Leyh is the creator of the queer-superheroes comic Supercakes and has contributed to BOOM! Studios’ Lumberjanes, Adventure Time, and Steven Universe comics. Chuck is a bad dude, and when he tries to snatch Good Boy back, he unleashes the wrath, and magic, of both Snap and Jacks.

Snap’s dog Good Boy, who has recently lost a leg, scampers around doing doggy things, and no one is bothered by the missing leg except his former owner (and Snap’s mother’s former boyfriend) Chuck. Snap has one friend, Louis, who lives nearby and transitions to Lulu in the course of the story with a minimum of fuss. Her mom isn’t around much because she’s working and going to school. Snapdragon is the sort of graphic novel that immerses you in a whole world of its own. When Snap starts seeing these animal ghosts, Jacks reveals that she really is a witch, and that Snap has the power as well. Sometimes those spirits linger, and they watch over the humans that were kind to them. Once she gets over being grossed out, Snap comes to appreciate the beauty of what Jacks is doing, especially once Jacks explains that she claps her hands over each animal to set their spirits free. Then she digs them up, puts the bones back together, and sells the reassembled skeletons on the internet.

This is where an already weird story gets weirder: Jacks goes out with a wheelbarrow and spade and scoops up roadkill, then buries the animals until nothing is left but their bones. When Snap rescues a litter of orphaned possums, she brings them to Jacks, and the older woman agrees to care for them as long as Snap helps her with her work. Jacks is a feisty old lady with an eyepatch, and everyone in town says she is a witch. She’s a good kid, and a big help to her single mom, but she just doesn’t fit in, especially at school. Snapdragon, usually known as Snap, is a feisty little girl. Snapdragon puts a Southern Gothic take on the teenage witch story, bringing together witchcraft and working folks with more roadkill than you usually see in a middle-grade graphic novel. Format: 240 pgs., Full Color, 5.5'x8', Trade Paperback/Hardcover

Snapdragon book 2 by kat leyh