Brooms

Brooms is a wonderful use of the comics medium — as a long-time fan of the medium, as well as an educator, I see so much possibility in the readership for this book.

I loved this. I absolutely LOVED this book. It’s been a while since I’ve read a graphic novel and this was the perfect one. It was tender, exciting, sweet, and is all wrapped up in a world just a shade magical than our own. I teared up by the end with the montage of photos. It was beautiful and I just want more and more and more of the adventures of these characters.

In the state of Mississippi in the 1930s, magic exists and broom racing is all the rage. Except they’re only allowed for white people. Young POC who are discovered to have powers are sent to government boarding schools to be taught the “right way” (meaning : white) of doing magic.

Mattie and Emma, two young girls who are both Black and Choctaw, are trying to train their magic while avoiding being sent to such schools. Their cousin, Luella, came back from one years ago with her powers locked up after she revolted against the government officials mistreating her.

While their family is trying to find a way to pay for an exemption permit (allowing POC to avoid having to learn white people’s way of doing magic), Luella finds the solution : broom racing. While forbidden and quite dangerous, it can be quite lucrative. Also, very fortunately, her girlfriend, Billie Mae, is the captain of the best broom racing team in the state, and is also one of the best at flying.

Then there’s magic and training montages and chosen families as well as supportive bio families and it’s super cute but also infuriating because racism and entitled white dudes. There’s really everything you could wish for (except for the entitled white dudes).


I had such a great time reading Brooms! While dealing with difficult subjects (I mean, POC in Mississippi during the 1930s… do I need to say more), Brooms still manages to be light-hearted and pretty optimistic. The ending and post-credit snippets brought tears to my eyes. Chosen families and queer people growing old are my weaknesses, OK?

There is such great representation in this graphic novel! All main characters are POC, with queer representation, trans representation, as well as people with disabilities and people using sign language. Sign language! Not to take anything away from the rest of the great cast of characters, but seeing a young character using ISL as a primary means of communication, and having the rest of the cast actually make an effort to make her comfortable and call out any behaviour that would keep her from being part of a conversation made me SO happy.

There is so much love and acceptance inside the found family unit of the main characters. The magic and broom racing are great and witchcraft is a theme that I love reading about, but to me the characters are the real high point of Brooms.

I just really want to read it again, and I really encourage you to do the same!

This was such a heartwarming story, blending history with magic and fantasy elements. The story is based in the first half of the 20th century, where young women and men of color are prohibited from using their traditional and natural magics. This is a reference to Jim Crow and other legislations that occurred. There are so many diverse experiences portrayed within the novel.

There is a lesibian couple consisting of a black woman and a native woman. The native woman, Luella, had lost her magic after reacting to abuse in a residential school. The black woman, Billie Mae, suffers from chronic pain and fatigue related to her magic and lost her entire family.

There is a plus size black woman, Loretta, who is an academic, multi talented and married to her very sweet husband.

Cheng Kwan is a Chinese-American Trans woman.

Mattie and Emma are Luella's younger siblings who are black and native. One of the sister is deaf, and everyone works to accommodate her.

There is just so many layers to the representation, especially with the vast amounts of skin color diversity. And to tie it in, all of this is told through a story that is deeply compelling and made me cry from happiness.

This was truly awesome. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

This is the perfect Fall read. The animation style was incredible and well organized, making it easy to follow the story. Something about October makes me crave graphic novels and this one hits every mark with the cozy artistic style, magic, and broom racing! The representation in the story was impressive but not over done. Certainly a story for fans of found family, magic, and Fall. I can’t say I understand the magic system but I had fun on this journey. I haven’t read a graphic novel, or any novel for that matter, like this one. I cannot overstate enough the significant representation blended beautifully with historical reality. To be clear, this is fantasy but it drew on reality.

I implore folks to pick this one up.

Great graphic novel, with tons of representation, that deserves to be the Next Big Thing!
Brooms is a graphic novel about witches (magic people and they also race on brooms) set in 1930s Mississippi, with the background of discrimination of who gets to have their powers without restrictions. The plot follows our characters trying to navigate that world, with a focus on the illegal broom racing (à la Fast&Furious, of all pop culture references). To note that the story was inspired by underground queer communities of colour around the time period.
I loved the story and the characters, and the subject matter is really well-handled and brought to light! The final pages with tastes of epilogue really won me over. I loved seeing all the different types of representation, especially in terms of disability rep, that you don't see often, as well as the diverse background (the bits of native, non-translated text were such a nice touch in the characters' stories!).

Thanks to NetGalley and Levine Querido for the eARC. All thoughts are my own and freely given.

Brooms is a story of underground races, magical traditions, government persecutions and family and community building. When 2 young girls are going to be taken away to school for having magical powers, they are invited to learn to race brooms in hopes of winning enough money to buy their freedom. They meet a wonderful group of diverse witches who are fighting to keep their way of life alive.

This was a wonderful graphic novel that addressed a lot of social justice issues in a sensitive way. The art was gorgeous and the characters were outstanding. Read this book!

"Brooms" is going to be a wonderful addition to anyone's fall TBR or spooky season reads. Although it could be enjoyed to be read all year round as well, even in a school setting.

Set in an alternative 1930's Mississippi where magic is alive, but marginalized communities are outlawed to use it. We follow our witchy main group as they need to help their community and families survive by illegal broom racing. Even having to use spells to hide family members so they don't get sent to a boarding school that if they misuse their magic could very well mean they'd strip their powers.

The representation in this story is top notch to include queer, BIPOC diversity, disability, etc. and even using Indian Sign language and no subtitles for Cantonese for our Trans Girl, Cheng Kwan, character with her parents was such a good choice for this book.

This graphic novel was a thrill of a ride, literally! To see how the teams raced, the different powers conveyed from all different characters, and how laws made by unjust people are that, unjust.