I got the recommendation for Brooms, written by Jasimine Walls and illustrated by Teo Duvall, off of a random list of graphic novels to buy your teens for Christmas, and I couldn’t believe that it’s been out since 2023 and I hadn’t heard of it! It’s so exactly up my alley. Now, I am bringing it to your attention so you don’t have to miss out on historical queer broom racing teams for longer than you have to.
Brooms is a delight: it’s clear that Walls put a lot of time, care, and love into its construction, and Duvall’s artwork is beautiful and lively. I want to read it again—or, I want to read a whole series of books and watch a TV show in the same setting! It was such a perfect mix of tension, fun, and persecuted communities coming together to find joy in the worst circumstances.
It’s the 1930s in Mississippi, and the US government has issued strict laws governing who can use what type of magic. Mattie and Emma, children who are Indigenous and Black, have to suffer the indignity of inspections by a special agent. If they are found to have developed a spark for magic, they will be shipped off to residential school to be taught “appropriate” (white) magic rather than the magic of their communities, which is outlawed.
Luella, who has had her magic sealed away after she wasn’t sufficiently cowed during her turn at such a school, will do anything to prevent this from happening to her cousins. She introduces them to the Night Storms, a team on the illegal broom-racing circuit that have their own battles to fight. Luella’s crush, Billie Mae, is determined to captain the team to enough success that she and her best friend Loretta can afford to move out west, where Black folks can use their own magic and participate in races legally. And Cheng Kwan, part of the area’s Chinese community, uses the races to be herself, rather than the perfect “son” she presents to her parents.
At the races, they can be a part of a diverse underground community, all of whom are eager for a place to be themselves, be with each other, and, of course, win. If the Night Storms win big enough, they dream of being able to set themselves up in situations where they don’t have to hide and have a greater amount of safety, something that I think still feels very relevant today.
The headiness of Brooms, for me, stems from it’s carefully crafted mix of history and fantasy. Things like residential schools, segregation, and underground queer communities draw heavily from history, but the fun of the broom racing circuit seamlessly fits into this universe—I could almost believe it was something real that I just hadn’t been invited to witness.
Walls and Duvall craft their representation with care and yet with a pleasing sense of blurring neat lines. Choctaw, Black, Mexican, and Chinese communities are all represented, with several of the characters being biracial. A whole spectrum of gender is represented, too, with Cheng Kwan being trans, and Billie Mae dressing in men’s clothes, and the background characters running the whole gamut. Several of the characters are also disabled: one uses a leg brace, one has chronic pain, and Emma is deaf. (I was delighted to read in the author note that Walls consulted with Choctaw language experts about the signs she and Mattie used. That’s such a welcome commitment.)
And of course an underground broom-racing circuit would also be heavily queer. Luella and Billie Mae certainly have a thing for each other, and the whole community is extremely queer and welcoming, to the point where the boy’s school team shows up to try to muscle in on some status, they stand out like a sore thumb, clearly not interested in belonging there because they already “belong” in their regular lives. There’s not enough works about this period, in my humble opinion, that show not only the hardships and dangers, but the sense of community and joy that people made for themselves, and Brooms captures both finding your community and queer thriving. I found the afterward especially delightful.
Brooms is such a delight that everyone should still be talking about it. The original list I found this on was definitely correct: read it for yourself and then pass it to a teen reader in your circle. Come for the mix of historical fiction and fantasy and stay for the excitement of the Big Race and camaraderie and love between an amazing group of women! I will certainly be recommending this to everyone I can get to read it.
