A Discussion of The Witch Boy by Molly Ostertag

Molly Ostertag’s debut middle-grade graphic novel The Witch Boy was first published in 2017. The graphic novel was written and illustrated by Ostertag, and it follows Aster, a boy who wishes to practice witchcraft despite it being forbidden for boys. He lives in a magical community with his family, which is separated from human society and the only contact they have is with other magical families around the area. Each member of the community contributes to sustaining the way of life. The men in the community become shapeshifters whereas the women learn about witchcraft and perform spells. Aster has no interest in shapeshifting or physical fighting, instead, he wants to learn spells and the ways of the witches. Men and boys are forbidden from learning witchcraft since the community adheres to strict gender roles. There is only one man in the community who attempted to learn witchcraft before and it did not go well. Besides the challenges Aster faces due to his gender-nonconforming identity, his cousins are mysteriously going missing.  

While reading this graphic novel, I could not help but pay attention to the representation of girlhood and how the novel constructs it. Currently, I am taking a class with Professor Lashon Daley in which we look at representations of girlhood in Middle-Grade and YA novels. The Witch Boy is a graphic novel that interacts heavily with gender roles and how girlhood has been constructed in a magical society. 

The Witch Boy does not waste any time in depicting girlhood. The graphic novel's construction of girlhood mirrors our society’s image of girlhood. For example, Aster is caught spying on the girls’ magical lesson, and an elder scolds him by saying: “Aster! This lesson isn’t for you -- these girls are learning secrets!” (Ostertag 5). Aster, as a boy, is berated for trying to learn girls’ “secrets.” While reading this, I could not help but think about how girls and boys are separated for sex education in middle school. Boys are not allowed to learn about girls’ bodily changes. The boys in the graphic novel do not have lessons like the girls’; they just play around and sometimes practice their shapeshifting. We learn quickly how gender roles are strictly upheld in this world, which very much mirrors our own. I enjoyed how this is how we are introduced to Aster. Immediately, we know that he does not fully fit into his community because of what is being said to him and where he is on the page (up on a tree at a distance).

In Dr. Daley’s course, we read Megan Henesy’s article ‘Leaving My Girlhood Behind’: Woke Witches and Feminist Liminality in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” which centers Sabrina as the gothic figure due to how she navigates two worlds (2). In class, we discussed how Sabrina, as the “woke witch,” embodies the following characteristics: liminality, activism, being 16 years old, being a virgin, encountering a dark wizard, feeling out of place, choosing her place in society, and having a sidekick. I believe that The Witch Boy is a great book to read through this lens. 

Many of the elements of Henesy’s “woke witch” framework are present in The Witch Boy. First we have liminality. Aster exists in two spaces, boyhood and girlhood, and because of this he does not fit into his culture. The second characteristic is “activism,” which Aster engages in due to questioning why boys cannot perform witchcraft. Once Aster is caught spying on the girls’ magic lesson he has a conversation with his mother about not being able to perform witchcraft: “I don’t understand why Juniper and Hazel and them can all learn how to talk to trees and make potions and do spells and I can’t...It’s not fair” (7). After this he goes on to perform magic on his own, challenging the system in place. Furthermore, Aster does not meet the age requirement for the “woke witch.” The Witch Boy is a middle-grade text, and his age is not specified. Aster can be presumed to be an older tween (10-12) or a young teen (13-14). As for the virginal state, The Witch Boy does not engage with sexuality, and due to his age Aster mostly likely fits this criteria of the “woke witch.” Aster does have an encounter with a dark wizard, which in this case is the villain of the narrative. The villain in this text is a dragon-like creature who wants Aster to join him in his dark magic endeavors. The “dark wizard” is similar to Aster, but he has embraced the “dark side” of magic.

The next characteristics of the “woke witch” framework are feeling out of place, choosing your place, and having a sidekick. Aster’s family constantly reminds him that witchcraft is solely for girls. For example, his mom explains to him: “But, Aster, that magic is for you...Women and men have different types of magic” (8). She then tells the story of Mikasi, Aster’s great uncle, who did not adhere to the gender roles and was ostracized in the community, “[h]e was cast out for he was a danger to himself and the family” (11). Aster’s mother lets him know that if he were to practice magic openly he could be banished from the community. This serves as a warning and solidifies how out of place he is within the place he calls home and the people who are supposed to love him unconditionally, his family. Moreover, Aster is able to choose his place when he meets Charlie. She is a human he meets while walking outside his community. They share the same feelings of not belonging in their communities. Charlie is a girl who loves sports and has two dads. As the story progresses she becomes Aster’s sidekick, encouraging him to perform magic. She eventually asks him to heal her injured leg (75-76). 

Aster’s journey in The Witch Boy follows the dynamics of Henesy’s “woke witch,” except for the age. Reading this graphic novel and looking at it through this framework was a fun exercise! I wanted to showcase how children’s literature scholarship can be applied widely and the type of exercises graduate students like me engage in.

I hope you will pick up The Witch Boy by Molly Ostertag because it is truly a wonderful graphic novel. I know I will be reading the following volumes in this trilogy (Hidden Witch and The Midwinter Witch). Also, it is being adapted into a Netflix animated musical, so why not get ahead of the movie release?

References:

Henesy, Megan. “‘Leaving My Girlhood behind’: Woke Witches and Feminist Liminality in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.” Feminist Media Studies, 2020, pp. 1–15. Crossref, doi:10.1080/14680777.2020.1791929.

Ostertag, Molly. The Witch Boy: A Graphic Novel (The Witch Boy Trilogy #1). Illustrated, e-book, Graphix, 2017.

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Star Wars Across More Than Just Galaxies

Over the last few decades, millions all around the world have been captivated by the epic tale that spans out over 6 movies (so far) and 40 years. At the heart of the Star Wars story, the notion of childhood as a dark, difficult, and confusing time can be found initiating the battle between good an evil. Beginning with one child, Anakin, who leaves his mother to become a defender of the galaxy, the child perspective in this story reveals the sacrifices one might have to make in order to grow up and create a new and independent identity. Whether fans began in their own childhood with the first movies that popularized the story or whether fans are the children of these original fans, it can be said that even a third generation of Star Wars fanatics are being born.

The Star Wars world is captured beyond just the movies these days. When the second three part series of the movies were released in 1999, a large variety of children and young adult literature was published continuing the Star Wars story into a new generation. Well-known YA authors, Todd Strasser and Jude Watson, wrote for Scholastic’s Star Wars Journal series through which they were able to expose the story in a new light to younger readers. The Journal series enhanced the Star War story and main characters themselves by including short novels told from the perspective of the main character. Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars: Episode 1: Journal #1 published in 1999) was intended to touch on the childhood emotions of the young character. Anakin tells his perspective of what life was like as a slave and the reader gets to see into what he felt when choosing to leave his mother and home behind. The child tone narrating life before and after Qui-Gon, Jar Jar, and Padmé came into the picture grants a new sympathetic appeal to a man who becomes the galaxy's terrifying bad guy. Since children are often excused for wrong or rude behavior, the ability to see this bad guy character at an age identified with innocence gives a new spin to the whole story. The child perspective for Anakin's character appeals to young readers and fans because it is a scenario that is bound to one day happen; it shares the hardship and decision of leaving parents behind to become the adult they want to be.

Queen Amidala or Padmé was given another book from the Journal series that tells the story from a fourteen-year-old girl who is faced with the responsibility of caring for her home planet after its invasion. The feminine touch here adds an appeal to young girls because Padmé is a strong young woman who demonstrates agency in her position that can be more often associated with men. This grants authority, capability and desire for young teen girls trying to find their own voice. Her young character also demonstrates a more unisex political perspective that can broaden the scope of who can become a politician in the real world, while at the same time highlighting the sort of hardships and complications that may arise. Such an example would be the invasion of the Trade Federation and their assumption that Naboo would be an easy conquer solely because of her position as young teen queen. Her book from the Journal series captures her conflicting desires to stay strong and with her people, while at the same time the importance of her escape in order to save them ultimately showing the difficult decision she must use her own agency to make.  

These first person perspective books from some of the most famous child characters also exposed the beginning of the Empire's greatest love story. The first person narratives allow a close reading of their friendship blossoming while still needing to grow into their own adult identities. Also, the reactions of their first encounter together captures the hearts of young readers because it grants a look into the emotions these characters consciously work to understand. What is seen here then is how the story of Star Wars is one that begins as a child’s and young adult adventure to save worlds and bring peace to the galaxy. The child voice through this particular book series and others like it, expands upon child agency as the children are left to make their own choices and mistakes. Allowing childhood agency then to demonstrate a justification of why Darth Vader became who he is, makes the story about a man trying to save the women he loves, a once teenage queen who lived with him through the hardest decision of his life. The expression of fear and sadness Anakin faces leaving home to create his grown identity as a Jedi suggests that the child voice is something that was always crucial to the story and Darth Vader as a character.

Today the Star Wars story continues to be told in books meant for a younger audience. Author Jeffrey Brown created a series titled Jedi Academy also from Scholastic Inc., which follows the current children's book trend of graphic novel with a childish tone and silly images, a similar style to the popular Captain Underpants series. Chewbacca (known as Kitmum) is the P.E. instructor who offers advice to his student, but because he speaks in growls, his advice must be translated through the main character Roan Novachez. To convey the world of Star Wars, the child character Roan explains he wanted to be a pilot before being drafted into the Jedi Academy. Even though set in a science fiction world, the struggles he faces with teachers and friends as a child starting his journey into adulthood is still found. This series is told from Roan's perspective and still works to establish the familiar images of Star Wars but coming through a childish and captivating perspective. C-3P0 becomes T-P30 and R2-D2’s name is changed to RW-22 who still has to have his beeps translated by his faithful robot friend, bringing the classic Star Wars vibe back into the hearts of young readers.

Since Disney has announced the release of the first of the last three Star Wars movies later this year, it seems appropriate to stop and remember where it all started. Perhaps Star Wars captured so many hearts because of its childhood elements that construct the story it ultimately became. If this is the case, then it may prove that fantasy and sci-fi with a little child or young adult spark can increase its depth within our own memories of childhood. Or maybe what captures fans is that the evil that transforms Anakin from a sweet child into the ruthless leader might have not happened without the dysfunctional family he was miraculously born into or the one he creates. Regardless, this story’s journey from childhood in a futuristic world still captures the terrifying identity crisis of owning one’s agency in childhood and being left with the decisions made innocently that could be the cultivators of good or evil within the adult.

Notes:

• Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars: Episode 1: Journal) Paperback – May 3, 1999 by Todd Strasser 
• Queen Amidala (Star Wars Episode 1, Journal #2) Paperback – May 3, 1999 by Jude Watson 
• Star Wars: Jedi Academy Hardcover – August 27, 2013 by Jeffrey Brown