Stories can make you sigh for all sorts of reasons. Frustration, contentment, resolve. Angelica and the Bear Prince, published by Random House Graphix in October 2025, pulls a deep, comforting, swoon-like sigh from the reader, at least this reader. This is a cup of cocoa of a graphic novel. A warm, joint popping hug of a graphic novel. A fully broken-in hoodie of a graphic novel. It’s the best kind of sweet, romantic, comfort read.
Angelica and the Bear Prince, author/illustrator Trung Le Nguyen’s follow up to the award winning The Magic Fish, is a very loose reimagining of the Norwegian fairy tale East of the Sun and West of the Moon. It follows Angelica, Jelly to her friends, who is picking herself back up after hitting a pretty serious burnout wall. Jelly is an over-achiever and a people-pleaser who got so wrapped up in her desperation not to disappoint people that she ran herself right into the ground.
With perfect timing for her to realign herself, Jelly gets an internship at the theater company that was her happy place as a child. She gets to spend the whole winter stage managing her favorite play with her best friend Christine who is starring opposite the play’s lead and the theater’s mascot Peri the bear in Jelly’s favorite play. The mascot whose social media account Jelly has developed a pen pal style relationship with. The mascot who is embodied by a figure from Jelly’s past who is desperate to reconnect with her. The reveal here and the shift in their relationship takes a while to develop but is so, so satisfying.
Per Nguyen, this is a story about grief and it drips off every page. The grief that comes with growing up, grief of mourning a loved one, grief of dealing with mental health struggles. And with all that heaviness, this is an incredibly light, hopeful graphic, partially because of Nguyen’s stunning art. The illustrations are like a manga processed through a Disney lens, giving the graphic a bright, beautiful flow that is incredibly easy to read. The characters feel lived in and real and their hopes and struggles are incredibly relatable. The story is romantic and sweet and so beautifully told.
One of my favorite things about this graphic is that all the characters are given room to grow. So frequently in stories like this anyone who is not the central romantic couple just fade into the background, but Nguyen doesn’t fall into that. Jelly’s mom, still mourning the loss of her own mother, is anxious and uncertain and desperate to help her daughter grow while keeping Jelly her little girl. The stern manager of the theater is learning how to keep loving after their own loss and massive life changes. Christine, who easily could have been relegated to the barely-seen-best-friend role or the focus of Jelly’s jealous for landing the lead role of the Princess in the play, is a ride or die bestie throughout both being there for Jelly to lean on and going to her for support when she realizes her relationship isn’t what she deserves.
Angelica and the Bear Prince is such a lovely, cozy graphic. Teens and preteens alike can easily get wrapped into the romance and coming of age elements of the story and the focus on transformation and growth. It’s a legit pleasure to read.
Angelica and the Bear Prince By Trung Le Nguyen Penguin Random House Graphic, 2025 ISBN: 9781984892669
Company Age Rating: 12+
NFNT Age Recommendation: Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16), Tween (10-13) Creator Representation: Vietnamese, Nonbinary , Character Representation: South Asian, Trans, Anxiety, Depression
Jade is a hot-tempered teenaged aristocrat in modern-day France. Her family has prestige but no money, so Jade’s mom keeps pushing her to cozy up to her wealthier peers—and, ideally, marry one of them. But Jade is focused on her secret passion: serious weightlifting.
In fact, Jade has already made so much progress with her lifting that it can be hard to hide her strength. Like when she gets mad at a boorish young rich boy at a party and sort of… launches him into the refreshments table. Society would never approve of her lifting weights, so Jade scrambles to explain her feat of strength before blurting out that she must have been overcome by… love!
Jade’s matchmaking mother is, of course, thrilled. She would be a lot less thrilled to know that the only boy Jade actually likes is a groom in a rich family’s stables—a groom with huge muscles, whose workout routine Jade is determined to discover. Not that Jade has time for romance anyway – she’s juggling friends and frenemies, high school and high society events, all while keeping her weightlifting a secret. But with multiple boys now pursuing her, romance may be in Jade’s future whether she’s ready for it or not.
Originally a successful French webcomic (Colossale), Colossal is a fun rom-com with a shojo manga vibe and an oddball premise that grabs your attention. Who would expect the feisty young socialite to be obsessed with weightlifting? But Jade’s passion for lifting isn’t just a weird quirk: the story weaves it into her backstory and the way she thinks. Jade can be impulsive and irritable, though she usually keeps her temper in check. Early in the book, she sometimes imagines using her huge strength to punch people she finds annoying, which feels a little extreme, but Jade stops doing it after the first few scenes. She often fumbles social situations, but she cares about her friends and doing the right thing.
The rest of the cast has plenty of personality, too. There’s thoughtful Alexander, the groom Jade likes, who is much more than an enviable set of muscles; his employer, a rich mean girl who is struggling to fit into high society; the handsome but unpleasant rich boy who becomes far more interested in Jade after she pitches him into a buffet; Jade’s new friend, a do-gooder who convinces Jade to help with a charity function; and a cute but ruthless boy who discovers Jade’s weightlifting secret and demands she train him. There are also various family members and Jade’s supportive and quirky weightlifting buddies.
The art style is grounded in realism but with touches of a more fanciful shojo manga style. It focuses on the characters, giving them expressive (sometimes comically exaggerated) faces and postures. Their outfits change frequently to fit the occasion as the plot romps through lively scenarios and settings: riding lessons from Alexander, a stag hunt, preparing and staging a costumed charity ball, working out at the gym, hosting a sleepover, and more. Backgrounds are mostly minimal, with just enough detail to establish the settings.
There is no nudity (though Alexander sometimes gets shirtless for non-sexual reasons), but there are a few references to sex and a few swear words. Mostly, though, the story is funny and silly, with some heartfelt moments and sweet emotional connections between characters. Hand it to fans of rom-coms and shojo manga who like the sound of the premise.
Colossal By Rutile Willcox Art by Diane Truc Abrams, 2026 ISBN: 9781419777813
Company Age Rating: 14-18
NFNT Age Recommendation: Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16) Creator Representation: French, Mauritian, Character Representation: French,
A near apocalypse at the hands of an Aztec Earth goddess has led to the impossible: Pablo Ortiz is popular again. Since the publication of the first Monster Locker in October 2024, Pablo and his friends Takashi and Maggie have been working to banish the demons and mythical creatures that use Pablo’s basement locker as a FastPass into the human world back into their own dimension. Most of our trio is burnt out with all of their monster fighting, but Pablo is feeling the rush of finally being seen in a good way again and is pushing his friends to keep the monster banishing and their social capital up. The problem with being seen, though, is sometimes the wrong things are looking.
Monster Locker: Nine-Tail Trouble, scheduled for release April 21, 2026, sees creators Jorge Aguirre and Andrés Vera Martínez diving back into the world of the first book with a new focus and an equally lovely story. While monster banisher Pablo still acts as the protagonist, this story is really about his friend, the charmingly unhinged Takashi Rosenberg. Takashi is not overly thrilled with their heavily monster focused schedule and has a lot on his mind. He wants to get back to RPGs and becoming a J-Pop sensation and worrying about his upcoming Bar Mitzvah and missing his mom in Japan. Like many children from different, distinct backgrounds, Takashi doesn’t know how to reconcile his Judaism with his Japanese heritage and vice versa. He feels out of place in both, a situation escalated by his parents divorce and his mother’s physical distance. And this also leaves him vulnerable when a new, dangerous monster threatens not just the trio’s school and popularity, but the roots of their friendship.
I loved the first Monster Locker when it came out but felt like the side characters, like Takashi, didn’t get a lot of fleshing out and it’s like Aguirre and Martínez were reading my dream journal. This second volume not only gives Takashi amazing depth and a massive struggle with identity, but pulls folkloric characters from both of his heritages into the story. While the first book was like an ode to Pablo’s Meso American ancestry and Aztec gods, Nine-Tail Trouble sees Kitsune (the Japanese nine-tailed fox trickster) and a Golem (an animated, humanoid chunk of clay from Jew folklore) doing battle, turning Takashi’s internal struggle into a visibly destructive one.
With the shift in focus comes a shift in artistic style. While the first Monster Locker took a lot of visual inspiration from Meso American art, this one pulls in references to Medieval Jewish art to draw in the Golem’s background and soft Japanese watercolor for the Kitsune. It’s lovely to look at and the emotional heft is clear without being overpowering. Takashi’s struggle is universal and makes a powerful framework for this story.As much as I love the focus on Takashi, much like the first Monster Locker, the other characters are not given much time to grow. The story sees many of the characters from the first book return but all, even Pablo, our protagonist, take a backseat. I would love to see more balance between the characters and their growth in future volumes.
Aguirre and Martínez have created a world that has some of my favorite things about graphic novels: the stories are fun and surprising, the characters are unique but grounded in real emotional stakes, and the art is gorgeous. This series continues to please and I can’t wait for more.
Monster Locker: Nine-Tail Trouble By Jorge Aguirre Art by Andrés Vera Martínez Macmillan First Second, 2026 ISBN: 9781250749765
Company Age Rating: 10-14
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Teen (13-16), Tween (10-13) Creator Representation: Colombian-American, , Character Representation: Japanese, Mexican-American, Jewish ,
Shining a light on a lesser know story from the Civil War era, Legion M Entertainment and Stranger Comics bring together a talented creative team including creatives from Disney, Marvel, and DC, for Defiant, this first volume chronicling the life of Robert Smalls.
Born to an enslaved mother in the American South, Smalls dreamed of freedom. Beginning with his childhood, Defiant follows Smalls as he grows through education, love, and eventually into working as a sailor when war breaks out against the North. It is in this war that Smalls sees an opportunity at freedom, to steal the Confederate transport ship he worked on and escape to Union-controlled territory with some of his fellow crew and their families.
It was this escape that made Smalls famous, but his life’s work did not stop there. He continued as an influential figure throughout the war and beyond, including time serving in Congress. There are many today who do not know the details of Smalls and his life, and in the supplementary material that accompanies this graphic novel, the creators, as well as Smalls’s great great grandson, reflect on the power of legacy and the necessity of telling stories like this in order to remember the past and inform the future.
Defiant opens with a framing narrative depicting Smalls later in life as he takes his grandson fishing. It is here, as they wait for the fish to bite, that he begins to recount his story. Each section of the book captures key moments of Smalls’s youth and adulthood. It’s a significant length of time to cover, but the creators pace the story well, showcasing the experiences that formed Smalls’s character and the sense of defiance that would later drive him to risk everything in pursuit of freedom. The story is told with fondness and dramatic flair, but it doesn’t lose sight of the Smalls’s humanity or the horrors of US slavery at the time.
Balancing cinematic sensibilities with a desire to share a true segment of history, the writing effectively moves between interludes with the older Smalls and the larger narrative chunks leading up to his dramatic escape. The dialogue is straightforward and occasionally on the nose, but the book does an excellent job identifying important details to convey and moving the story along, while also bringing the reader into Small’s life along with the lives of those around him. It’s a story told with concern for historical truth, but also with acknowledgement that some liberties were taken and some factual gaps filled in to bring the story to life.
With these same cinematic sensibilities, the artistic team uses bold coloring and some dynamic layouts that quickly grab the reader’s attention. There’s a general sense of realism to the visual sequences, but the art takes some compelling creative liberties at times which help to elevate the themes and content of the story. There is one pivotal moment early in the book where Smalls, as a child, witnesses the violence and cruelty committed against the Black people around him. With use of light and shadow as well as distortions of faces that once seemed less threatening, the artists bring us into the experience of the moment and the realization of the evil inherent to the institution of slavery. Here and elsewhere, the art reckons with the realities of the time without the need to linger over pain and suffering. As the book progresses into the dramatic escape that Smalls is most known for, the visuals continue to bring the reader into the action, with effective choices in framing and dramatic moments that heighten both the tension and the heroism of what Smalls and the other achieved.
Stranger Comics lists Defiant as suitable for all ages. There are a range of areas in the content to be mindful of—violence and death in war and toward enslaved people, occasional slurs, briefly implied nudity, and some sequences of tension and threat which at times include children. However, none of these are presented for shock value or in graphic detail; even the creators state that their intention is not to linger over the violence and other horrors of the time. What detail we do see in the pages is relatively brief, maintaining focus on Smalls as a central figure and celebrating what he achieved without glossing over the reality that helped shape him.
As such, it’s a suitable read for older kids and upward, not only for the book’s sense of adventure, but also for the rich and important history it seeks to convey. In the afterword, writer Rob Edwards reflects on the importance of telling stories and why he sees such value in remembering the life of Robert Smalls. There is value, not only in the history recorded here, but in the discussions offered by Edwards and the others in this book who reflect on what it can mean for us today, to remember the bravery and steadfastness of those who have come before. In this way, Defiance is a perfect read for the current moment, and a great addition to shelves in schools, libraries, and home collections, especially with a movie also in production.
Defiant The Story of Robert Smalls By Rob Edwards Art by Sean Damien Hill Legion M and Stranger Comics, 2025 ISBN: 9781939834379
NFNT Age Recommendation: Teen (13-16) Creator Representation: Black, Character Representation: Black,
Of Swamp & Sea is a delightful series by super spousal team Mia Jay Boulton and Laurel Boulton. It originally premiered as a comic on Web Toon, and Macmillan picked it up for printing. It follows the story of Mercy Harding, a young woman trying to confront the fact that she might not be human any more. A monster hunt gone wrong has lead her to being possessed by a creature simply referred to as “the wolf.” She finds herself partnered up (and maybe pining for) Jonah, the hunter who led her to her current state. In his guilt, he offers to try to rid her of the curse, but feelings of all sorts arise and Mercy isn’t so certain about what she wants anymore.
I don’t know how controversial a statement this is, but here goes: High fantasy and romances are hard sells for me. Of course, your mileage may vary, but for me, I think a lot of it boils down to how the story is told. I am not opposed to formulaic storytelling, but both romance (the exploration of feelings) and high fantasy (world building, magic systems, etc.) tend to rely on a lot of information, but the narrative does not have time to really dig in and explain.
Of Swamp & Sea, at least the second volume, manages to navigate this challenge in a way that is very balanced and satisfying without sacrificing pacing. For me, this title is an example of an ideal fantasy romance.
The art tends to stay pretty tight, allowing the panels to focus on characters and individual emotions. Not to say there is no atmosphere, but this is definitely more about the characters than the overall world. I am impressed with the gestural facial expressions and emotive body language. The color palette is soft and limited from page to page, but not restrictive. In presentation, not content, the art resembles the Critical Role animated series. The characters are diverse in their appearance, the story moves well, and there are many fascinating fantasy creatures and myths that are explored. Vol. 2 is an overall speedy and interesting read.
The book does not contain anything particularly graphic, but I would say there is some violence and some horror-adjacent moments. Recommended for readers aged 12 & up.
It looks like the entire series is no longer available through Web Toon, so Macmillan is the way to go if you want to read more (and I hope you do).
Of Swamp & Sea, Vol. 02 By Mia Jay Boulton and Laurel Boulton Macmillan, 2025 ISBN: 9781250387004
NFNT Age Recommendation: Teen (13-16), Tween (10-13) Creator Representation: Queer,
Eighteen-year-old Autumn is in her senior year of school and works in a coffee shop. It seems like a humdrum life, but what she’s going to do after graduation eludes her. Her dad left a couple years ago, and her mom doesn’t have any money to send her to college. So, her future holds just work, and for not enough to live on by herself. Is this all there is?
Then, a boy from her school (who owns a bookshop) and an imaginary friend from her childhood (who’s a… well, it’s not explained right away… ) pop back into her life through a series of increasingly unlikely events. Statues of animals in the park speak to her, tiny glowing fairy lights find her in the park, her hands start *glowing*, and a HUGE guardian troll named Fred finds her and then disappears! The coffee job suddenly seems soothingly boring after that. But strange people keep finding her. Just when a dark, purple-suited man with a Van Dyke shows up and threatens her, her MOM shows up and defends her! (With her same glowing hands and eyes!) Why won’t anyone tell Autumn what’s going on? All she keeps hearing is “not now”.
The art is sharp edged, with broad marker inking, and is somewhat two dimensional. Washes of color help portray the light values and keep the art more interesting. It reminds me a bit of Mike Mignola’s art, back in the first days of Hellboy, or his graphic novels of Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. And just like those comics, this spooky tale starts with a teenager’s discovery that the world isn’t exactly what she thought it was. It’s filled with creatures, fae, and dark powers. Who IS Autumn? Who is her mom? Adolescent anxieties and rites-of-passage sync perfectly with this story, which flows smoothly and should interest teens and young adults. Autumn is challenged to decide who she wants to be. But she needs to figure it out soon, because Mr. Purple-Suit’s threats are getting louder and more powerful. (OTOH, isn’t it useful when the baddies just TELL you what nefarious plans they have? Bad call, Mr. Purple Suit. And stop the mansplaining, would you?)
No adult situations, and minimal violence. Suggested for the young adult section.
The October Girl, Book 1 By Matthew Dow Smith Mad Cave Studios, 2025 ISBN: 9781960578594
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16)
Miss Mary Mac introduces storytelling and creative writing in graphic novel form with chapters that cover writing as an art form, where ideas come from, creating strong images, motivation, inspiration, and the creative process. The reader is invited to consider their own experiences and how to find their interests and bring those both together to tell a story. The author provides examples from different perspectives and brings their words to life by pairing them with lavishly drawn figures by the artist. The details and shading throughout give each panel depth and draw the reader in to learn more. It also allows the reader to visualize themselves in places they may not have experience with themselves.
It is fantastic to have a craft novel about creative writing presented in graphic novel form as the visualizations alongside the advice from the author worked in tandem to create a full picture for any reader to follow. I also enjoyed that the author used some of their early writing as examples throughout the book. At times, the artist used cartoon proportions and non-realistic coloring to move the reader’s eye across the pages. Other times, the images were portrayed more realistically, which allowed the reader to take in the details.
This is obviously marketed toward younger readers interested in writing, but this would be a good introduction for anyone interested in learning more about the creative process or writing in general. It would be great for public and school libraries and would be a good addition to academic collections that collect juvenile or leisure books.
Creative Writing with Miss Mary Mac: A Handbook for Young and Future Authors By Mary McInerney Art by Rivkah LaFille Macmillan First Second, 2025 ISBN: 9781250216885
Company Age Rating: 8-12
NFNT Age Recommendation: Teen (13-16), Tween (10-13)
Echoes of October is built around a simple yet difficult question. The sort of question that children often ask and adults wish they could answer.
Why can’t we just get along?
That question is asked around the world in many ways and many languages. Yet it has taken on a particular vibrancy within the Middle East and especially regarding the Gaza conflict. This is the focal point of Echoes in October, which builds to the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The story is told through the eyes of four children. All of them are 11 years old, but all of them were born of drastically different circumstances. Jannah is a Muslim girl from Gaza City. Amir is a Druze boy from Daliyat-al-Karmel. Lily is a Canadian Evangelical Christian, born in Toronto but recently relocated to Kibbut Kfar Aza. Eli is a Jewish boy from Tel Aviv. The children do not meet as a group over the course of the novel, though Eli and Amir are cousins. Lily and Jannah also meet briefly, as Lily’s father works as a volunteer driver who escorts Jannah into Israel for medical treatment.
However, despite its setting, Echoes of October plays out as a slice-of-life comic rather than a political thriller. The story remains firmly focused upon the children and their individual issues. This drives home their common ground and makes them more relatable to the young readers for who Echoes of October was written.
Eli, for instance, is worried about his parents talk of moving away from Israel. Their only concern is the safety of their family and what the threat of war may do to Eli. Yet Eli’s biggest fear is moving away from his friends, his school, and everything he knows. This is counterbalanced by the story of Lily, who has already undergone this trauma. She misses her friends in Canada and worries that her dream of being the next Taylor Swift may be short-circuited by moving halfway around the world.
Amir, an aspiring comic creator, has similarly big dreams of creating the first Druze superhero – a Captain America figure modeled on his soldier father. Unfortunately, most of his family have no use for his art and intend to put him to work in their restaurant instead of letting him continue school. Jannah also has issues with her family, for she has dreams of becoming a politician and bringing peace to the region so the people around her can be happy. Unfortunately, the people calling for violence on both sides are so much louder and so many refuse to listen to women, let alone girls.
Echoes of October does not pretend there are any easy answers. It does, however, offer one of the most heartfelt and well-structured introductions to the conflict in Gaza and how there is more than one side involved in the conflict. While the artwork and language used by Ami Adan are simple, they deliver a powerful idea that ultimately boils down to that one big question.
Why can’t we just get along?
Echoes of October is recommended by the author for readers 10 and up. This is a fair rating, as there is no objectionable content to be found here. Doubtless some will object to the idea of a children’s graphic novel that discusses the conflict in Gaza sight unseen. Yet this book is not entirely about that conflict. It is about four young people struggling to cling to some sense of normalcy in an increasingly angry world. That is something that all too many of us can related to in modern times and why I would recommend this graphic novel to readers of all ages rather than just children.
Echoes of October By Ami Adan Self-Published, 2025
Company Age Rating: 10+
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16), Tween (10-13) Creator Representation: Israeli, Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim, Character Representation: Canadian, Israeli, Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim, Protestant ,
Kara Orc is a doctor-in-training alongside Tucker Wolf at the Creature Clinic. Besides working with her competitive rival, Kara also has to contend with her mother, head doctor of the clinic. When a giant collapses outside their doors, no one can figure out what’s wrong with him; however, an unconscious human is discovered under his boot. Humans live in Fableland, which is outside of Myth Valley where the clinic is located, so they are rarely seen.
Kara wants to do the right thing and treat the human as a patient, but her mother wants him gone and orders Oblong, the janitor, to take him away. Oblong decides to help Kara with her plan to secretly treat the human, except once the human, Mitch, wakes up, he and Oblong become friends and secretly travel around the clinic together. Mitch has a plan to help the other patients, but with humans banned from the premises, they’ll have to get creative to help him prove himself and treat the giant before it’s too late.
This was an interesting take on the hospital setting that showcases how caring and asking questions can help patients just as much as the medicine that gets prescribed. The cast of characters was well rounded with a variety of personalities and creatures throughout the story. Most of the creatures will be known to the reader, but there’s a small handful, like Oblong, that are new and different. The coloring matched the tone, and the setting had a clean art style in the clinic and rougher details when it would enhance the characteristics of the scene outside of the clinic.
The charm of this story is in the relationship between daughter and mother, which addresses generational trauma in a realistic way. The author effectively portrays a variety of relationships between the myriad characters: family, friend, and rival. This would make a great addition to any middle school library or public library.
Creature Clinic By Gavin Aung Than Macmillan First Second, 2025 ISBN: 9781250847584
Company Age Rating: 8-12
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Teen (13-16), Tween (10-13) Creator Representation: Australian,
A cryptic mystery ensconced in a fairy tale fantasy world permeates Keiichi Hara’s (Colorful, Miss Hokusai) anime adaptation of Mizuki Tsujimura’s Lonely Castle in the Mirror, an enchanting tale about the ties of friendship that bind us together. A story centered on a group of outcast middle grade adolescents who, for various reasons, avoid going to school, find connection with each other in a fantastic world where they band together to unravel a mystery while discovering that they share more in common than they realize.
The story begins when Kokoro wakes up one morning with stomach pains that prevent her from attending school. She has been confined to her home for several weeks now after a bullying incident at school instigated by a gang of mean-spirited girls. The mirror in her bedroom emits a sparkling glow on this morning, casting a light that turns into a magical portal. Upon stepping through the mirror, she beholds a castle straight out of a fairy tale perched on a cliff surrounded by the sea. She is greeted by a young girl wearing a wolf mask who assigns a single task: Kokoro, along with six other students who have somehow also transported to this world, must find a secret room containing a key that will grant its finder a wish, but there is one caveat: This task must be completed by spring time, and they must leave the castle by five o’clock each day or else face a ferocious wolf that prowls about, stalking its prey with a voracious appetite.
Segmented into a series of months, each scenario unpacks the inner stories of each student: Timid Kokoro suffered from bullying classmates at school; headstrong Aki experienced molestation from her father; Masamune the gamer was taunted for his habitual lying; pushover Ureshino was teased for his failed attempts to win affection from girls, and so forth. Despite their imperfections however, these students learn to accept each other and their flaws. What shines are their back stories as they crystalize and sharpen into focus, highlighting deeper secrets that reveal they have more in common than they initially realized. But what unites them all and why can they not find each other in the real world? In this blend between fantasy and reality, the architectural aesthetics of the castle rooms contrast in tone and style with the tawdry mundaneness of their everyday lives, poignant moments unravel through unspoken silences, and an uplifting musical soundtrack reinforces the narrative action, propelling the story to its triumphant climax.
At the heart of Lonely Castle in the Mirror, themes of bullying, acceptance, isolation, trust, and friendship interlock like shifting pieces of a complex yet beautifully rendered mosaic, bridging the disparate lives of each character across time and space. A refuge for the harsh toils of school and life itself, this anime combines elements of magical whimsy, mystery, and fantasy that will appeal to middle grade viewers, illuminating the astonishing connections we hold and cherish within each other.
Lonely Castle in the Mirror Directed by Keiichi Hara GKIDS Films/Shout! Factory, 2023 Run time: 116 minutes minutes Stream this series
NFNT Age Recommendation: Teen (13-16) Creator Representation: Japanese, Character Representation: Japanese,
Random House Graphix in October 2025, pulls a deep, comforting, swoon-like sigh from the reader, at least this reader. This is a cup of cocoa of a graphic novel. A warm, joint popping hug of a graphic novel. A fully broken-in hoodie of a graphic novel. It’s the best kind of sweet, romantic, comfort read.
her to cozy up to her wealthier peers—and, ideally, marry one of them. But Jade is focused on her secret passion: serious weightlifting.
of the first Monster Locker in October 2024, Pablo and his friends Takashi and Maggie have been working to banish the demons and mythical creatures that use Pablo’s basement locker as a FastPass into the human world back into their own dimension. Most of our trio is burnt out with all of their monster fighting, but Pablo is feeling the rush of finally being seen in a good way again and is pushing his friends to keep the monster banishing and their social capital up. The problem with being seen, though, is sometimes the wrong things are looking.
creative team including creatives from Disney, Marvel, and DC, for Defiant, this first volume chronicling the life of Robert Smalls.
Mercy Harding is a monster.
to do after graduation eludes her. Her dad left a couple years ago, and her mom doesn’t have any money to send her to college. So, her future holds just work, and for not enough to live on by herself. Is this all there is?
Miss Mary Mac introduces storytelling and creative writing in graphic novel form with chapters that cover writing as an art form, where ideas come from, creating strong images, motivation, inspiration, and the creative process. The reader is invited to consider their own experiences and how to find their interests and bring those both together to tell a story. The author provides examples from different perspectives and brings their words to life by pairing them with lavishly drawn figures by the artist. The details and shading throughout give each panel depth and draw the reader in to learn more. It also allows the reader to visualize themselves in places they may not have experience with themselves.
Echoes of October is built around a simple yet difficult question. The sort of question that children often ask and adults wish they could answer.
Kara Orc is a doctor-in-training alongside Tucker Wolf at the Creature Clinic. Besides working with her competitive rival, Kara also has to contend with her mother, head doctor of the clinic. When a giant collapses outside their doors, no one can figure out what’s wrong with him; however, an unconscious human is discovered under his boot. Humans live in Fableland, which is outside of Myth Valley where the clinic is located, so they are rarely seen.
Tsujimura’s Lonely Castle in the Mirror, an enchanting tale about the ties of friendship that bind us together. A story centered on a group of outcast middle grade adolescents who, for various reasons, avoid going to school, find connection with each other in a fantastic world where they band together to unravel a mystery while discovering that they share more in common than they realize.
