A magical story that both haunts and enchants.
To cousins Maisie, Verona, and Joel, Mockingtown, Texas, is an ordinary small town—except for the lurking ghosts and other unexplained phenomena.
The Lipan Apache Moreno cousins, who are growing up in the Sunny Park mobile home community, feel powerless after Maisie’s best friend, Mara, dies and they lose their cousin Connor to a wrongful conviction for voluntary manslaughter. When Owl, a winged boy who’s the son of Big Owl, the legendary “father of birds,” cryptically warns Maisie about a tragedy that will befall people close to her, she vows to prevent it. Podcasters are nosing around Sunny Park, trying to find out more about Connor. But Maisie and Verona are sharing a house-sitting job at an apparently haunted horse ranch, while Joel’s days are full looking after foster kittens at their Grandma and Great-Aunt Fran’s house—and complicated by a shapeshifting feline. This coming-of-age tale follows the cousins on a quest that will both challenge and define them. It unfolds in a creative mixed-media format: Little Badger (Lipan Apache) seamlessly interweaves third-person narration with the leads’ first-person chapters, which are printed on ruled notebook pages, and Rajunov’s artful full-color comic panels. The gorgeous, multicolored palette of the book’s pages evokes the Southwest Texas setting. Genre-defying, fantastical, and imbued with deeply human realism, this narrative is grounded in the vulnerability, resiliency, and bravery of young people as they overcome hardship and right historical, generational, and systemic wrongs.
A magical story that both haunts and enchants. (Fantasy mystery. 12-18)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9781646145683
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Levine Querido
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
In addition to the supernatural elements, Brosgol interweaves some savvy insights about the illusion of perfection and...
A deliciously creepy page-turning gem from first-time writer and illustrator Brosgol finds brooding teenager Anya trying to escape the past—both her own and the ghost haunting her.
Anya feels out of place at her preppy private school; embarrassed by her Russian heritage, she has worked hard to lose her accent and to look more like everyone else. After a particularly frustrating morning at the bus stop, Anya storms off, only to accidentally fall down a well. Down in the dark hole, she meets Emily, a ghost who claims to be a murder victim trapped down in the dank abyss for 90 years. With Emily’s help, Anya manages to escape, though once free, she learns that Emily has traveled out with her. At first, Emily seems like the perfect friend; however, once her motives become clear, Anya learns that “perfect” may only be an illusion. A moodily atmospheric spectrum of grays washes over the clean, tidy panels, setting a distinct stage before the first words appear. Brosgol’s tight storytelling invokes the chilling feeling of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline (2002), though for a decidedly older set.
In addition to the supernatural elements, Brosgol interweaves some savvy insights about the illusion of perfection and outward appearance. (Graphic supernatural fiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: June 7, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59643-552-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2011
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.
After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.
Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250868138
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
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