Magical Friendship

¡¡Manu!! is a graphic novel about a class clown who’s skilled at magic. Named Manu, the girl pulls pranks on her teachers and classmates. One day, after pranking her class, she loses her magic. With help from her friend Josefina, she finds a way to get her powers back—but at a cost.

Kelly Fernández is the book’s author and illustrator. She told TFK she was influenced by urban legends from LatinX culture. “I’ve always been fascinated by supernatural things, like witchcraft and ghost stories,” she says. “I wanted to explore and represent that in the story.” She was also inspired by her family and her Dominican heritage. “It was important to me to sprinkle in phrases that my own family would use,” she says.