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

SID SHARP is an artist and illustrator from Toronto who makes drawings, paintings, and comics. Their main interests include folklore, scary stories, mysterious and unknowable things, and finding good sticks for their stick collection. Sid attended OCAD University and works in an antiquarian bookstore that smells really good. The Wolf Suit, Sid’s first graphic novel for kids, 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 Sharp's profile page

• Joint winner, TD Summer Reading Club
• Joint winner, New York Public Library’s Best Books
• Winner, Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards

“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

“One of the loveliest twisted tales of the year.”

Betsy Bird, School Library Journal, 11/14/24

“[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

“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 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

“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