Freddy has to wonder if it’s really Laura Dean that’s the problem. Maybe it’s Freddy, who is rapidly losing her friends, including Doodle, who needs her now more than ever.
Category: Comic, Young Adult
Representation: Lesbian, diverse sexualities, diverse genders
Content Warnings: Bullying, homophobia, substance use/abuse, sexual activity
ISBN: 9781773063638
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
The Magic Fish
Trung Le Nguyen
Tien and his mother may come from different cultures—she’s an immigrant from Vietnam still struggling with English; he’s been raised in America—but through the fairy tales he checks out from the local library, those differences are erased.
But as much as Tien’s mother’s English continues to improve as he reads her tales of love, loss, and travel across distant shores, there’s one conversation that still eludes him—how to come out to her and his father. Is there even a way to explain what he’s going through in Vietnamese? And without a way to reveal his hidden self, how will his parents ever accept him?
This beautifully illustrated graphic novel speaks to the complexity of family and how stories can bring us together even when we don’t know the words.
Category: Comic, Young Adult
Representation: Gay, BIPOC
Content Warnings: Homophobia, racism, religion, character death, abuse, violence, gore
ISBN: 9781984851598
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Lumberjanes
Shannon Watters, Grace Ellis, Gus Allen, and ND Stevenson
What’s to Love: Lumberjanes is the hit series that features five rad ladies who fight monster baddies with the power of friendship!
At Miss Qiunzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s Camp for Hardcore Lady Types, things are not what they seem.
Three-eyed foxes. Secret caves. Anagrams! Luckily, Jo, April, Mal, Molly, and Ripley are five rad, butt-kicking best pals determined to have an awesome summer together…and they’re not gonna let a magical quest or an array of supernatural critters get in their way!
Category: Comic, Series, Fantasy, Children, Children’s Intermediate Book
Representation: Gay, lesbian, transgender
Content Warnings: Violence
ISBN: 9781608866878
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Magical Boy Volume 1
The Kao
A breathtakingly imaginative fantasy series starring Max—a high schooler chosen to become the next “Magical Girl.” There’s just one catch . . . he’s a trans boy!
Although he was assigned female at birth, Max is your average trans man trying to get through high school as himself. But on top of classes, crushes, and coming out, Max’s life is turned upside down when his mom reveals an eons old family secret: he’s descended from a long line of Magical Girls tasked with defending humanity from a dark, ancient evil! With a sassy feline sidekick and loyal gang of friends by his side, can Max take on his destiny, save the world, and become the next Magical Boy? A hilarious and heartfelt riff on the magical girl genre made popular by teen manga series, Magical Boy is a one-of-a-kind fantasy series that comic readers of all ages will love.
Category: Comic, Series, Children, Children’s Intermediate Book
Representation: Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, diverse genders, diverse sexualities
Content Warnings: Abuse, discrimination, transphobia, religion
ISBN: 9781338795462
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Snapdragon
Kat Leyh
Snap’s town had a witch.
At least, that’s how the rumor goes. But in reality, Jacks is just a crocks-wearing, internet-savvy old lady who sells roadkill skeletons online―after doing a little ritual to put their spirits to rest. It’s creepy, sure, but Snap thinks it’s kind of cool, too.
They make a deal: Jacks will teach Snap how to take care of the baby opossums that Snap rescued, and Snap will help Jacks with her work. But as Snap starts to get to know Jacks, she realizes that Jacks may in fact have real magic―and a connection with Snap’s family’s past.
Category: Comic, Children, Children’s Primary School Book, Fantasy
Representation: Bisexual, lesbian, transgender, diverse sexualities, diverse genders
Content Warnings: Abuse, violence
ISBN: 9781250171115
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
The Backstagers Volume 1
James Tynion IV
All the world’s a stage . . . but what happens behind the curtain is pure magic—literally!
When Jory transfers to an all-boys private high school, he’s taken in by the only ones who don’t treat him like a new kid, the lowly stage crew known as the Backstagers. Not only does he gain great, lifetime friends, Jory is also introduced to an entire magical world that lives beyond the curtain. With the unpredictable twists and turns of the underground world, the Backstagers venture into the unknown, determined to put together the best play their high school has ever seen.
James Tynion IV (Detective Comics, The Woods) teams up with artist Rian Sygh (Munchkin, Stolen Forest) for an incredibly earnest story that explores what it means to find a place to fit in when you’re kinda an outcast.
Category: Comic, Series, Young Adult
Representation: Transgender, non-binary
Content Warnings: Abuse, bullying, character death
ISBN: 9781684153329
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)