Brooms

 

Brooms by Jasmine Walls and Teo Duvall, 248 pages.

In a 1930s Mississippi slightly more magical than our own, illegal broom races fill the skies deep in the woods. These races are a vibrant gathering place for the people too marginalized for the national races, and an opportunity to win the money to change lives. Billie Mae is the leader of the Night Storms, and is determined to make enough money to get to one of the states where Black folks can legally practice magic. Sisters Mattie and Emma are trying to earn enough money to avoid getting sent to a residential school, a place where their cousin went and came back without her magic. Other members of the Night Storms have their own reasons to race, and as time runs out and the law draws closer, their desperation sends them to the most dangerous race of all. 

This was a really neat book! It draws on a lot of real history and extrapolates from there to make a world the feels real and believable. The art was expressive, and I think it did a good job helping to tell the story. A pretty cool historical fantasy graphic novel, definitely worth checking out.