New YA Comics and YA Nonfiction for June 2026

A box of letters binds the stories of two young people across time. When Nataliia, a Ukrainian teenager in the 2010s, discovers a box of letters written by Eliezer, a Jewish boy in hiding during World War II, she is unable to stop thinking about his story. As she continues reading these letters, she sees exactly how the past and the present mirror each other.

Nataliia begins to learn about a hidden chapter of her family’s history, as well as what it means to be resilient and to make difficult decisions in the face of the impossible.

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This is the second book in the “Arcana” series, which follows a group of young people–James, Daphne, Koko, Sunny, and Eli–as they set out to end a generational curse. Below you’ll find the description from the first book in the duology, Arcana: The Lost Heirs, to avoid spoiling the second volume, released this month.

James, Daphne, Koko, and Sonny all grew up in the Arcana, a group of witches who protect the world’s magic. Its leaders are secretive and mysterious themselves.

Eli Jones wasn’t lucky enough to grow up here or even know that the Arcana existed. But when he runs into James and learns about them, he’s brought into the friend group (and finds some Big Feelings with James).

But as the five begin to build their friendship, they realize something sinister is going on, and it relates to the leaders of the Arcana. How did those Majors rise to power, anyway, and what did it have to do with the untimely deaths of their parents?

It turns out that a curse may be haunting the five of them.

Miranda is a perfectionist. Her plans for her junior year of high school include perfect grades, clubs and organizations that look good on a resume, and then being set to get into an Ivy League school. Unfortunately, the pressure she puts on herself is doing incredible damage to both her and her loved ones, so her parents forbid her from every activity she’s involved in. She needs a break, and she needs to do something fun.

Miranda isn’t thrilled by this. So she decides she’s going to do something important and meaningful, but in a way that may slip past her parents. She’ll take part in the 260-mile canoe race known as the Texas Water Safari. Her mom was supposed to do the race with her grandfather, but her mother was injured. Miranda? She’s going to step right in and do it with her grandfather now.

Will she survive the race? Will it change who she is? Does Miranda even have a clue who she is when she can’t be in control of every situation?

Welcome to the fourth installment of this popular queer manga series for teen readers. Again, in the interest of avoiding spoilers, you’ll find the description for I Wanna Be Your Girl, Volume 1, below.

Hime has always loved her best friend, Akira. Those feelings have gotten stronger as they’ve grown up, and they got stronger when Hime knew she was the first person Akira came out as a girl to. Hime protects Akira as much as possible, and Hime is also really thrilled that Akira has decided to be her true self now that high school is beginning.

Akira begins to get a lot of attention, and in her true nature, Hime wants to protect her bestie. But her solution is a little unconventional and one that may not go swimmingly: Hime is going to begin dressing like a boy to get inside the experience of presenting as a different gender.

This new manga looks adorable, and I’ll be adding it to my TBR. The series was previously published digitally, and this is its first appearance in print.

Chika is a pretty and popular high schooler. Waya is a quiet boy. They may seem like they have nothing in common, but they do: once a week, they meet up outside the convenience store where Waya works. They’ve gotten to know one another very well, and there may be some really powerful sparks growing between them.

Based on the popular Webtoon, this first print volume collects episodes 1-32.

Ashlyn likes being a loner, but she’ll have to start to depend on her classmates. That’s because, after a horrible school field trip, she and a few of her peers have started seeing a monstrous phantom. It seems to leave them mostly alone, except when the clock turns to midnight. That’s when the skies turn red and murderous ghosts bandy about. Ashlyn will need to use her classmates to figure out what’s going on and how to survive.

This one’s being called a great horror comic read for fans of Stranger Things and Nightmare on Elm Street.

Rhys Moore is beginning his first year of college. And while he’s worried about all of the usual things, there’s something else he can’t shake. Rhys is face blind, and while he has ways of coping, he fears that being around so many new people and being unable to remember their names or faces is going to be especially difficult.

The good news? He’s met Malcolm, who happens to be one of the kindest people Rhys has ever met. When Rhys tells Malcolm about his face blindness, Malcolm understands–and suddenly, Rhys wonders if Malcolm will be just the kind of person who can help make his time in school not just manageable, but really, really good.

This one’s being compared to Heartstopper.