Defining Monsters, Comics Upon Comics, and More YA Book Talk: May 20, 2024

This series follows a young man growing up in a volatile Taiwan, and it’s inspired by the author’s own experiences. In this volume, Kun-lin is finally released from being imprisoned at Green Island for 10 years and he’s hoping to rebuild his life. He hopes to become an editor and moves around several institutions before seeing how censorship is impacting the lives of friends and colleagues. He decides to start his own children’s magazine and hire his friends. It seems good and well.

Fast-forward 40 years, and Kun-lin meets Yu Pei-Yun while working at White Terror Memorial Park, where he provides education about human rights. Kun-lin has been working with fellow survivors following the end of martial law, but the meeting with Yu gives him an opportunity to understand, revisit, and try to work through the trauma, pain, and tumultuous life he has lived.

If you haven’t read the first title in this series, you can grab The Boy From Clearwater, Book One for $2 (I can’t guarantee by the time you read this it’ll be on sale, but give it a shot!).

Also shared in the roundup of YA nonfiction for May, this collection contains 25 different stories of trans and nonbinary folks who’ve elected to bind in an act of gender affirmation. In addition to the personal stories, Kobabe and Dr. Peitzmeier include research and resources to make this an accessible—and necessary—guide for young people.

This is the sequel to Welcome to St. Hell and it follows what happens after Lew comes to understand he is a guy and wants to live life as a guy. It’s about all of the changes that happen after making such a powerful and affirming discovery, not only in terms of bodily and cognitive perspectives but also in the relationships throughout his life.

There are so few books written from the perspective of animals once you’re no longer reading picture books or early readers. This comic, however, brings the world of animals into the hands of teen readers.

A dog named Simon, along with his best friends a raccoon and a deer, live in a barren and ransacked backyard, fighting to find any scrap of food they can. They’re living in hope of garbage night, but it never comes. So when they hear of another town where humans have all relocated, the trio is off to find it.

They meet several other animals on their journey but something feels off. What is happening in the world around them with fellow animals…and with the humans upon which they’ve come to depend?

The Hotelitor is exactly as advertised in the title: a luxury-class spacecraft for visitors. But when it’s brutally attacked by aliens, its entry-level staff (aka many teenagers!) are stranded in space. Anna Greene is 18 and takes charge, hoping to find resolution and safety for herself and fellow low-level employees. She and her crew are far from prepared to handle what’s happening not only in space outside the Hotelitor, but also what’s happening inside with greedy VIPs and more.

Don is the best fighter at Benjamin Harrison High School. But then he’s put in the ring with Sam Steadman from Lincoln High. The two fall for one another and fast.

The problem? They both have terrifying ex-partners. The two of them will have to fight through a pile of scary opponents in order to be with one another.

This sounds a little like a fun take on Scott Pilgrim.

Maelstrom is the demon prince of an evil tyrant. Twigs has been prophesized to fight Maelstrom in order to truly earn his title as Hero of Virtue.

Unfortunately for Twigs, Maelstrom’s mother is a necromancer and does not want to give up the throne she believes is hers. Maelstrom decides he isn’t standing for it and teams up with Twigs in an unexpected twist to take down his mother.

Except…can or should Twigs trust Maelstrom? Should Maelstrom trust his own instincts?

This one is being pitched for fans of Nimona and The Adventure Zone.

For readers who feel alone in their fandom and/or experiences coming into themselves, this comic is going to resonate strongly. It follows Rotem, who is a huge fan of the Sunrise books and movies. She’s especially obsessed with the love interest Edmund in the series (y’all are laughing, too, right? Sunrise/Edmund like Twilight/Edward). She feels like no one else gets it because, well, no one else seems to understand her obsession.

Enter Ayala, a quiet girl in Rotem’s class who loves books and is equally obsessed with Sunrise and Edmund. But as the two of them become closer to one another, bonding over the series, Rotem begins to wonder if there’s something else drawing them together…and if it’s the Sunrise series at all.

Chihiro is a 16-year-old samurai and it’s not easy. Her father has built a reputation as a samurai but Chihiro has built one instead on being obsessed with Tatsuo Nakano, the first female samurai to be accepted into an elite school.

Then Chihiro’s father is conscripted and she is given the opportunity to work alongside Tatsuo because her father no longer can, Chihiro sees it as a chance to learn from the best and secure her own spot in the elite samurai school.

But as they say, never meet your heroes (who says that anyway?). Tatsuo is not like Chihiro has built her up to be. She’s foul-mouthed with a quick temper and more, she’s turned her back on the samurai way, working instead as a ronin for hire. The two of them could not be more different but because they have to work together, it might be that they find far more common ground–and an opportunity to work through challenges, including grief–than difference.

This is getting compared to Nimona as well, and it’s also been compared to Attack on Titan.

Despite its storied history of magic and knights at the Round Table, Britain is now home only to three witches: Young Hag, her mother, and her grandmother, Ancient Crone. Grandmother has told Young Hag stories of the legends of yore, and Young Hag has grown up believing in curses, in spells, and in her own magic. But when something tragic happens to her grandmother, Young Hag decides to give up magic altogether. It hasn’t actually helped her yet.

When a changeling baby is found in the woods, Young Hag is confronted with magic yet again. Maybe she can’t ignore it or turn her back on it. Maybe she’s meant to set out on a quest to bring it back to Britain more broadly.

So now she’s going to do just that. But can she face the challenges of bringing lore and legend back to a whole country? She’ll have to work hard to believe in herself and in magic itself.