I've been following Madeline McGrane's work for several years, enjoying the Little Vampire comics via zines and tumblr posts. I was extremely excited when this book was announced! I read it all in one day, and enjoyed it, but I have different feelings about it than my pure delight over the mini-comics that it grew out of.

The story opens with vampire friends Dragoslava, Eztli and Quintus hanging in a graveyard, enjoying the vibes of fall. Then Drago receives an ominous missive: someone has stolen a spell book from a witch he is indentured to. She demands he retrieves it or there will be consequences. So the three undead children set out towards the little Michigan town of Baneberry Falls. There they encounter a grown up vampire and her witch girlfriend, who end up taking the trio under their wing. The mini-comics often just tell quiet, introspective slice-of-life moments of this queer found family going about their day. The graphic novel, to add excitement, throws in a vampire hunter and a few cursed items. I understand that a book for young readers should probably include some excitement and plot, but part of me wished the book was really just about Dragoslava quietly learning to handle their periods of melancholy and beginning to release their feelings of martyrdom and abandonment to enjoy the simple pleasures of warm blood and friendship. As odd as this may sound, I sort of wish the book had... less plot?

All that said, the art is very gorgeous, and I did love seeing these characters in full color (the mini-comics were in black and white). It seems like there will be a second book in this series, so I will look forward to it, hoping for some more slice-of-life scenes in the sequel.

The story of a trans man who grew up deeply closeted in Texas, didn't even really learn about the LGBT community until college, and eventually came out publicly after graduating from undergrad. Along the way he experienced periods of joyful friendship and periods of depression, and found community volunteering for the organization formerly known as The Harry Potter Alliance (now FandomForward.org). Jackson was ran their youtube series as a volunteer before being hired fulltime as part of their social media team, so when he did come out, he had to do so publicly to his followers as well as to his friends and family. I listened to the audiobook read by the author which is only about 6 hours. It's written in an accessible style and the story moves fairly quickly.

Twelve-year-old Shaheen's father loves vinyl records and she's tired of hearing about it. When he mysteriously disappears, she and her fifteen year old cousin Naz naturally look for him at his favorite record store. They find his broken glasses and a mysterious jukebox, which has the power to transport people to the back in time. Shaheen and Naz visit several important moments in Black American music history, searching for Shaheen's father. The art in this book is very lovely, but the story didn't quite land for me. It's a good concept, but I think the time travel took up so much page time I never felt like I really got to know any of the characters well.

Beautifully written, beautifully drawn, this comic tells the story of Mei, a Chinese-American girl who works as a cook in a logging camp in the Sierra Nevadas in the 1880s. Her and her father's skills in the kitchen are prized, but Chinese works are severely discriminated against. Mei focuses on her friendship with the camp foreman's daughter and a series of tall tales she weaves at campfires about Auntie Po, a giant Chinese matriarch with her blue ox. Auntie Po wields a mean ax and helps keep loggers safe on the mountains. But even Auntie Po might not be able to protect Mei from the harsh realities of the world. This book was just nominated for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, and I will add to that my own high recommendation.

A very sweet queer fairytale with a gentle environmental bend. High schooler Morgan has been struggling recently- her parents are newly divorced, her little brother has been acting out, and she's hiding her queer identity from everyone even her close friend group. One night when walking the sea cliffs near her home on an island she stumbles, hits her head, and falls into the ocean. Just when her life is flashing before her eyes she is rescued by Keltie, a selkie girl who claims Morgan is her one true love. They kiss, and begin dating in secret. But their relationship isn't the only thing both girls are hiding. As the summer unwinds they have to make some hard choices, including whether they can forgive each other after a fight. Beautifully drawn and wholesome.

This one didn't do it for me like the first book in the series did. I think perhaps because the obsessive emailing/texting just made more sense to me as something that college freshmen would do, and seemed like realistic for college grads working their first jobs? It was a pick read though, and I might still pick up the sequel.

I listened to this as an audiobook and I was completely sucked in. The true story of the re-introduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park is woven together with the stories of park rangers, hunters, and individual wolves who park visitors and watchers were able to observes with unprecedented closeness. The bulk of the story takes place between 1995, when the wolf re-introduction project began, and 2013. The most charismatic character is a wolf known as O-Six, a female alpha, who lead a scrappy little pack to dominance and prosperity in the Lamar Canyon in Yellowstone. Exceptionally brave, a peerless hunter, blessed with skills, intelligence, and luck, she became one of the most photographed and most well-known wolves the park has ever had. As her rein unfolded, a parallel struggle was taking place in the courts in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana over the right to hunt and kill wolves. I left this book with more understanding about the political pressures of the region, and a lot of thoughts on how similar wolf packs are to human families. The loss of even one member can be devastating to all of the survivors.

I listened to this as an audiobook without realizing it was initially an illustrated novel, and I was probably missing out quite a lot by not being able to see the pictures! Ah well, I still enjoyed it. It tells two interwoven stories, one of a queer Indian-Canadian man coming of age, growing through several romantic relationships and into a relationship with his own body. The other is a re-imagining of piece of Hindu mythology, of Parvati's creation of Ganesh, his murder by Shiva, and his recreation with the head of an elephant. The overall theme is of the simultaneous monstrousness and divinity of bodies, and how one makes peace with the body they must live in.

Uenoyama is an indifferent student but a passionate guitar player. When he meets Mafuyu, an oddball from another class at his high school, carrying an extremely expensive guitar that he doesn't know how to play, Uenoyama's attention is caught. He helps Mafuyu fix a broken string, and Mafuyu asks him for guitar lessons. Uenoyama shrugs this off, saying he'd be a bad teacher because he's entirely self-taught. But after he hears Mafuyu's incredible singing voice (and hears rumors about a tragedy in his past) he decides he will take the other boy under his wing. It's hinted there will be a very slow-burn romance between the two, but I'm not sure this first book hooked me strongly enough to keep going with the series. I did like the side characters of Uenoyama's sister and his two bandmates, but the pacing of the story felt a bit rough.