Coming of age (YA comics)

Sometimes, important stuff happens. Sometimes, that stuff is important enough to make an impact on you, acting as a rite of passage. This stuff can be a single memorable moment, experiences with friends, family, at school, or just something singular and within ourselves.

When this happens in fiction, we call it 'coming of age'. All the comics in this list take effort to identify this 'stuff', make it real, and explain it, while taking us along on the same journey as the characters and hopefully revealing something more.

Updated August 1, 2024
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Wellington City Libraries Youth team at Wellington City Libraries
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The sacrifice of darkness
Gay, Roxane
Paper Book
"When I was a young girl, my husband's father flew an air machine into the sun. Since then, the days have been dark, the nights bright." Roxane Gay, Tracy Lynne Oliver ,and Rebecca Kirby adapt Gay's New York Times bestselling short story "We Are the Sacrifice of Darkness"...
DPS only!
Kong, Xiao Tong
Paper Book
This captivating coming-of-age story set in the world of e-sports will have readers cheering for girl gamer Vicky Tan as she overcomes social anxiety, self-doubt, and an overprotective big brother to pursue her dream of becoming a competitive gamer. From the Tapas webcomic, a 2021 Eisner...
This one summer
Tamaki, Mariko
Paper Book
Every summer, Rose goes with her mom and dad to a lake house in Awago Beach. It's their getaway, their refuge. Rosie's friend Windy is always there, too, like the little sister she never had. But this summer is different. Rose's mom and dad won't stop fighting, and when Rose and Windy seek a...
Drama
Telgemeier, Raina.
Ebook
From Raina Telgemeier, the #1 New York Times bestselling, multiple Eisner Award-winning author of Smile and Sisters!Callie loves theater. And while she would totally try out for her middle school's production of Moon over Mississippi, she can't really sing. Instead she's...
Hungry ghost
Ying, Victoria
Paper Book
Sixteen-year-old Valerie Chu is quiet, studious, and above all thin. No one, not even her best friend Jordan, suspects that she has been binging and purging for years. But Valerie's life, and priorities, are upended when her father dies abruptly. At home, she abandons her ED patterns as she tries to...

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