It’s probably fitting for me to wrap up the year with another middle grade graphic novel review roundup, considering how many comics I read this year. This was a good reading year for me overall, even with the gap during the summer for all the academic article/textbook I had to do. I think I was able to lean into reading for pleasure and having less stress about what specifically I was reading, and as a result I read a lot of things that I enjoyed and deepened my love for manga and graphic novels. Next year I would like to keep that up but also thin my shelves out some more of books that have been sitting around for a while, especially the fiction. I’d also like to try to keep up with CBR more although given the balance between school, internship, and the rest of my life, I should probably try to cut myself some slack there. In any event, writing reviews as I finish books instead of sitting on them is a good goal. It is kind of wild to me that this CBR 17 is going to be my fourth year of doing this! It’s always a highlight for me and a lot of fun, and I’m always grateful to the community here for the kind spirit that permeates the whole site. Looking forward to more reading adventures in 2025! And here are my final reviews of 2024:
Crush is the sequel to Junior High and covers the twins’ eighth grade year as their band starts to gain recognition. This is a fictionalized, modernized version of Tegan and Sara’s youth, and I don’t think you need to know anything about them to read this and understand it. Tillie Walden continues to be one of my favorite artists, and she does a really nice job here of differentiating them and having the internal monologue between them make visual sense. The color palette is also such a treat! I liked the tension between Tegan’s desire to push the band and succeed on a large stage, and Sara’s desire to go more slowly and enjoy her normal life. The depiction of teenage emotions felt very realistic, as did the complexity of their friend group, wanting to be grown up but not wanting to, and having a crush and being uncertain about the whole thing. Definitely recommended! I’m sad that this appears to be the last one.
Camp Prodigy follows two nonbinary tweens at a summer orchestra camp. Eli is a very talented musician trying to figure out their relationship to the violin after having bad stage fright and feeling under too much pressure to perform. Their parents want them to try to play without feeling like they have to be perfect or are doing it for other people. Tate heard Eli practicing before the failed performance and it inspired them to start playing the violin. Eli also made Tate realize that being nonbinary is possible. When the two of them meet at camp, Tate promises to keep Eli’s identity a secret in exchange for Eli tutoring Tate. Over the course of the summer, they make new friends and learn how to open up to other people and enjoy music more. This was a really sweet book with some good interpersonal lessons. I did think the sudden switch in how Tate’s parents’ assumptions about being nonbinary was a bit jarring, but I get that this is cheerful middle grade and it needed a happy ending.
Save Our Forest! is the sequel to Cross My Heart and Never Lie, which I loved. I really liked this one as well, and am hopeful more of Dasnes’s work will get translated over here. I enjoyed the trim size they used here, as I think the oversized packaging gives the art more room to breathe and gives it a more impactful feel versus our smaller American standard trim size for middle grade graphic novels. This volume follows Bao as she tries to stop the forest by her school from being cut down and turned into a parking lot. Along the way, she learns about different methods of protest and how to work with others to try to reach her goal. Dasnes does a great job of portraying the intensity of emotions and how to work through modulating them and apologizing if you hurt others. The complexity of being righteously angry while needing help to reach a goal is a subtle thing to portray. Bao is a nicely realized character and her prickliness and rage at the world was good to see, along with her learning how to get others to join her in her fight. I also liked the relationship between her and her mother, with Bao being angry at her and feeling like her mother never listens to her, but with her mother showing her in the end that through communication, she is really on her side and trying to be there for her. Both of these are highly recommended.