Cover image for "Best YA and middle-grade graphic novels of 2024" list
(Graphix, Viking Books for Young Readers, Ten Speed Graphic, First Second, Disney Hyperion, Hyperion Avenue Books, Razorbill, Image Comics, Versify)

11 best middle-grade and YA graphic novels of 2024

Graphic novel sales may have decreased in 2024, but the quality sure didn’t. With my habit of getting overly excited about spellbinding stories and writing way more than the allotted word count per entry, I couldn’t include all of the stand-out books published last year. So instead, I chose to highlight marginalized creators’ work and showcase the diverse narratives and art styles that books for these demographics are known for.

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My fellow bibliophiles, read on to see what TMS named the best middle-grade and YA graphic novels of 2024!

Shiny Misfits

Cover of Shiny Misfits by Maysoon Zayid and Shadia Amin
(Graphix)

Shiny Misfits is written by Maysoon Zayid, a disability advocate who is known as “one of America’s first Muslim women comedians,” and illustrated by Shadia Amin, a Colombian comics artist known for her previous work on Scholastic/Marvel’s Spider-Ham and Oni Press’s Aggretsuko. Among a sea of inspiring comics for girls published in 2024, Shiny Misfits stands out for its message about finding the ability in disability.

After protagonist Bay Ann is the unwitting co-star in her able-bodied classmate’s viral video that captures him giving a “disabled girl” a fairytale kiss moment, the Arab-American tween dreams of redefining how she is perceived, using her musical and tapping talents and finding fame on the virtual stage as well as placing first in the school’s talent competition. She refuses to let others define her by her diagnosis of cerebral palsy, a congenital disorder that causes abnormal brain development and chronic neurological issues that impact movement, balance, muscle tone, and coordination.

Based on Zayid’s struggles making it in acting as a disabled Palestinian woman, Shiny Misfits demonstrates the importance of making dance (and all other art forms) accessible to people in all bodies who have the dream, commitment, and talent to succeed.  

Shock City

Cover of Shock City by Aaron Alexovich
(Viking Books for Young Readers)

“Are people born Wicked? Or do they have Wickedness thrust upon them?” Written and illustrated by Aaron Alexovich, who got his start as an animator for Nickelodeon’s Invader Zim, the graphic novel Shock City attempts to answer the question posed by the famous Wicked song “No One Mourns The Wicked.”

Perfect for fans of the Jhonen Vasquez cartoon, Alexovich’s graphic novel is set in the dystopian town Shock City (which may remind you of the city in Zim, colloquially known as “Doomsville”). The town is overrun by freakish gadgets, other-worldly molds, zombie hooligans, and extra-dimensional beings brought to Earth by the city’s former dictator to keep its residents from leaving. Unaware of her family’s history, when the dictator’s granddaughter, an out-of-this-world, green-skinned, tube-born monster named Sunny, and her best frenemy, a human named Milo, set out to save Shock City, they uncover the shocking truth of their town history and a secret that may lead to its demise.

Castle Swimmer: Volume 1

Cover of Castle Swimmer: Volume 1 by Wendy Martin
(Ten Speed Graphic)

Although Wendy Martin’s Castle Swimmer series was initially launched in a scrolling format on WEBTOON in 2019, currently exceeding 330 million views on the platform, Ten Speed Graphic released the first volume of the print publication of the series, collecting episodes one through 19 of the webtoon (plus a bonus chapter for long-time fans), doing a beautiful job with transferring Martin’s art to the new format.

The series follows two mermen. First, there’s Kappa/The Beacon, a golden-scaled merman believed to be the guiding light to fulfill all the prophecies of the ocean’s resident creatures, leading them to a brighter, more prosperous future—quite a burden. There’s also Prince Siren, a teenage mershark raised for one purpose: fulfilling the prophecy of his people by killing the Beacon to save them from a blight that impacts all mersharks but him—also quite the burden.

Drawn together by an immediate attraction but on the opposite ends of fate, the two mermen find themselves at odds with destiny. What follows can best be described as Romeo and Juliet but gay and furry.

Pearl: A Graphic Novel

Cover of Pearl: A Graphic Novel
(Graphix)

Written by award-winning author Sherri L. Smith and illustrated by multiple Eisner Award-nominated artist Christine Norrie, Pearl: A Graphic Novel is about a 13-year-old Japanese American girl, Amy, who travels to Hiroshima in 1941 to visit her ailing grandmother, an Okinawa-born pearl diver (unbeknownst to me, Okinawa didn’t become part of Japan until 1879).

When it becomes impossible for Amy to return to her Hawaiian home after the Japanese Navy bombs Pearl Harbor later that year on December 7, otherwise known as “the day that will live in infamy,” the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces conscripts her and other nisei (American Japanese) in Japan’s war effort against their home country, relocating them to Hiroshima to translate English transmissions. A survivor of the atomic devastation in Hiroshima, the U.S. military eventually comes for her, too. However, initially, it’s not to take her home but to interview other survivors of the bombings. As Amy says, “To the Americans, I was a traitor. To the Japanese, I was American. I have no country to call my own.”

A timely story of intergenerational trauma and strength in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, Pearl is an excellent addition to any modern library.

Ash’s Cabin

Cover of Ash's Cabin by Jen Wang
(First Second)

Topping multiple “Best of 2024” lists, Ash’s Cabin by the two-time Eisner-winning author/illustrator Jen Wang, known for The Prince and the Dressmaker and In Real Life (co-written by Cory Doctorow), is a timely story about a young person’s journey to explore their identity and build a positive relationship with it despite hostile forces in the external world. Showcasing the creator’s artistic development over the years, the intrinsic pace set by Wang’s layout of her kinetic artwork will suck you into the adventure, guiding the pace at which you approach the book, compelling you to finish Ash’s story in one sitting.

King Cheer

Cover of King Cheer by Molly Horton Booth, Stephanie Kate Strohm, and Jamie Green (Disney Hyperion)
(Disney Hyperion)

Written by self-described Shakespeare nerds Molly Horton Booth and Stephanie Kate Strohm, illustrated by 2019 Society Of Illustrators Zankel Scholar winner Jamie Green, and lettered by Eisner-nominated Chris Dickey, volume two of the Arden High series is a queer coming-of-age story that reimagines The Bard’s King Lear, a tragedy about an old king whose nepotistic, narcissistic decisions have catastrophic consequences on the kingdom and lead to his demise.

Although King Lear inspires most of the YA graphic novel’s interpersonal drama, it’s accessible to readers unfamiliar with the original while giving Shakespeare fans a vibrant, more comedic exploration of the play’s themes of familial loyalty, belonging, ethical leadership, and the tragic hero.

The Book of Bill

Cover of The Book of Bill (Gravity Falls)
(Hyperion Avenue Books)

Please read the following in the voice of Twin Peaks‘ Agent Gordon Cole, played by David Lynch. RIP.

This post was written by me, Ollie Kaplan! Just buy a copy (maybe three!) of The Book of Bill (Gravity Falls), written by none other than Bill Cipher, a.k.a. Alex HuRzch, a.k.a. Alex Hirsch. Don’t worry that the evil Walt Disney Corporation published it; it’s worth it because I said so! After all, I’m me, commanding you with my 1000% not-demon-possessed human hands! I’ll demand a blood sacrifice if you want to read my non-paywalled endorsement (written in “stupid human letters”) of why this book is worth every piece of treasure in this dimension and beyond. Hesitation face, you say? Yeah, that’s what I thought!

Girlmode

Cover of Girlmode by Magdalene Visaggio and Paulina Ganucheau
(HarperAlley)

Girlmode, written by Magdelene Visaggio and illustrated by Paulina Gancheau, is a VERY timely graphic novel about a recently transitioned high school girl named Phoebe. Although the main focus is Phoebe’s exploration of her identity, it’s also about how cis people can be better allies as trans people struggle for mainstream social acceptance. I recommend Girlmode to anyone questioning their gender assigned at birth and any cis ally who wants to learn how to better support a trans loved one and/or the whole trans community. How Phoebe’s friends and family behave when they learn she’s trans runs the gambit of the good, the bad, and the ugly of how to be an ally, making it exceptionally informative for cis people by offering examples of what to do and not do to be a good ally.

Hellaween: Spellbent

Cover of Hellaween: Spellbent by Moss Lawton
(Razorbill)

Happy Halloweenies! Storyboard artist Moss Lawton’s second Hellaween book is a captivating boo-nanzaa about aspiring witch Gwen and her two best monster friends who are working hard at spending another epic Halloween together despite the town’s new curfew laws, enacted as a result of the fallout from the events in book one.

After learning even more about her innate magical abilities from book two’s new Big Bad, the pink-haired aspiring witch Gwenis is tired of being told no by her two best friends, a werewolf and vampire, as she tries to ditch the “suburban prison” that confines her existence by opening portals to visit their home, the Hallowlands, the birthplace of Halloween. But when the portals go wrong, she must admit her mistakes and rely on the help of her friends—new and old.

With Lawton leaning into their wickedly funny writing and stylishly “horrorific” art style, Spellbent offers even more of the middle-grade appropriate spooks of the first volume by further exploring and expanding on the imaginative and dystopian hellscape they created that runs parallel to the world of ZIM.

A Haunted Girl

Cover art of "A Haunted Girl"
(Image Comics)

A Haunted Girl, written by father-daughter team Ethan and Naomi Sacks with art by Marco Lorenzana, was named by TMS as one of our top “graphic novels for girls,” a perspective supported by it being “popular enough with readers to get a second printing,” a big deal in the comics publishing industry. Based on Naomi’s personal experiences with hospitalization for suicidal ideation, the Sacks duo worked together to carefully craft an accurate portrayal of the non-linear mental health healing journey. As I previously wrote for the book’s “15 Amazing Graphic Novels for Girls” entry, A Haunted Girl “thoughtfully, carefully, and expertly [addresses] complex mental health topics impacting teen girls, like depression and attempted suicide.”

Ghost Roast

Cover art of "Ghost Roast"
(Versify)

Another one of TMS’s “15 Amazing Graphic Novels for Girls,” Harvey Award nominee Ghost Roast by authors Shawneé and Shawnelle Gibbs and artist Emily Cannon is a stand-alone story that sticks with you long after you’ve finished it. It’s about New Orleans teen Chelsea Grant, who, after getting arrested while attending an end-of-year party in one of NOLA’s historic above-ground cemeteries, is forced to spend the summer working with her geeky, ghostbusting dad. When they’re contracted to look into a haunting at a former plantation, Chelsea discovers she’s developed the ancestral ability to see ghosts, including a cute undead boy named Oliver who died working to abolish slavery at his family’s business—a subplot that makes the story more than gender-bending Ghostbusters. 

Runners-up:

  1. Lion Dancers by Cai Tse
  2. The New Girl by Cassandra Calin
  3. Camp Prodigy by Caroline Palmer
  4. DnDoggos: Get the Party Started by Scout Underhill and Liana Sposto
  5. Monster Crush by Erin Ellie Farney
  6. Tiffany’s Griffin by Magnolia Porter Siddell and Maddi Gonzalez 
  7. Next Stop by Debbie Fong
  8. Monster Locker by by  Jorge Aguirre and Andrés Vera Martínez 
  9. Side Quest: A Visual History of Roleplaying Games by Samuel Sattin, Steenz, and Aishwarya Tandon
  10. Big Jim and the White Boy: An American Classic Reimagined by David F. Walker, Marcus Kwame Anderson, and Isabelle Struble

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