A quick and sweet supernatural romance.
A fluffy, feel-good story about a witch and a guitarist who cross paths and make sparks fly. Literally.
Margot Grapes is a witch who just can’t seem to pass the exam to obtain her spell license. Until then she’s stuck making potions to earn a living. On the day she fails the test yet again, Margot, in need of cheering up, goes with her snake familiar, Stanley, to buy some chocolate doughnuts. But moments before their arrival, all the chocolate ones were dropped on the floor by shop employee Elena Rogers, who is a punk rock guitarist in the band Bird!Bird!Bird! Feeling frustrated, Margot wreaks havoc in the doughnut shop and accidentally curses Elena. Feeling guilty, Margot tries to make amends, but the curse, which manifests as an electrical charge, just won’t let up. The two grow closer as Elena and Margot work together to mitigate the curse’s effects and try to avoid the wrath of Katie Banks, a senior witch from the local witch hub who is looking to ban Margot. Lorinczi’s whimsical illustration style and pastel blue-and-pink color scheme give this adventure a light and cozy feel, fitting the book’s low-stakes, slice-of-life storyline. Readers may find themselves wanting more, as the story concludes a bit abruptly. Most characters read White.
A quick and sweet supernatural romance. (Graphic fantasy. 12-17)Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-60309-513-6
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
A timely and well-paced story of personal discovery.
Time travel brings a girl closer to someone she’s never known.
Sixteen-year-old Kiku, who is Japanese and white, only knows bits and pieces of her family history. While on a trip with her mother to San Francisco from their Seattle home, they search for her grandmother’s childhood home. While waiting for her mother, who goes inside to explore the mall now standing there, a mysterious fog envelops Kiku and displaces her to a theater in the past where a girl is playing the violin. The gifted musician is Ernestina Teranishi, who Kiku later confirms is her late grandmother. To Kiku’s dismay, the fog continues to transport her, eventually dropping her down next door to Ernestina’s family in a World War II Japanese American internment camp. The clean illustrations in soothing browns and blues convey the characters’ intense emotions. Hughes takes inspiration from her own family’s story, deftly balancing complicated national history with explorations of cultural dislocation and biracial identity. As Kiku processes her experiences, Hughes draws parallels to President Donald Trump’s Muslim ban and the incarceration of migrant children. The emotional connection between Kiku and her grandmother is underdeveloped; despite their being neighbors, Ernestina appears briefly and feels elusive to both Kiku and readers up to the very end. Despite some loose ends, readers will gain insights to the Japanese American incarceration and feel called to activism.
A timely and well-paced story of personal discovery. (photographs, author’s note, glossary, further reading) (Graphic historical fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-19353-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
Equal parts entertaining and thought-provoking.
Sixteen-year-old Mandy considers herself the anti-Starfire: Unlike her scantily clad superhero mother, she doesn’t have superpowers, can’t fly, and doesn’t even own a bathing suit.
Mandy dyes her hair and dresses in all black to further call out how different they are. Mandy’s best friend, Lincoln, whose parents were born in Vietnam, insightfully summarizes this rift as being down to an intergenerational divide that occurs whether parents and children come from different countries or different planets. Mandy tries to figure out what kind of future she wants for herself as she struggles with teenage insecurities and bullying, her relationship with her mom, and her budding friendship (or is it something more?) with her new class project partner, Claire. Yoshitani’s vibrant and colorful stylized illustrations beautifully meld the various iterations of Starfire and the Titans with the live-action versions of those characters. Together with Tamaki’s punchy writing, this coming-of-age story of identity, family, friendship, and saving the world is skillfully brought to life in a quick but nuanced read. These layers are most strongly displayed as the story draws parallels between cultural differences between the generations as evidenced in how the characters address bullying, body positivity, fatphobia, fetishization and sexualization, and feminism. This title addresses many important concepts briefly, but well, with great pacing, bold art, and concise and snappy dialogue. The cast is broadly diverse in both primary and secondary characters.
Equal parts entertaining and thought-provoking. (Graphic fantasy. 14-16)Pub Date: July 27, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-77950-126-4
Page Count: 184
Publisher: DC
Review Posted Online: Aug. 10, 2021
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