Description
Best Books of 2024 lists: NYPL, New York Magazine, Quill & Quire • JLG Gold Standard Selection • Moonbeam Children's Book Award Winner • Kids Indie Next Pick
From the acclaimed author of The Wolf Suit comes another weirdly hilarious, masterfully thought-provoking, and lushly painted early reader graphic novel.
Two sisters, one stubbornly cheerful (Beatrice) and one relentlessly grumpy (Magnolia), live in a drafty old house with a family of helpful spiders. When Beatrice is gifted magic yarn from a giant forest spider obsessed with sustainability named Bog Myrtle, she and the spiders set to work knitting up a perfectly warm sweater.
But greedy Magnolia sees only the opportunity for profit, and quickly converts the old house into a magic sweater factory. The exhausted spiders are driven to strike, and Bog Myrtle is not pleased . . .
Bog Myrtle is a witty modern folktale that touches on themes of capitalism, environmentalism, labor rights, and being a nice person.
“I adore this book as much as I adore empowered spiders, poker-faced narrators, and cooperative bookstores. It’s wry, whip-smart, and freaking gorgeous. Sid Sharp is a maestro of comic timing and subversion.” —Kyo Maclear, author of It Began With a Page
Author Bio
SID SHARP is an artist from Toronto who makes drawings, paintings, and comics. Their debut comic The Wolf Suit was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and was featured in Best of the Year lists by the New York Public Library, School Library Journal, and The Globe and Mail. Sid’s interests include folklore, scary stories, mysterious and unknowable things, and finding good sticks for their stick collection.
SID SHARP is an artist from Toronto who makes drawings, paintings, and comics. Their debut comic The Wolf Suit was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and was featured in Best of the Year lists by the New York Public Library, School Library Journal, and The Globe and Mail. Sid’s interests include folklore, scary stories, mysterious and unknowable things, and finding good sticks for their stick collection.
Prizes
- New York Public Library’s Best BooksJoint winner 2024
- Doug Wright Award for Best BookNominated 2025
- The Nipper: The Doug Wright Award for Emerging TalentNominated 2025
- Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book DesignCommended 2025
- Teacher Favorites List, Children’s Book CouncilJoint winner 2025
- Best Bets, OLACommended 2025
- Moonbeam Children’s Book AwardsWinner 2024
- Sustainability Roundtable, ALAJoint winner 2025
- TD Summer Reading ClubJoint winner 2025
- PubWest Book Design AwardsRunner-up 2024
- Best Graphic Novels for Children, ALAJoint winner 2024
- Librarian Favorites List, Children’s Book CouncilJoint winner 2025
Review Quotes
“The oddity of the story carries over well to the quirky, exaggerated illustrations, with Beatrice a lively, vaguely triangle-like figure bouncing through the pages, with the beanpole, sour-faced Magnolia as a perfect foil. A timely bit of humor is added as the spiders go on strike and march through the pages with signs demanding fair pay and justice.”
— Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, 09/24“[A] lighthearted and surreal take on evergreen themes surrounding the benefits of kindness that’s more Brothers Grimm than classic Disney.”
— Publishers Weekly, 07/27/24“One of the loveliest twisted tales of the year.”
— Betsy Bird, School Library Journal, 11/14/24“An unconventional graphic novel for the budding young activist with a sense of humor.”
— The Horn Book, 01/25“A perfect choice for fans of macabre takes on fairy tales.”
— Booklist, 11/01/24“The artwork is an interesting mix of eerie, suspenseful, and quirky . . . fun reading, with an amusing twist at the end.”
— School Library Journal, 10/24“Like Sharp’s exquisite debut, THE WOLF SUIT, here’s a contemporary fairy tale that is delightfully strange and weirdly hilarious.”
— The Globe and Mail, 12/14/24“The sisters epitomize the classic fairytale binary of good and evil, and it’s wonderfully satisfying when they both get what they deserve at the end, all infused with a slightly twisted sense of humor. Kindness is key in this droll and charming tale.”
— Kirkus Reviews, 08/24