Some Adorable YA Graphic Novels You Should Read – Pt. 1 💛🧡

I’ve been wanting to talk about some of my favorite graphic novels, and what’s the best way to talk about them than to recommend them to y’all? So, today, I am going to be recommending five of them to you that I enjoyed a lot in this post and the next five in another post because, well, posts get too big and I don’t have much time due to classes and all that stuff? So, let’s begin now!

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The Prince & the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

This is my favorite graphic novel of all time. It’s about a prince who has a secret life where he puts on beautiful dresses at night and takes the city of Paris by storm. He employs – and later befriends – a famous dressmaker who’s probably the only one that knows that he likes to wear dresses.
Here are a few reasons why you should give this book a chance: 1) it has gorgeous art, 2) it’s a beautiful, heartwarming tale of friendship and finding yourself, 3) the main character is gender fluid, 4) it’s a historical fiction set in Paris, France.

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Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu

This one comes right after The Prince and the Dressmaker on my list of favorites. It’s the story of Nova, a teen witch, who helps her grandmothers run a bookshop and investigate supernatural things happening around their neighbourhood, and one day she runs into a wolf, who turns out to be her childhood crush, Tam. Tam hasn’t been able to find any place and they’re hiding something from Nova.

I think you should read this book first because not only is it beautiful and heartwarming, it’s also perfect to be read in October as it includes witches, magic, and other supernatural elements. Other than that 1) it has gorgeous art, 2) has non-binary and queer main characters who are POC, 3) gay secondary characters, and 4) one main character that uses a hearing aid.

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Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell & Faith Erin Hicks

This is another of my favorite books, but mostly because of the art. It’s the story of Deja and Josiah, two best friends who have worked together at a pumpkin patch since childhood, but this year they’re seniors and need to leave for college. So, they decide to have fun on the last day of their shift at the pumpkin patch – see everything that’s there to see, eat all the snacks, and plan for Josiah to finally admit to his crush that he likes her.

This book is super gorgrous, and you guess it right, perfect for this month. It’s gorgeous and the story is short and cute. Moreover, it has a best-friends to lovers kinda thing going on! The main character is POC, plus-sized, and also, bisexual/pansexual.

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Bloom by Kevin Panetta

Blue is like one of my least favorite colors (after red!), but I still loved this book. This is the story of Ari who works at his parent’s bakery but he has a band and he wants to make it big instead of slogging away at his parent’s bakery for his entire life. So, he needs somebody to replace him and that’s how he meets and befriends Hector, and soon, they fall in love.

This book was really cute and had a lot of heartwarming moments. Since I read it more than a year ago, I don’t remember how much I loved it. Here are a few reasons why you should give it a go: 1) it has gay representation, 2) a lot of bakery scenes in which the characters bake amazing dishes, so it would defo make you hungry, 3) adorable parents who you would want to adopt, and 4) beautiful illustrations.

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Heartstopper by Alice Oseman

This was one of the first graphic novels I had read and had ended up giving five stars. This is the story of Charlie and Nick who become friends and later start falling in love with each other. It’s a sweet, adorable graphic novel where characters try to discover themselves, fall in love and navigate their friendships.

It is so pure and heartwarming and you will definitely adore the characters. Here are a few reasons why you should read it: 1) you don’t even need to buy the book as its also available on Tapas and Webtoon, 2) it’s a cute and adorable story that you wouldn’t want to end, 3) if you loved it, you can read the sequels to this book and also find these characters in Solitaire and Nick and Charlie and 4) it’s by a British author, and I think I barely ever read books by British authors.

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That’s all for the first part of this post. I hope you enjoyed it. Do tell me which ones you’ve already read out of these and which ones you want to!

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