Skittles’ Cozy Corner

THIS is the stuff I LOVE, the stuff I’d recommend to practically anyone for any occasion. It’s the stuff I buy and keep re-buying because I gift my copies to friends. It’s mostly graphic novels, but there may be exceptions.

Skittles, my cuddly tabby boy, hosts Sunday’s Cozy Corner, because all he wants to do is curl up next to you while you read ALL DAY. (All day reading is mandatory in Skittles’s world, and you’d best stay still like a good human-pillow should. Any movement will result in head-butts and love bites.)

  • Cover of "Beetle and the Hollowbones," featuring the title and an illustrated image of Beetle (a goblin witch) and her friend Blob Ghost sitting on a ledge against a large moon
    Beetle and the Hollowbones by Aliza Layne
    I’m not sure there’s anything cuter than this story of a young goblin-witch Beetle, her new best friend Blob Ghost (an agender Blob Ghost who’s mysteriously bound to the about-to-be-demolished local mall), and her old best friend (and necromancer sorceress) Kat Hollowbone, who just might become her girlfriend by the story’s end.
  • Cover of Xeni, featuring a Black woman with natural hair peeking down the frames of her sunglasses. The background is pastel green and pink
    Xeni by Rebekah Weatherspoon
    This is an absolutely beautiful book. I could gush about it all day, but the core fact is that Rebekah Weatherspoon has written a glorious ode to kindness, unrealistically inclusive small towns, snarky humor (this book is fucking funny!!), and assertively finding joy and happiness in the midst of life’s hardships.
  • Cover of "Tidesong," with the title in white script font on the bottom, across an illustration of a young pale girl with brown hair and a green dress standing on a rock, in the middle of purple-tinted water, with a green sea-dragon's tail whipping up at her. The sky is pink with white clouds.
    Tidesong by Wendy Xu
    This is a massively cute and visually lush work–if you like Kay O’Neill’s Tea Dragon world, definitely check this out!
  • Cover of "The Deep & Dark Blue," with the title in light blue font at the top of an illustration of the central twins, one wearing a blue and white dress, one wearing a white shirt, black trousers, and carrying a sword. The background is purple and reddish pink, with flames leaping up to burn a blue tapestry in the background.
    The Deep & Dark Blue by Niki Smith
    Between the eye-catching art and the heartwarming message of trans affirmation, Niki Smith has created a lovely ode to the importance of community and being open to change. It’s really good.
  • Cover of "Garlic and the Vampire," with title in large white font over an illustrated image of Garlic, a humanoid garlic bulb, wearing a yellow scarf, green jacket, red skirt, and brown boots, carrying a wooden stake and mallet, at the bottom of the page, standing on a dirt path that winds through tall rising tree trunks. In the distance is a castle, and a bat is flying by.
    Garlic and the Vampire by Bree Paulsen
    This absolute delight of a graphic novel is so sweet and cozy, featuring a cast of sentient vegetables, their witch creator, and a not-so-scary vampire who may not be so bloodthirsty after all.
  • cover of "My Beijing," with a cartoon image from the book: young child Yu'er is in the basket of a bicycle being driven by her grandfather, who's in a green postal-worker's uniform. They're driving on a tree-lined street past a large building with Fu Dog statues
    My Beijing: Four Stories of Everyday Wonder by Nie Jun, trans. Edward Gauvin
    If you’re not into whimsy of any sort, steer clear, but if you like the whimsical tempered with more than a dash of the everyday, try to find this asap.
  • Cover of "Forever Home," with the title in purple font above an image from the comic: Willow, a Black girl with short, curly hair, a pink jacket, yellow shirt, and jeans, bends over a "Sold" sign, as her german shepard sleeps at her feet. Next to her on the ground a slightly translucent ghost woman lays on the ground in a white dress; behind her two old lady ghosts hover, one thrusting her head through the SOLD sign; in the background is the ghost of a young male soldier
    Forever Home by Jenna Ayoub
    This graphic novel is so sweet and fun, sort of like if the old film Arsenic and Old Lace met the spunky, won’t-take-no-for-an-answer attitude of comics heroine Goldie Vance, with a dash of Lumberjanes or even Buffy the Vampire Slayer thrown in.
  • the cover of "The Tea Dragon Festival," with yellow cursive font over the top of an illustration from the graphic novel: A darker-skinned femme person, wearing a large straw sun hat, purple short pants, and cream top, carrying a messenger bag, greets a large orange dragon, with white wings and a green outfit. They are standing in a field of red, orange, and yellow flowers, with trees and mountains in the background against a blue sky.
    The Tea Dragon Festival by Kay O’Neill
    This delightful sequel to The Tea Dragon Society is actually a prequel that gives us an extra-long peek into the world of the tea dragons when Erik and Hesekiel, who are old men in book one, were just starting out as an adventuring couple. It focuses on Erik’s nibling, Rinn, and an ancient village guardian Rinn wakes up and befriends (the full-sized dragon Aedhan).
  • Cover of "The Tea Dragon Society" with the title and author Kay O'Neill's name in script font over the background of an illustration from the comic: 2 human-like characters (one pale with small antlers, pink hair, a pink tail, a blue skirt and beige top, and one dark-skinned person with short horns, flip-flops, blue capris, and an orange striped-tank top. They are on a red blanket in a green meadow, and the person in a tank is drinking tea with scent that wafts over the image, while the person in the skirt is petting a tea dragon, who's yellowish and small.
    The Tea Dragon Society by Kay O’Neill
    Kay O’Neill’s style is absolutely gorgeous–like the platonic ideal of cottagecore. This is probably the cutest, most zero-stakes cozy read I’ve ever encountered. It’s one of my favorite books of all time, and I’d recommend it to almost anyone without hesitation.