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 LibrariesYouth 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"...
The dumbest idea ever!
Gownley, Jimmy
Paper Book
Jimmy Gownley's graphic novel memoir about the "dumb" idea that changed his life forever!What if the dumbest idea ever turned your life upside down?At thirteen, Jimmy was popular, at the top of his class, and the leading scorer on his basketball team. But all that changed when chicken pox forced him...
Girl on fire
Keys, Alicia
Paper Book
From New York Times bestselling author and 15-time GRAMMY® Award-winning artist Alicia Keys comes a new authentic and poignant coming-of-age young adult graphic novel, about finding the strength within when your whole world changes in an instant. Lolo Wright always...
This one summer
Tamaki, Mariko
Paper Book
A New York Times bestseller A 2015 Caldecott Honor Book A 2015 Michael L. Printz Honor Book An Eisner Award Winner 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...
Drama
Telgemeier, Raina
Paper Book
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...
Hollow
Watters, Shannon
Paper Book
Sleepy Hollow and queer romance meet in this coming-of-age tale from the co-creator of Lumberjanes! Isabel "Izzy" Crane and her family have just relocated to Sleepy Hollow, the town made famous by--and obsessed with--Washington Irving's legend of the Headless...
Hungry ghost
Ying, Victoria
Paper Book
Winner of 2023 Harvey Award for Best Children's or Young Adult Book Valerie Chu is quiet, studious, and above all, thin. No one, not even her best friend, Jordan, knows that she has been bingeing and purging for years. But when tragedy strikes, Val finds herself...

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