Teen Read Month Read Beyond Reality Tournament!
In a very close vote, Ninjas beat Vampires and Fairies beat Zombies!

So this week it’s:
NINJAS vs FAIRIES!

This could actually be a close match, power wise.

Ninja are fast, have a variety of powers (real and illusion), but they are mortal.

Fairies can vary in size from inches to human size, have magic powers, are immortal but are allergic to cold iron.

Who can win?

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Teen Read Month Read Beyond Reality Tournament!

NINJAS vs VAMPIRES!

Will Recca’s flames toast the vampires? Or will he be overwhelmed by the strength and speed of the Vampires of the Cross Academy? Maybe they will be outnumbered by the bunshin of Naruto? Or perhaps Karin will… okay I can’t really see her fighting, but maybe her family?

I suppose the sparklepires will win the day again.

FAIRIES vs ZOMBIES!

Fairies come in all sorts of sizes, have incredible speed, good hygiene, cunning, and magical powers!

Zombies are implacable, slow, stupid, nasty smelling, and flammable.

Fairies are the protagonists and antagonists of a large number of books.

Zombies are either smelly angst-muppets or smelly annoyances with only a few books.

Fairies should win!

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Teen Read Month Read Beyond Reality Tournament!

ROBOTS vs FAIRIES!

The Good Neighbors by Holly Black and Ted Naifah tends to make me think of a Terry Pratchett quote

Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.
Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels.
Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.
Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.
Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.
Elves are terrific. They beget terror.
The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.
No one ever said elves are nice.
Elves are bad.

These Fair Folk are not the Disney type. They are old school. They are not nice.

The Transformers have a classic good guy/bad guy storyline starring robots. The movies have resurrected this series from the 80’s, although the comics were always a bit stronger than the cartoon. Cartoons back then seemed to require that nobody win or get shot or anything.

Vogelein the Clockwork Fairy will sit out the battle this week. While she is a sentient robot who requires winding every 24 hours, she is also able to see the Summerlands, where the Fairies dwell.

ALIENS vs ZOMBIES

We actually don’t seem to have as many aliens as one might expect in the in the graphic novel section. There’s Spock and various others in the Star Trek manga and graphic novels. The books we have are mostly based on the old original series not the new, revised movie version of the original series. Lots more special effects because they are cheaper when you only have to draw them.

Of course we also have Superman! I think he may be a naturalized alien. Or maybe that was an Elseworld. But he isn’t from around here so that will do.

I honestly can’t think of anything nice to say about the zombies. We don’t have any in the YA graphic novel section. There are a few in the adult section because they are mature reader only books. Because zombies are disgusting. Zombies stories are depressing. They mostly end with not being turned into a zombie TODAY. No guarantees about tomorrow.

There is currently some effort in teen fiction to turn zombies into romantic leads, thereby displacing the vampire. These are not old time zombies that mindlessly eat human flesh and are rotting where they stand. These are mostly just teens without a pulse. And probably a very nasty smell.

*runs away with my Zombie survival guide*

VOTE HERE!
Comment here to defend your choice!

Teen Read Month Read Beyond Reality Tournament!
Some wizards and vampires are frankly too adorable to fight.

Negima!? Neo! - Negi Springfield, mage in training and master of battle magic. He is backed by his fearsome and strangely skilled class 2A. No quidditch jokes, please.

Chibi Vampire – Karin doesn’t need to drink blood, she needs to give it away! When she finds an unhappy person, she can bite them and give them her extra blood, giving them confidence and happiness.

But don’t think being pretty or cute means they aren’t tough!

Courtney Crumrin is a magic user with an attitude and it ain’t nice. She doesn’t care about popularity or suffering fools. She does like the fairies and goblins and other things that go bump in the night.

Vampire Knight Yuki Cross protects the humans of the Day Class from the vampires of the Night Class at the Cross Academy, where the Headmaster is trying to improve relations between humans and vampires. Secrets and betrayals abound!

VOTE HERE!
Comment here to defend your choice!

EDITED TO ADD: The winners are Ninjas and Vampires. Come back for their match up in the third week.

Teen Read Month Read Beyond Reality Tournament!

NINJA vs PIRATES!

For Team Ninja we have Uzumaki Naruto of the Naruto manga! With his massive ninja powers, he can overwhelm an opponent with his Shadow Clone Technique, making hundreds of copies of himself. There’s power in numbers, folks! He can also use the explosive Rasengan technique, or just summon an enormous, sword wielding toad!

For Team Pirate we have Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hats! Luffy consumed the Gum Gum fruit which gave him super-stretching powers. His crew includes an expert swordsman, a weather-controlling thief, a marksman who can also invent anything, a chef who literally kicks butt, a shapeshifting doctor, a superpowered archeologist, a cyborg shipwright, and a living skeleton.

Back to Team Ninja with Recca from Flame of Recca. Recca is a modern day guy who always wanted to be a ninja. He eventually learns he is a real, flame-wielding ninja. He chooses to serve Yanagi, a reincarnated princess with the power to heal. Recca’s friends acquire various magical weapons to help Recca.

Team Pirate is joined by Polly and her loyal crew. A proper girl proclaimed the new Pirate Queen, Polly finds it in herself to lead the crew, escape the Navy, and thwart the son of the Pirate King. Swordfighting, blazing guns, and explosions are just part of the action.

VOTE HERE!
Comment here to defend your choice!

Viz is putting out a ton of Naruto books in the next three months.  Three or four volumes a month.

Keep an eye on the Manga and Graphic novel bookletter for the new arrivals.

Visual literacy (or, as it is colloquially known, visuacy) is the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image. Visual literacy is based on the idea that pictures can be “read” and that meaning can be communicated through a process of reading. — Wikipedia

In other words (if you will pardon the expression): reading comics!

Now, most comic books do use words in a variety of ways; Spider-man contemplates via thought balloons, Superman exclaims, and villains monologue.

But you don’t need words to tell a story.

Owly is a graphic novel series by Andy Runton, featuring Owly, a kind-hearted owl who wants to help make other animals happy, and his friend Wormy, a clever earthworm who often has to help other animals learn to not be afraid of Owly. Simple symbols are used for dialogue. The series is aimed at a younger audience, but can be enjoyed by any age.

GON is a tiny fictional dinosaur with a big appetite, a short temper, and a big heart. He swims with the fish and (sort of) flies with the birds and will often use his enormous jaws to take a bite out of a bully. Gorgeous detailed drawings depict the animals and environments from all over the planet. Rated for teens because sometimes Mother Nature ain’t pretty.

…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.

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.

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.