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As we turn the corner on 2024, so, too, we see the publishing world slow down for its late fall/early winter slumber, too. This is less obvious in the world of fiction, but when it comes to nonfiction and comics, it is far clearer. Where often there are a dozen or more titles to share in YA nonfiction and comics each month, November and December combined bring a grand total of four new titles—all four of which are comics, though one is a graphic memoir.
Don’t let the quieter months get you down, though. These four options are excellent, and once you breeze through them, you’ll find yourself with plenty of time to catch up with comics and nonfiction published earlier this year.
Eden of Witches: Volume 1 by Yumeji
This comic is being compared to Studio Ghibli work, as it follows a world that was made barren thanks to the disregard for flora and fauna by human kind for generations. Witches, though, can still communicate with the plant world, but they’re careful about it. Humans dislike them and blame witches for the extinction in the world around them.
Pili is a young witch apprentice and out for a travel with her wolf. But she’s tired and not used to traveling such long distances. As a result, she takes a tumble. It is a boy named Bowei who finds her and promises to help her back to health.
When Bowei takes Pili home, though, she raises suspicions among the townspeople. Now she faces the reality of potential execution—a fate far worse than a little injury. How can she save herself and the world around her?
Greater Secrets by Ananth Hirsh, Tess Stone
A curse within her family means that Maya has been “blessed” with the ability to see a mysterious pillar of light in the distance. Anyone who has gone to track it down has, however, disappeared forever. So when Maya’s sister goes to track down the pillar of light she sees, she doesn’t return. It’s now up to Maya and a team of strangers to travel to the ghost town where Maya’s sister was last seen. But will this spell the end for Maya, too? It’s a strange and surreal road trip, that’s for sure.
Leap by Simina Popescu
Readers who love sports comics and dance specifically will find a lot to like in this coming-of-age LGBTQ+ look at life inside a conservative performing arts school.
Ana isn’t really into contemporary dance anymore, despite practicing since she was little. She’s instead finding herself more and more intrigued by Carina, one of her ambitious classmates. Carina is afraid of being outed, so she and Ana keep their relationship as deep in the closet and shadows as possible.
Meanwhile, Sara’s been pushed to be the best of the best in the school. That’s thanks to her mentor Marlena, who encouraged her to leave the classic ballet track and move into contemporary. But the relationship between mentor and mentee isn’t just that. There’s something more going on between Sara and Marlena.
So when Sara and Ana are assigned roommates their junior year of high school, the blossoming friendship between them becomes a crucial piece of navigating tricky relationships and situations.
Visitations by Corey Egbert (December 17)
Growing up, Corey felt safe with his mother, especially when it came to his father, from whom she was divorced. But as Corey got older, his mother became increasingly convinced that God had made Corey his sister’s protector and that their father was the devil. Then Corey’s mother moves him and his sister to the middle of the Nevada desert where they’re on the run from the police and have little to eat. Amid all of this, Corey begins to be visited by a ghost who tells him everything can be different. That he has the power to fight for better, something real, unlike the worlds constructed by his mother.
This book is inspired by Corey’s experiences in the Mormon church and is a nuanced and thoughtful look at faith, family, memory, and truth. It is a story about belief, mental health, and the sometimes liminal spaces among them all.
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