New Comics and Nonfiction in July, Plus YA Book News, July 11, 2024

Pierce’s The Protector of the Small series gets a graphic novel take. Tortall has a new rule that women can train for knighthood, and Keladry is going to be the first to take advantage of it. She knows it’ll be a lot of work, but the challenge she’s worried about isn’t the work of being a page. It’s Lord Wyldon, who doesn’t believe women should have the right to become knights. As training master, his say has too much influence—and the consequences for Keladry aren’t small. She will be forced to undergo a year-long trial that none of her male peers have ever endured. But Kel will fight until she succeeds.

Dorian Leith sees ghosts, but no one in town believes him. Dorian doesn’t just see ghosts, though. He’s there to listen to their problems as a way for them to get admission into the afterlife.

This is all a schtick to the townspeople. The only people who believe him and his ability are his grandmother, who is helping him make a living from the work (she’s dead, btw), as well as a local bookstore owner. This isn’t a curse to Dorian. It’s what he’s meant to do.

So when the key to Death’s Door goes missing, locking every ghost out of the afterlife, the ghosts are begging Dorian to do something. Only he knows their problem, meaning only he knows how to solve it and find the key. If they can’t get into the afterlife, they will be consumed by rot.

Dorian wants to help them, but he will need help himself in order to make it happen. Can he convince the people in his real life about the ghosts? About their need for help? Or will everyone be dealing with the effects of ghost rot, whether living or attempting to find the afterlife?

Despite the passage of Title IX which made it possible for women to play in more professional sports, women have been routinely underpaid and poorly treated compared to their male counterparts. This book is about how the women who have played on the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team fought to earn equal pay and treatment through their union and by working with the men’s team (and that contract to get them equal compensation did not happen until 2022!!!).

Pair reading this one with Karen Blumenthal’s fantastic Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX: The Law That Changed the Future of Girls in America.

In 1990s Angola, in the midst of a civil war, the power goes out in the neighborhood. That leads to a teen boy and teen girl starting a conversation in a backyard. The darkness lends itself to the two of them sharing some of their most vulnerable stories and feelings, creating a connection that has more power than electricity itself.

This is translated from Portuguese and among the rare few comics for teens in translation (that’d make an awesome newsletter theme, wouldn’t it?).

Philo isn’t a great student, and that’s not because he doesn’t have powers—those are, err, too good—but because he’s just unmotivated. But he’s nearing graduation and his lack of ambition is catching up with him.

Atlas is a star student, opposite of Philo in just about every way. When the two are teamed up for a group project, things go haywire when Philo’s magic sends them far from home. Can they conquer their differences and get back before it’s too late?

Knisley began this series of comics online, telling the story of a housecat named Linney. Linney is dramatic, to say the least. This book collects the original webcomics and offers readers a hilarious view into the world of a cat who has a whole lot to say.

Kay’s mom is forcing her to join the church youth group. Kay is not exactly looking forward to the clean-cut “fun,” especially because she is the furthest thing from youth group material imaginable.

But when Kay goes and discovers that her peers and the youth group leaders are participating in an exorcism, her perspective shifts. There’s a war brewing. A secret war. The youth group is preparing to go to battle.

As much as Kay wants to stay out of it all, she cannot help but do so. She doesn’t have the power her peers have and in this war, not having it means she’s a target. Now she has to put her trust and her time into the hands of her youth group in this comic compared to The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.