WITCHES OF BROOKLYN

When a young girl comes to a new home, her family’s magical secrets are unveiled in this graphic-novel series opener.

When 11-year-old Effie’s mother dies, she is taken to live with her elderly, snarky, fashion-forward aunt, Selimene, and her partner, Carlota, in Brooklyn. Until Effie’s music idol, Tily Shoo, arrives with an incurable curse, Effie thinks her aunts are herbalists and acupuncturists. Secretly, they’re also witches! Is Effie a witch too? Magic or no magic, Effie learns there’s power in finding one’s true self and that the path to happiness comes from serving others. The full-color illustrations mix warm earth tones and enticing pastels to create a realistic, comforting world. Clever embellishments, such as floor plans detailing the nooks and crannies of Selimene and Carlota’s house, expand the setting and encourage readers to linger. Leaning heavily on speech-bubbled dialogue and avoiding narration, the text uses an assortment of fonts and line weights to convey emotion and develop characters in tandem with the illustrations. The relationships among Effie and her aunts are nuanced and distinct, with humor to spare. Effie’s backstory is vaguely constructed, but the specificity of her current story compensates for this minor flaw. Visual elements hint at Effie’s probably mixed (Asian/white) heritage; both aunts have gray hair and fair complexions. Supporting characters are depicted with a variety of skin tones and hair colors/textures, although specific cultural markers are seldom provided.

A mixture of everyday adventures and enchanting fantasy, this lighthearted story will delight readers.