31 Days, 31 Lists: 2024 Comics and Graphic Novels for Kids

Ah, this is a big one. There are only a couple topics including in the 31 Days, 31 Lists series that take significantly more time and energy than the others. With today’s list we start tackling books for older readers this month. Comics just make for a natural starting place. You’ll note that I use the terms “comics” and “graphic novels” interchangeably since much of the stigma surrounding the former term has dissipated (though certainly not disappeared entirely).

Make no mistake that there were a LOT of comics out in 2024. This is but a sampling, but what a lovely sampling it is! I truly did feel that these were some of the best out there this year.

If you’d like a PDF of today’s list, you can find one here.

Still can’t get enough comics? I can’t blame ya. Here are the round-ups I’ve done in previous years:

• 2023
• 2022
• 2021
• 2020
• 2019
• 2018
• 2017
• 2016

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2024 Comics and Graphic Novels for Kids

Adventuregame Comics: Samurai vs. Ninja by Jason Shiga

Y’all are aware that Jason Shiga gets away with murder and no one is noticing, right? I’m also beginning to think that he lives to toy with my brain. I can’t blame him. My brain is fun to toy with, clearly, or he wouldn’t do it. Still, I have a beef to pick with his Adventuregame Comics series. Look, I adore this series but Shiga is too smart for me. Together, my son and I managed to successfully complete the first book in the series, Leviathan. That was fun. But then he made The Beyond, and while I was able to figure out that you were supposed to add a number to the actual spine of the book in your own hand itself, we still weren’t able to solve the whole thing. Now with Samurai vs. Ninja (which is kind of a misnomer since they’re the same guy) what you do in one version and what you do in the other could, potentially affect one another. Indeed, we were able to find the page that is the one ultimate ending, but try as we could we couldn’t figure out precisely the right path that would take us there. I suspect you probably have to cross over from the samurai storyline to the ninja one or vice versa. Seems to me that if these books are meant to replicate video games (and pick your path types of books) then there should be a website somewhere to offer you hints when you bog down. Right now my son and I are 1 for 3 when it comes to solving these books. Help us out, Mr. Shiga! Please!

Alterations by Ray Xu

“Sometimes you have to take risks … and DEAL with the consequences!” When Kevin Lee brings a century egg to lunch, he has no idea the chaos he’s about to unleash (or the nickname he’s about to acquire). A hilarious tale of owning who you are.  I read this to my son and was surprised how much he enjoyed the book, in spite of the fact that there are only a few space invader sequences. Those parts read a lot like the Spaceman Spiff parts of Calvin and Hobbes, actually, which I really enjoyed. And both of us liked flipping to Ray Xu’s photo at the back of the book, where he looks completely badass, comparing him to the illustrated nerdy version of himself as a kid. We’re seeing a lot of nice memoirs these days and this one’s a bit more fictionalized than most. As a roller coaster enthusiast, my son was in no way buying that a kid would be able to sneak onto a roller coaster on his own, but that didn’t mean he didn’t enjoy the thrill ride anyway. With some similarities to other books we’ve seen, I think this story has a nice relatable weirdness at its core.

Ant Story by Jay Hosler

Rubi’s always been a lonely little ant in a colony of leafcutters, but that’s before she meets Miranda. Now the question is, can your greatest enemy also be your greatest friend? Whatta delight! I think I like this even more than Hosler’s previous title, The Way of the Hive. I liked it so much that immediately after I finished it I proceeded to read it to my son and HE liked it too! It’s a great story in and of itself, but I really appreciated the fact that the message at the heart of it is that in nature there really aren’t any good guys or bad guys. Just everyone trying to survive in their own particular way, that’s all. The cartoon characters vs. realistic characters made for a nice take, and I loved the twist on who Miranda really was (it took me a while to catch on and Hosler basically had to spell it out for me). This is great! 

Blood City Rollers by V.P. Anderson, ill. Tatiana Hill

After wiping out in an ice skating competition, Mina finds herself kidnapped by a band of roller derby playing vampires in desperate need of a human player to complete their team. Brings a whole new meaning to the term “found family”. What is it about roller derby and graphic novels? Years ago we saw ROLLER GIRL by Victoria Jamieson win an actual Newbery Honor, and that was a nice book. Thing is, it was more about the characters’ relationships than it was the sport itself. You could come away from that one still not quite understanding the rules. This vampire-infused book, in contrast, really drills down on what the technical aspects of rollerderby entail. I don’t know if I understood every part of it, but I definitely got the gist. Best of all, I really enjoyed the contrast between ice skating as a single endeavor (or, at most, pairs) and roller derby as a group activity. There will definitely be a sequel but I felt it wrapped up nicely and didn’t leave all that many threads hanging. Fun and super sporty!

Bog Myrtle by Sid Sharp

Don’t go into the woods or Bog Myrtle will turn you into a fly and eat you! But what happens when instead Bog Myrtle gives you a gift? A tale of respecting nature (or else!!). Well, this was a helluva thing. I suppose I should have realized what I was getting into when I saw that the creator was good old Sid Sharp a.k.a. the wild Canadian. This has all the trappings of a folktale, right down to the baddie getting their just desserts, but really this reads like a kind of variation on The Lorax more than anything else. Only, it’s The Lorax if all the animals formed a union rather than leaving. I am happy to report that under normal circumstances, I get very techy when folks don’t illustrate knitting needles correctly, but Sharp knows what they are doing.

Bunnybirds by Natalie Linn

Why are all the bunnybirds missing? Princess Aster seems to be the only one who cares, and finding the rest of her people will mean pairing with exiled thief Carlin and the many footed dog, Feet. Adventure await!  I’ll confess that I didn’t expect such a silly looking book to pack as big a punch as this does. The entire plot essentially focuses on what happens when an entire group decides to push down their trauma and, instead of dealing with it, cling to being happy happy happy all the time. Winged bunnies as a concept just sort of sell themselves, but a lot of time and thought and effort went into this title. Legitimately funny (there are some sight gags that had me hooting out loud) and delightfully written. This is a treat! 

Continental Drifter by Kathy Macleod

Kathy may live in Thailand but her heart is filled with a love of America. When her family, including her Thai mom and American dad, visit Maine for the summer, will it live up to her expectations? You know, sometimes I pick up these books with an eye for elimination, but this was surprisingly honest and adept. After reading tons of camp-is-awesome-in-the-end stories, this one struck me as a lot more true to life. I’ve never really encountered a book where someone had a really old dad, and I loved the reveal with the sister at the end. This is hugely accomplished.

Detective Beans & the Case of the Missing Hat by Li Chen

Oh heavens. I came so close to missing this incredible book and it’s only thanks to its inclusion on some other Best of the Year lists that I even discovered it. Do you know how hard it is to find detective/mystery graphic novels for kids? This is definitely more along the lines of Sam Spade than Sherlock Holmes, but who cares? Li Chen, who the heck are you? Apparently she’s a Beijing-born comic artist and illustrator based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Why we’re only getting her books now, I dunno, but I am HERE for them! In this book Beans loses his hat and must engage with characters of all kinds in his quest to retrieve it. The jokes come fast and land beautifully time and time again. It’s a deeply satisfying read, always keeping you guessing. And look at that art! Honestly, this felt a little like what Kate Beaton would do if she ever wanted to deal solely in felines (and if you know me then you know that that’s the highest praise I can offer). This. Is. The. Best. 

Detective Sweet Pea: The Case of the Golden Bone by Sara Varon

Parkville’s a sleepy little town where nothing bad really happens, until the day the Golden Chew Bone is stolen from the Art Museum. Now it’s up to Sweet Pea, her fabulous nose and detective skills in tow, to solve the crime and catch the thief. Initially I thought this was very nice but I wasn’t certain that it was different enough for this list. But then I thought long and hard about it. Varon is remarkably good at walking a very particular line between age ranges. Her books are appropriate for younger kids with their animals, but older kids don’t mind reading them at all. Good thing too because the real selling point of this title is that it is a legitimately good mystery and mystery titles are HARD to write for kids fairly. I thought Varon gave all the clues and when the culprit is revealed it made a lot of sense. Definitely looking forward to more in this series. This satisfies our mystery itch!

Fake Chinese Sounds by Jing Jing Tsong

Whether she’s killing it on the soccer field, taking her requisite Chinese lessons, or connecting with her visiting grandmother, things are going pretty well for Měi Yīng. That is, until the new kid in school starts barraging her with racist jokes. But what’s the best way to deal with it? So this is interesting. The plot, as you might read on the back and as is hinted at on the cover, really doesn’t kick into high gear until more than halfway in. Even so, I thought this was a smart way of laying out the story. Měi Yīng’s relationship with her grandmother vs. her relationship with her mother, is so key that by the time you get to the actual bullying in the book, it feels like kind of an afterthought. I thought the ramping up of the bullying comments was extremely well done, though the resolution with the bully in question felt a little pat and easy, all things considered. Otherwise, I think this book takes a number of smart passes at this particular Taiwanese-American experience. Extra bonus for having a heroine with glasses who’s also sporty. 

The Firelight Apprentice by Bree Paulsen

Trust the woman who came up with the Garlic and the Vampire series to keep thinking up bizarre fantasy worlds entirely of her own making. This book is definitely a little bit less upbeat than good old Garlic, but I wouldn’t call it a downer. In many ways it resembles the film version of Howl’s Moving Castle. Like that movie you’ve a world where wizards are conscripted to work for the rulers in a war. Unlike the movie, you have to deal with the fact that sometimes when wizards are about to die, they instead turn themselves into nasty creatures called lichs and set about sucking up the magic of living wizards. Enter Ada and Safi. The war is over, but their mother died in the conflict and their father is ailing. Safi has developing powers, but without an apprenticeship her magic could potentially hurt her. When some kindly traveling magicians come to town, Ada thinks this may be the answer to their prayers. What she doesn’t realize is that old adage: Nice is different than good. Good strong world building in a succinct package is what Paulsen does best. You believe utterly in this land that she’s conjured up, with all its complexities and politics. Plus there’s a funny old lady who says inappropriate stuff, and haven’t we all known that lady ourselves? 

The Girl Who Sang: A Holocaust Memoir of Hope and Survival by Estelle Nadel with Bethany Strout, ill. Sammy Savos

The gripping true-life story of Enia/Estelle and her family’s struggles. It’s 1939 Poland and when the Nazia invade, it means that she and her loved ones must go into hiding for several years.A harrowing and ultimately triumphant tale. As memoirs of the Holocaust go, finding age-appropriate ones for younger children can be tricky. Estelle’s telling pairs well with her collaborators, and it’s certainly nice to have a story about a young Jewish girl that isn’t about Anne Frank and Anne Frank alone. Certainly right now we’re seeing a disturbing rise in Nazism in the country. This serves as a solid reminder of what we fight against.

Gnome and Rat: Time to Party by Lauren Stohler

Gnome and Rat: First Snow! by Lauren Stohler

Okay, I just have a weird weakness for this series. So yes, I admit that I have a problem. But apparently, if you create a book and one of the two stars is a little garden gnome-looking-fellow in love with his own hat, how have I any hope of resisting that? These books continue the Gnome and Rat series and, like that book, they are split up into six small stories. In Time to Party, all the stories are party-based, while in First Snow it’s an epic quest to get to a party on time. However, the important thing is how good Stohler is at humor. She kills at it, honestly. I love that she’s doing more and more Gnome and Rat books, but my secret wish is that someday she branches out and does a slew of new picture books as well. I mean, I love her pug stuff, but if she’s this good at creating a jacked up vole then surely there’s more we can see her do. Until then, definitely enjoy these books. They are one-of-a-kind true delights. 

How It All Ends by Emma Hunsinger

What’s worse than starting 8th grade? Starting 9th grade instead! When Tara finds herself a sudden high schooler she’ll have to figure out friendship, crushes, family, and who she is to survive in this thoroughly hilarious tale. I’m just going to declare right now the fact that this book is literally as funny as Mexikid. There is no higher praise that I can laud upon it. Now, is it a book about a middle schooler forced to go to high school early? Yes. Does that mean that this book is YA? Not even slightly. Our heroine Tara is squarely a younger kid at heart who would rather play with her toddler little brother than watch gross mature TV shows. She gets a crush, yes, but it’s the tamest thing you ever saw. Plus there are elements to this book I’ve never seen before. The finger game chopsticks (which my own kids play constantly) actually makes it to the page. Honestly it’s the humor that’ll sell it. The English class boys are now officially my favorite fictional characters of 2024. Oh, you gotta read this. 

The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue by Jerzy Drozd

Ever read a graphic novel for kids and ended up wondering just precisely how long the dang thing took the poor creator to put together? Drozd is an ambitious graphic novelist, no question, and this book is a trip. The whole premise is that a circumspect and relatively expressionless Doctor Baer (who resembles nothing so much as an animated teddy bear in a neat suit) takes in cursed objects and allows the newly tamed spirits inside them to reside with him. When two adventurers arrive and accidentally allow Doctor Baer’s archenemy to steal (and then immediately lose) a stone that controls the spirits, the disjointed crew bands together to get it back. There is just SO much packing these pages and the colors are incredible. I became quite fond of the adventurer pig Pickles who has an over-inflated sense of cheer, and her grumpy turtle companion Taft. Here’s hoping the series yields more stories in the future, if only so we get to see those two more.

K Is In Trouble by Gary Clement

It doesn’t really matter how nice and polite K is, because he is always getting into trouble. Is it his fault? No! Three stories follow his adventures in a world that never makes sense but is always interesting. I don’t think I’ve been giving Little, Brown & Co. enough credit recently. We all know that graphic novels and comics sell like hotcakes, but that doesn’t mean that the big publishers are all that eager to start publishing weird ones. Thanks to Raina Telgemeier, large chunks of them tend to be personal memoirs, while the remainder are either fantasies or space adventures. Where, then, does K fit in? The only thing that I can figure is that some higher-up in the company fell in love with this bizarre, downbeat little book, chock full of life’s inequalities, and fell in love. As someone said of this title recently, “Nobody is nice to K in this book,” and they’re right. Nobody except perhaps the cockroach at the start, and even it doesn’t stick around. And yet, for all that, there’s something oddly cathartic about it. With a landscape that is based on Prague and a tone that will explain why Lemony Snicket blurbed it, this is a strange but ultimately endearing series of small stories.

Lunar Boy by Jes and Cin Wibowo

Indu was a kid found on the moon, and after living with his mom in space for a while it’s time to make a life on Earth. But just living in this world can be painful, and Indu has to figure out how to sort it out before the moon decides it wants him back. You know how much I love science fiction, and science fiction graphic novels are the absolute best. This one has a distinct Indonesian take that I think is particularly interesting. You know a book is good when the fact that its hero was found wandering on the moon is the least interesting thing about it. There’s a lot of talk in this book about pain and whether or not it’s worth it to live in this world, particularly if you’re queer and still trying to figure things out. The Little Prince is directly referenced at least once (and probably more than once), which sort of makes me start to rethink that book as well. Hm. Beautifully illustrated and the text really sings. This one’s a standout.

Maelstrom: A Prince of Evil by Lorian Merriman

What’s worse than being the evil prince of a necromancer queen? Being a bored evil prince, that’s what. So when Maelstrom, the half-demon, sees a chance to have a little fun with the Hero of Virtue, who is sworn to defeat him, he ends up in an adventure he never expected. This is a pretty clear cut case of a publisher labeling something YA for no particular reason. There’s not even romance! As far as I can tell, maybe it has something more to do with the fact that the hero of this story is a demon spawn, but we don’t even really get the nitty gritty details on that anyway. Instead, it’s a Bildungsroman from the p.o.v. of a snarky demon kid. This is very much for those kids out there who watched the Avenger movies and decided that Loki was their favorite character. It’s witty, fun, full of strong female characters, and it has some great art and action sequences. What’s not to love?

Mendel the Mess-Up by Terry LaBan

Cursed by the evil eye, Mendel can do absolutely nothing right. So when Cossacks attack his small Jewish village, can he turn a curse into a superpower? We find ourselves in a unique position with this book. Its terrible publication date dooms it to 2025 book ordering and not 2024. What to do? Personally, I found this a complete an utter hoot. It really clarified for me what a Cossack was, for one thing. It’s also an interesting take on Judaism. LeBan seems a bit reluctant to mention that the Cossacks really zeroed in on Jewish villages to terrorize, which I found odd considering that the entire book, in a sense, hinges on Mendel’s faith. By the way, I completely fell for kvatch, a drink made out of goat sweat. LaBan pranked me but good. 

The New Girl by Cassandra Calin

Leaving everything she’s ever known behind, Lia and her family move to Montreal from Romania. Now she needs to learn French and fit in in a place where everything is completely different. I’ll confess, I was completely and utterly unaware of the existence of this book until it started showing up on all the bestseller lists. And while that is no inherent indicator of quality, as it turns out, this is great! A hoot! And gorgeously illustrated as well. In many ways it’s straight up middle school fiction, but there are lots of little elements to it that I enjoyed. For one thing, it’s not a story I’ve ever encountered before (Estonian girl starts school in Montreal isn’t exactly a genre). And then there’s the focus on menstruation, which I found really nicely incorporated into the rest of the book. All around good stuff!

Next Stop by Debbie Fong

Pia wasn’t supposed to go all by herself on a massive roadtrip to a mysterious underground lake, but getting away from her family’s grief is important. Now she has a chance to make a new friend, even as the past threatens to swallow her whole. Looking at it, I thought that this might be similar to that book that came out last year about the girl and her father taking a road trip to Area 51 (the name escapes me, so that’s never a good sign). This book was heads and tails better. I liked the ingenuity of the storytelling, going forward in time one way and slowly backwards through Pia’s story the other. It’s sort of a slow building of grief when you go backwards like that. I’m actually very fond of this, but maybe that’s also because I adore bizarre roadside stops. House on the Rock 4-Evah! 

The Night Librarian by Christopher Lincoln

As someone who worked for New York Public Library for more than a decade, I got to know the ins and outs of the Schwarzman Building pretty darn well. So you can imagine what a treat it was to pick up Mr. Lincoln’s book and discover a level of architectural accuracy on its pages that I haven’t seen in a long long time. Boy, he’s packed everything in here! From the ceiling of the Rose Reading Room to the former Children’s Center at 42nd Street (which has sadly moved across the street in recent years) to even the microfiche room (which I used on more than one occasion back in the day). The story involves two kids that are regular attendees of this particular library (never directly named, though Patience and Fortitude are). In this premise, the more books you put together in one place, the more magic they produce. So much so that eventually their characters will try to escape. It’s up to trained Night Librarians to put everyone back where they belong, but recently there have been budget cuts and there’s only a single librarian left. Enter our two heroes, Turner and Paige, who stumble on this world when their dad’s copy of Dracula releases the vampire himself. Getting back to the NYPL accuracy, there are a couple fictional changes to the place, put in there for fun. For example, the book sorting machine is located in Queens at BookOps, not in the Schwarzman. There are no bookmobiles in the main location (it’s a reference library only). And the secret elevator into the forbidden level accessible to only night librarians is less a cage and more a gilded box. Details are everything, after all. 

The Other Side of Tomorrow by Tina Cho, ill. Deb JJ Lee

Foof! Didn’t quite know what to expect when I picked this puppy up. Turns out, it’s an almost contemporary story of two kids escaping from North Korea to America. I’ve been wracking my brain trying to come up with any other graphic novels set in North Korea for kids, and I think that this may be the only game in town. Essentially, it’s about what the author calls the “Asian Underground Railroad” that exists between Korea, Laos, and some other countries. A map would have been a great inclusion, but is sadly lacking at this time. Now Tina Cho takes this from a distinctly Christian perspective, which is kind of rare in books from publishers like Harper Collins. Just FYI that it’s there. Really, though, it’s the art by Deb JJ Lee that makes this a true standout. I cannot imagine how long it took them to illustrate this. Lee, for the record, also gets extra points for a bio that ends, “Their cat, Marlie, has three teeth.” It would actually pair rather well with aforementioned The Girl Who Sang by Estelle Nadel with Bethany Strout. In both cases you’ve a level of gripping realism you don’t always see in our graphic novels for kids. Hand this one to kids looking for reality and harder stories. 

Plain Jane and the Mermaid by Vera Brosgol 

In danger of being homeless upon the death of her parents, Jane proposes to good-looking Peter a marriage of convenience for both of them. But when Peter is kidnapped by an amorous (and hungry) mermaid, it’s up to Jane to step up and rescue him. 2024 is clearly the year of losing your little brother to the sea. We saw it in Next Stop by Debbie Fong and now we’re seeing it in Vera Brosgol’s latest. I am relieved to announce that this book is also delightful. You may feel like that’s a given with Vera Brosgol, but remember that we haven’t seen a comic from her since Be Prepared. This book, as she states in her Author’s Note at the end, is her attempt to upset those Disney princess stories once more. Our heroine is plain. Our villain is beautiful. Our love interest(s) are hot. Oh, and our bad guys sometimes involve Eastern European water demons in bad toupees, which is always a good thing. Definitely fun and one of the strongest of the season.

Puzzled by Pan Cooke

When the intrusive thoughts first appeared in Pan’s mind when he was ten, he had no idea what they were. Now they’re taking over his entire life. A smartly rendered memoir on the puzzle that is OCD. Pretty darn good. We’ve a lot of GNs to look through this year, but this one really breaks down OCD in a way that felt far more real to me than some of the other OCD comics I’ve encountered in the past. Some of it really hit home too, since I had a best friend who went through this at the same ages as Pan in this book. I was particularly impressed by thinking of OCD as a puzzle that absolutely has to be completed.

Save Our Forest! by Nora Dasnes, translated from Norwegian by Lise Laerdal Bryn

What do you do when you’re just a kid and the adults around you aren’t serious about ecological sustainability? When her school’s backwoods is slated for demolition to build a parking lot, Bao and her friends band together to make good trouble. Boy, this book doesn’t pull its punches, does it? There’s a heady realism to this storytelling that I really enjoyed. It feels like a book that truly respects its child audience. Bao’s drive is both admirable and infuriating, which is a wonderful kind of protagonist to follow. Moreover, I loved how the adults tend to pay lip-service to change and the participation of children, but when money is involved they aren’t going to entertain sustainability any further. I thought the solution (getting Bao’s mom to read the legal documents and find the flaw is SO much more realistic than having a kid do it) was great and I loved the casual Norwegianess of it all. All told, this is supremely well done.

Shiny Misfits by Maysoon Zayid and Shadia Amin

Bay Ann is a star. But when her show stopping tap routine is overshadowed by a classmate’s viral video “helping her” because of her cerebral palsy, she’ll do anything to get the video clicks she feels she deserves. I experienced a bit of a rollercoaster ride with this one. I’ll tell you right now that in the first three or so pages I was NOT on board. It takes a little while to get used to the cadences and rhythms of Zayid’s writing. But once I understood it, I was locked in. The jokes run fast and furious, like you’re watching a sitcom on triple speed. Is there a cat that talks in rhyme? There is. Did I somehow still like it? I did. Zayid skillfully makes it clear that while Bay Ann’s cerebral palsy is a part of who she is, the focus of the story is on her debilitating desire for internet fame more than anything else. And if you can think of another vegetarian Muslim heroine in a MG comic, I’d like to hear it. I thought it worked enough in the end (and having a crush on your enemy felt a bit real as well). I’m very interested in what folks will think of this one.

Sky and Ty: Howdy, Partner! by Steve Breen

Sky needs a worthy steed and Ty, the T.rex, wouldn’t mind helping her out. However, this dynamic duo is going to have to learn how to work together if they’re going to be the best delivery service in the west. Sometimes it feels like you just have to wait around a little bit until an author/illustrator finds the genre of children’s book that suits them best. Breen’s done a number of picture books before, but I think this early early chapter book/graphic novel genre is where his particular brand of weirdness suits him best. This is a book with a strong internal logic (dinos + cowboys = a happy place). Love the comic book format and the limited (but still lovely) color palette. It’s a younger comic book, which of course we’re always searching for. Worth it for Sky’s mental image of what riding a T.rex would consist of, alone. 

Sunny Makes Her Case by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm

I’ll confess right here and now that I mostly picked up this book to see if it would make sense without having to read the other Sunny books first. I think I read the initial Sunny title back in the day when it was released, and from what I can remember there was a whole discussion of whether or not it was best for elementary, middle school, or high school due to the content. This book is squarely all three. There’s romance if you want it, but also just a really fun explanation of what debate teams do. The Holms deep dive into the late 70s nostalgia and I am HERE for it! Plus, any graphic novel that features a girl in a power suit on the cover (mercifully before the advent of the 80s shoulder pads) has my vote. Oh, and to answer my own question, you absolutely can read this without having read any of the other Sunny books. Yes, there are allusions to the older brother and his travails, but it’s almost off-handed at this point. Plus I ADORE the image of Jenni at the end with her actual debate team! 

Survival Scout: Tsunami by Maxwell Eaton III

Remember when Ed Young illustrated the picture book Tsunami! by Kimiko Kajikawa. For sheer bone-grinding terror, I’d say that little book would be hard to beat… until now. The Survival Scout series by Eaton has become my go-to place to send kids that are anxious about the natural world and want practical hands-on explanations of how to survive one desperate situation or another. In her last book, Scout survived in the wilderness Hatchet-style (only with better instructions). In this one, she has to survive a tsunami. But long long before we even get to the disaster itself, we have to learn all about the Ring of Fire, earthquakes, plate tectonics, the works. It’s pretty great. Particularly if you live far inland like myself and have zero fear of such disasters. 

Table Titans Club by Scott Kurtz

And it was at this moment that I began to become aware that the number of graphic novels about playing Dungeons and Dragons had FAR outstripped the middle grade novels on the topic. And why not? The advantage of a comic is that what you imagine becomes a reality on the page. Now please don’t ask me to tell you how many D&D related (or D&D adjacent, honestly, since “Dungeons and Dragons” is a proprietary term) comics came out this year. I am but a single woman and there are a LOT of comics I missed in 2024, god help my soul. But this particular book intrigued me. I dunno. I guess it kind of reminded me of the kids on Stranger Things or something. Plus I liked the plot and the tone. Valeria Winters has a tendency to get into fights at her schools. Now she’s trying a new one and almost immediately she’s intrigued by the role playing club called the Table Titans. They need new members (in spite of what some of them might think) and Valeria is willing to learn. Trouble is, the teacher sponsoring them is about to leave and they need a replacement. And the only guy willing to do it? The P.E. coach. And he’s only willing to do it if one of the Titans joins his wrestling team. Now here’s where the book takes a turn that I really and truly enjoyed. Valeria not only joins that team, she DOMINATES on it. And maybe I just have a weak spot for books where girls slam big guys into mats on a regular basis, but I was HERE for it!! The writing is fun, the art great, and storytelling engrossing. Extra Bonus: Girls pile driving huge opponents. 

Uprooted: A Novel About What Happens When Your Family Moves Back by Ruth Chan

You’re thirteen and you’ve just been informed that your family is moving to Hong Kong for a while. What do you do? A fun fictionalized memoir of utter and complete culture shock. This works exceedingly well, a great deal because Chan’s style (which I’d only ever really seen in picture books before) adapts well towards balancing out the lightness of her 90s experience and her ancestors’ experiences on the run during the second Sino-Japanese War. That kind of serious content shouldn’t gel with this style, but Chan makes it work. I thought she did a great job of putting yourself into her shoes. Definitely one deserving of more reads.

Upstaged by Robin Easter

Drama’s perfect for the stage, but this summer Ash is dealing with it off as well. At their favorite theater camp they can’t wait to spend time with their crush Ivy. But when the summer goes in another direction, will they still have a good time? There are just so many camp-related graphic novels out in a given year, and sometimes they blend together. This one, however, I remembered distinctly. I thought the storytelling, emotions, and stakes were incredibly realistic. I really liked the integration of a non-binary character into a book where that was NOT considered a huge deal (or really mentioned much at all). My co-worker said that this is Heartstopper for kids, and I think he was right. Good stuff.  

Weirdo by Tony Weaver, Jr., ill. Jes & Cin Wibowo

After dealing with some truly horrifying bullying, Tony shuts down and refuses to let the world know who he is. But a new school, new friends, and counseling, help him to understand when it’s important to be yourself. The comparisons to Timid are going to be inevitable since both books involve nerdy Black boys with glasses dealing with new schools and bullying. This book gets a little extreme early on, though, when our hero Tony is literally choked by a fellow student. Tony has fictionalized his memoir, but that part is all too real, he says, and you feel it. Loved the art in this book (that was primarily my problem with Timid) and though I did find some of it to be a little didactic at times, I thought that overall it handled its messaging well. It’s also a bit of a thrill to learn how much of this story is actually true. I think you need to check this one out.

Wildful by Kengo Kurimoto

When Poppy discovers a hidden forest connected to her neighborhood she has no idea what she might find. A gentle story of remembering, grief, and the amazing power of nature to heal and help. I mistook this book for the first 20 pages or so for a wordless graphic novel. As it happens, it has words, but they’re telling a complicated story about family depression and the healing power of nature. There’s an inner calm to this story, and I’m just in awe of Kurimoto’s art. It feels like it would have had to have taken years to draw each and every one of the panels on these pages. It sticks the landing. Warning: Don’t read this if you’re already yearning for spring. It may feel like torture to wait any longer after reading this.

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So with all that in mind, here are the other lists for 2024:

December 1 – Great Board Books

December 2 – Picture Book Readalouds

December 3 – Simple Picture Book Texts

December 4 – Transcendent Holiday Picture Books

December 5 – Rhyming Picture Books

December 6 – Funny Picture Books

December 7 – CaldeNotts

December 8 – Picture Book Reprints

December 9 – Bilingual Books for Kids

December 10 – Math Books for Kids

December 11 – Books with a Message / Social Emotional Learning

December 12 – Fabulous Photography

December 13 – Translated Picture Books

December 14 – Fairy Tales / Folktales / Religious Tales

December 15 – Wordless Picture Books

December 16 – Poetry Books

December 17 – Unconventional Children’s Books

December 18 – Easy Books & Early Chapter Books

December 19 – Comics & Graphic Novels

December 20 – Older Funny Books

December 21 – Science Fiction Books

December 22 – Fantasy Books

December 23 – Informational Fiction

December 24 – Gross Books

December 25 – Science & Nature Books

December 26 – Unique Biographies

December 27 – Blueberry Award Contenders (Celebrating the Environment)

December 28 – Nonfiction Picture Books

December 29 – Nonfiction Books for Older Readers

December 30 – Middle Grade Novels

December 31 – Picture Books

Filed under: 31 Days 31 Lists, Best Books, Best Books of 2024