A Magical Cooking School, A Rompy Queer Western, and More YA Book Talk: June 12, 2023

Take one part Great British Bake Off and one part Magic School, and you get this just-published comic. Porta Bella Magiculinary Academy is all about cooking with magic, and Basil plans to be the top student her senior year. But then in walks Arabella Oregano, daughter of a chef. Immediately, the two begin to grow close. Basil suspects Arabella is keeping a secret though, despite how much they’re working together in order to secure the top rank at school.

So when the secret is spilled, Basil is faced with one of the hardest decisions of her life.

Belle Hawkins is a wallflower and also the person who prefers to be beneath the mascot costume to keep herself at a distance. But it’s senior year and it’s now or never. She decides to remove the head of her costume and proclaim her long-time crush on head cheerleader Regina Moreno.

Problem? Regina has a girlfriend named Chloe Kitagawa.

Chloe is not doing great in English class, though, and Hawkins thinks this is her opportunity: offer to tutor Chloe in order to get closer to Regina. It seems to be going okay, until the moment that Hawkins and Chloe realize they know each other from their youth, when they were both very different people.

There is love here, but…it might be surprising where it happens.

As much as Ari loves making bread, he can’t imagine doing it for the rest of his life. He’s interviewing new potential people to take over is job, and that’s when he meets Hector. Ari begins to train Hector and prepares for his escape from the work, except…he’s starting to fall head over heels for the new guy.

Aiden Navarro is at summer camp before the start of junior high. It’s an intense summer of hanging out with his friends, navigating bullies desperate to make him feel bad about himself as a half Asian boy, and coming to terms with the fact he might be gay.

One night, when Aiden kisses his best friend and campmate, things shift immediately. Has he forever lost the trust of his friend Elias? Did that kiss mean anything romantic? Was it an accident?

This is a moving, heartfelt story and one that will resonate with younger (and older!) teens. It’s about traversing that tricky space between what faith might tell you is right, what it might tell you is a sin, and how you come to accept yourself as you are.

This graphic novel is about a teen witch who helps out at her grandmother’s bookshop, where she often hands out spell books and assists in looking into supernatural occurrences in her small town. During one of those investigations, she stumbles upon her childhood crush and wants to not only rekindle feelings, but also to help him reclaim his power. It’s about family, about the ways history can tie a family and romantic relationship together, and for readers who don’t usually like “horror,” it’s not especially gory. It’s about super-magical powers and spirits.

Xu’s art is perfectly suited to the story, with a wide color palette.

Sixteen-year-old Cade is in the closet because he has to be; he is a Latino living in rural Texas. His escape is horror movies.

This summer, he’s working at a local ranch to help make ends meet at home. He hates it though, save for the two teens who live on that ranch. Especially the very attractive Henry.

The two start to become closer over the summer, but Henry is dodgy about a lot of things, including his mother’s death. Cade worries there might be more that his crush isn’t telling him.

This is inspired by, as you might guess by the title, Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. It is romantic and gothic and queer as heck.

When Becca moves to a new, small, posh town, she’s immediately taken in by the popular crowd and ditches the lone fat girl at school who she had a quick connection with (that girl wasn’t cool enough). Soon, Becca learns this elite girl gang has a secret: under the full moon, they transform into werewolves who set out to destroy boys who are too eager to take advantage of girls. All seems well at first, as they plan their attacks outside of Piedmont, but when Becca accidentally destroys the boyfriend of one of her fellow girl gang members, their days are numbered.

This is Mean Girls meets Heathers meets Teen Wolf, and it will become clear why Becca acts as she does. Revenge is best served by teen girls.

Flor, a Latine outlaw, and Grace, a trans runaway, are at the center of this story set in the wild west, where they must team up to put an end to a Confederate plot in New Mexico territory.

Stagecoach theft and heists ensue in this rollicking, wildly queer read.