This Month’s YA Comics and Nonfiction, September 12, 2024

Chase is 13 and a goalie for his hockey team the Eagles. He’s got good friends and a good family, but things for him are anything but as simple as they should be. He’s different from his peers, especially on the hockey team, in big part because he knows he’s gay. He worries everyone on the team knows this and that they hate him for it.

That shame has led to difficult dreams at night. He keeps seeing a bear spirit, and he knows that he should listen to what it has to say, rather than continue to hide from it (and who he really is). With the help of an Elder and a Two-Spirit mentor, Chase is going to find the strength and courage to be who he really is while understanding the ways toxic masculinity in his hockey community has made him ashamed of his true self.

Riley is a level 10 gymnast. She’s also hard of hearing and just lost her dad in a car accident, which means when her family moves, she’s struggling to reckon with the grief and to fit in. The new gymnastics gym isn’t as welcoming as she’d hoped, especially because no one knows ASL, nor does it seem like they want to learn in order to communicate with her.

Then she meets Kota, another student at the gym, and they build a quick bond. Kota does make the effort to learn ASL to connect with Riley. The problem is that both girls are Olympic hopefuls and, despite the connections they’re making, that competition might drive a wedge between them.

This one’s for readers who love sports comics, stories about mental health and grief, and the explorations of queer friendship.

Over the last few years, the stories of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls have become a topic seen more frequently in the media and in literature. In Little Moons, 13-year-old Reanna and her family are grieving the disappearance of Reanna’s older sister Chelsea. She went missing on her way home from school a year ago, and it threw the family into chaos. Reanna’s mom cannot stand to live on the reserve anymore because of how the memories are haunting her, so she moves to the big city, leaving Reanna, her little brother, and her father behind.

Reanna is, understandably, angry and confused by her mom’s decision. But it’s not just the loss of her sister and mother that’s keeping her up at night. It’s the way she knows she’s not alone, thanks to lights that turn on by themselves, things that move without being touched, and more.

Set over one night, this comic is about the ways long-term friendships change and evolve over time and when those within that friendship are on the precipice of huge change. Ty and Burger have been friends forever, and their future plans are pretty straightforward. They’re going to make a documentary about the ways humans are near extinction thanks to invading zombie squirrels (“squizzies”) and use it to apply to film school. Then, they’re going to become the most legendary filmmaking team in history. Their friends Miles and Fib will help them pull it off in one rowdy night.

There’s something else going on, though, besides the ways the squizzies will be conquering humans. Ty has a huge secret, and when it comes out, the course of the future he and Burger have planned will be altered forever.

Evan Horowitz is a star. He’s gorgeous, smart, and a mega Insta influencer in his town with a knack for matchmaking. When Natalia moves to town, Evan knows he’s got the opportunity to show off those love connection skills. There are so many potential matches for Natalia. When Evan chooses one against the advice of his best friend Davi, it might be that his own ambition becomes not only his downfall but chaos that Natalia, Davi, and others have to deal with, too.

The popular Webtoon is getting its time in print and this volume collects the first 19 episodes of the fantasy series.

Morgana is a struggling witch from a long family line of witches. Oz is an angsty vampire from a clan rivaling Morgana’s family. When the two of them meet by chance (and spell), they cannot help the connection they have. But is it safe? Can they allow each other their feelings, given their roles in the world, or will it lead to nothing but war?

Erika is weird and she’d tell you that herself. She mostly keeps to her own hobbies and interests, including obsessing over pop stars. But when she’s forced to go to a new school, her otherwise keep-to-herself attitude evolves, turning into an obsession with one of the school’s most popular boys, Christian.

Christian is super nice to Erika, despite her being a little off-putting, and he agrees to star in a play she’s written for him. For Erika, this is maybe a chance to hone her creative voice but the longer she’s working with Christian on the play, the more she’s doubting herself and wondering why he’d want to spend so much time with her. But her self-doubt has a way of working itself into and out of her play, just as much as Christian might have a bigger reason behind not only his kindness but his eagerness to star in Erika’s show.

As someone who loves all things Harlem Renaissance and who loves the work of George M. Johnson, I could not be more excited to dive into this visually-focused look at the Black queer artists, performers, and activists from this era. It’s told through 14 essays, and it is meant to be the celebration of queerness these creatives never got to openly celebrate during their lifetimes. I think I’m going to pick this one up in audio first then go back and look at the art because Johnson performs this, and their narration of their memoirs was out of this world good. 

This is a book for the teens and not for their parents. It’s a guide to surviving in difficult family situations, offering guidance and wisdom for young people. Included in the book are techniques for broaching tough conversations, setting boundaries, practice scripts, and more. If you work in a library or classroom, this is the kind of book you’ll want to make sure you have (same if you’re someone in the mental health field working with teens!).

In what is an essential read for everyone, young adult or not, this book explores American democracy and the continued fight for voting rights. This is a book that is historical and contemporary, showing that the fight for equal voting rights is still ongoing. Each chapter shows the ways people have fought back against powers trying to suppress that Constitutional right. Among the heroes highlighted are a Chinese American teenager, A Lakota Sioux Activist, a Mexican American student, Black World War II Veterans, and more. This sounds like a fantastic book to pair with the just-released Shift Happens by J. Albert Mann, as well as the previous Dyson/Favreau YA nonfiction collaboration, Unequal: A Story of America.

You can also catch this big roundup of YA books about civics from an earlier newsletter.

India lived under British colonial rule for almost 90 years, and in 1930, the country and her people were at their breaking point. That’s when Mohandas Gandhi invited a band of his followers to march from his ashram to the Arabian Sea. It was a journey of 24 days and extremely hot. When they arrived, Gandhi picked up a hand of salt and used it to send a message about the salt tax India faced from Britain—but it wasn’t just about the salt. This was the beginning of Gandhi’s nonviolent resistance to colonialism in India and his role in gaining freedom from Britain, even amid brutal attempts to stop him and his followers.

One of the tricky things about YA nonfiction that I always bring up is that it can span a wide age range. YA nonfiction might include books or authors who might otherwise fall under the middle grade umbrella, and Gail Jarrow is one of those authors. This book, which is about the rise of Spiritualism in the early 20th century and the people like Harry Houdini and Rose Mackenberg who worked hard to show the average person what was really going on and how they were being duped, is one of several Jarrow has written on compelling topics with snappy prose.

Whenever I think of the rise of Spiritualism in the US, I think about the era right before the Civil War. Jarrow’s book is about a lesser-known era of this rise in psychics and mediums and how that still has influence today. She dives deep into how those involved in tricking and deceiving the public were brought to task, including by Harry Houdini. If you’re interested in conspirituality, in grifting and hoaxes, as well as the ways people through history have tried to help differentiate real belief from those trying to make a quick buck, you’ll love this one.