Teens Summer Reading Program!

It time for the Teen Summer Reading Program! Signing up is painless!

Teens get a card and when you get nine clips from the card, you can turn it in for the drawing and prizes! The grand prize drawing includes $50 cash cards from US Bank.

Anyway, just to tie back in to graphic novels, one of the clips on the card is reading a graphic novel. Or a graphic nonfiction. Or a biography.

So if you read Houdini, reviewed already in this blog, that would be a graphic novel - nonfiction - biography. Three clips!

For more information, see the Teens @ Duluth blog!

Girls just wanna…

…kick butt and change the world!

Spider-Girl is May Parker, a future daughter of Peter Parker, the amazing Spider-man. She was originally created for a one-shot imaginary story, but was so popular that Marvel continued with her and other “next generation” heroes. And super-hero teens can have a whole set of problems. Her parents, dad especially, were not happy about their little girl going into the hero business and she still has to hide her identity from her school friends. There are a few other titles set in this version of the Marvel Universe: A-Next the new Avengers, and Wild-Thing the daughter of X-Men’s Wolverine. These books are rated for all ages.

Girl Genius a gaslamp fantasy with adventure, romance & mad science featuring Agatha Heterodyne. The world of Girl Genius is a Victorian-style steam-punk adventure. People born with The Spark can go into a trance and create wonderful (and dangerous) machines. Agatha is last of her family line and is a very powerful Spark. She is chased by others who wish to control her. Her allies are the Jagermonsters and The Emperor of Cats. The stories are fast paced and there are a lot of puns. A great read.

Mystics and Dimension Travel

xxxHolic and Tsubasa:Reservoir Chronicle are the latest manga being written by the CLAMP artist team. The two series tie in and cross over with the other as well as a variety of other CLAMP series.

Both series start out with deceptively simple storylines.

In xxxHolic, high school student Watanuki is plagued with the ability to see spirits. He stumbles into a strange shop owned by Yūko Ichihara. She grants wishes for whatever price she names. Watanuki wishes to be free of the evil spirits; Yuko offers to grant that wish after he has served as her personal assistant for an unknown period of time. Watanuki cooks, cleans, and accompanies Yuko occasionally to help with granting wishes.

In Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, CLAMP is apparently reusing the characters Sakura and Syaoran from their previous series Cardcaptor Sakura, now cast in a new dimension. Sakura is a princess and Syaoran is an archaeologist who secretly loves her. While visiting Syaoran’s latest find, Sakura is subject to a magical attack which scatters her soul and memories across the multiple dimensions in the form of feathers.

The two series cross over when Syaoran, with the comatose Sakura, begs Yuko for the means to save Sakura. For a price, Yuko provides the ability to travel the dimensions and communicate with her via a Mokona creature. Syaoran and Sakura are joined by a magician, Fay, and a ninja, Kurogane. The four of them and the black Mokono start their travels, running across alternate versions of characters from previous CLAMP series.

(At this point I thought CLAMP was trying to apologize to the characters they had created and then done horrible things to: for example the travelers met two happy couples who’s previous incarnations had been left in some combination of broken up, dead, or insane.)

Two fairly simple but interesting and well drawn series. But this is CLAMP and they don’t do simple.

So there have been twists and turns and insanity and true love and lies and confusion and secrets and lost memories and eyeballs being ripped out and souls torn apart and souls put back together and all the fun stuff CLAMP is known for.

They may even finish these series.

Go West?

The space for shelving manga at the West Duluth branch has doubled! So I need to buy lots of new books for the branch. The patrons there seem to prefer boy’s manga, but I thought I should throw in a few girl’s manga titles as well.

Here are some titles I am thinking of ordering. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Beet the Vandel Buster is a fun book, rated for all ages. The story features a boy, Beet, who has dedicated himself to destroy the monsters known as Vandels. Some Vandels are barely more than mindless beasts, but some are very clever.

Hunter X Hunter follows the adventures of Gon, a country boy who wants to become a Hunter. This series is rated T+ for older teens.

The .hack//Legend of Twilight series has been rather popular at the main library so I decided to add these two new series to the main library and West library. The .hack stories take place principally in the virtual game called “The World.” Real people create or are assigned avatars; the characters which they use to interact in “The World.”

.hack//xxxx is the origin story of the famous avatars Kite and BlackRose. In the real world, a boy is suddenly sent into a coma when he takes a hit to protect his friend, Kite, in “The World.” The game turns dark as Kite must unravel the mystery behind his friend’s coma.

.hack//g.u. is set in the far future of the.hack universe. “The World” has become a vary dangerous place; overrun with lawless characters. Haseo tries to protect “The World” by hunting down those who attack and kill in the game. Things turn deadly when the avatar killer TriEdge threatens Haseo’s real world friends.

Both series are rated T for teens 13 and up.

Gakuen Alice and Muhyo & Roji’s Bureau of Supernatural Investigation are two more all new series for the library.

In Gakuen Alice, Mikan follows her best friend Hotaru to the exclusive Alice Academy. To stay with her friend, Mikan must prove that she has a special talent that makes her worthy of the Academy. This series is rated T for teens age 13 and up.

Muhyo & Roji’s Bureau of Supernatural Investigation battles evil ghosts, exorcises unwanted spirit possessions, and otherwise deals justice to the spirit world. Rated T for Teens 13 and up.

And last, but not least, is Spider-man! The Marvel Adventures Spider-man series updates Spider-man’s earliest stories. Green Goblin, Sandman, Doctor Doom and more villains battle Spider-man in this exciting series. Marvel rates this series for All Ages.

As Seen On TV

Lots of popular anime is based on popular manga series. These two series have anime that is currently licensed for the Cartoon Network.

Bleach features Ichigo Kurosaki, a young man who starts with the ability to see spirits and accidentally absorbs the powers of a shinigami (Soul Reaper or Death God) from Rukia Kuchiki, a shinigami who was injured trying to protect Ichigo. He must now take over Rukia’s duties until the powers are returned to her. Ichigo must learn to use these powers to fight Hollows (evil spirits) and eventually dealing with supernatural politics. Rukia creates a human body for herself and takes up residence in Ichigo’s closet in order to help and teach Ichigo.

Eureka Seven : Renton Thurston’s boring life is abruptly improved when the beautiful Eureka literally crashes into his life and his bedroom with her mecha Nirvash. The fourteen year old Renton has spent his life learning engineering from his grandfather, “lifting,” a kind of energy surfing and dreaming of joining the Gekkostate, a group of rebels. Eureka is a member of the Gekkostate and Renton joins her, becoming the co-pilot of Nirvash.

Both series are rated Teen, for ages 13 and up.

A Fine Romance!

In Japan, Valentine’s Day is celebrated by the ladies giving the men in their lives chocolate. Giri-choco (obligation chocolate) is given to friends, bosses, and co-workers so they don’t feel left out. Honmei-choco (potential winner chocolate) is a more expensive or homemade chocolate that a woman gives to a man she likes. She may also give him a nice present of some sort.

March 14 is White Day, when the men are supposed to reciprocate with candy and presents.

Valentine’s Day romance is a popular story in manga. Guys getting overrun with chocolate, girls agonizing over trying to give chocolate, or guys desperate for chocolate. In Ouran High School Host Club vol 4 the club has to refuse chocolate because Hunny’s teeth are rotting. The girls of the school are crushed until Tamaki saves the romance of the day!

Kare Kano is a long romantic comedy about two high school kids learning to get past their facades and find love.

On the other end of the romance spectrum is Train Man Densha Otoko, a classic story of ‘geek meets girl and then panics.’ Supposedly based on a true story, “Train man” starts when a 23-year-old geek signs on to a national message board for singles and explains his amazing day. While riding the train, he intervened when a drunk started harassing a group of women. Later, one of the women sends him a rather expensive set of tea cups. Does she mean more than ‘thank you’? What should he do now? If he calls her, what should he say? Thousands of online readers assist in teaching him what to say, how to dress, where to go on a date, and how to behave; in return “Train Man” writes about his blossoming romance. When the two finally kiss, thousands rejoice.

Incidentally, if you don’t get anything for Valentine’s or White Day you can celebrate Black Day on April 14th, by going out with other singles and eating Jjajangmyeon, Korean noodles with black and white bean sauce (hence the name).

Novels going graphic!

While there is a long history of comic book adaptations of classic stories, the growing popularity of the graphic format is leading to an increase of adapted and original graphic novels by popular authors.

Artemis Fowl the graphic novel is a straight adaptation of the first novel. Criminal genius Artemis Fowl II decides to restore the family fortune by stealing fairy gold.

Stormbreaker is an adaptation of the popular Alex Rider series. This set of thrillers works very well in graphic format!

Warriors graphic novel series is a parallel storyline from the main novels. The manga follows Graystripe after he was taken by Twolegs (humans) in Dawn, the third book of Warriors the new prophecy until his return in The sight the first book in Warriors, the power of three. The story deals with Graystripe’s escape from the Twolegs and his struggle to return to the clans. He heart also starts to mend when he meets a kittypet, Millie, who leaves her family behind for him.

Avalon High Coronation is the sequel to Meg Cabot’s Avalon High. King Arthur has been reincarnated to hopefully lead the world into a new golden age. If he can survive! Elaine Harrison (the reborn Lady of the Lake?) narrates this modern tale of King Arthur and his knights.

Star struck revenge!

Skip Beat!
Kyōko Mogami gave up everything for her childhood sweetheart, Shōtaro Fuwa. She dropped out of school, worked multiple jobs, and took care of him at home, while he became a big pop idol. Then she catches him with another woman, proclaiming how he would send away the plain, boring servant girl.

Does Kyoko fall apart and cry? NO! She swears REVENGE!! One awesome makeover later and she is on her way to audition for the head of agency that rival’s Sho’s. She fails at first because an actress must love herself and her audience for Kyoko has lost faith in love and in herself. But she so impressed the president of the company that he created a new branch just for her and others like her. If she works hard enough and earns enough “Love Me” points, he will make her a star!

I don’t think I would call this series a romantic drama, as such. It can be intense at times and you do want to cheer Kyoko on to victory.

Rated T for teens, 13+

Kingdom Hearts

Kingdom Hearts is based on the video game of the same name. The main character, Sora, travels to various worlds interacting with both Disney and Final Fantasy characters while trying to find King Mickey and eventually battling the Disney Villains.

Kingdom Hearts Chain of memories continues Sora’s story. His friend Riku was lost at the end of the first series, so Sora is now traveling with Donald, Goofy and Jiminy Cricket to rescue Mickey and Riku. Meanwhile Riku must battle his own inner darkness.

The third series is called Kingdom Hearts II. Readers follow Roxas, an energetic young boy enjoying his last days of summer vacation, as he struggles to understand the mysterious dreams of a boy named Sora. Eventually the connection between Roxas and Sora is revealed.

These books are kept in the Juvenile Manga section of the library. They are all rated A for all ages.

Naruto update

As my colleague mentioned here Naruto now has three volumes published per month until the end of the year. The library also has Naruto the movie:Ninja clash in the land of snow.