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Category Archives: Manga

Comic Con or bust

13 Nov

Last May, I wrote Pure Happiness at the Con about a busload of high school kids I took to the Saratoga Comic Con in Upstate New York. Well, dear reader, I did it again. This time MORE high school kids– thirty-eight in fact– and this, the day after a day off to spend about six hours attending a jam-packed Con full of cosplay, vendors, food, gaming, and panels. It’s no wonder a few of them fell asleep on the bus ride back.

There are several things to love about the Comic Con: while there’s always a need for more room, it is neatly packed into one section of a convention center to make it easier to keep them in one spot so as I travel around upstairs and downstairs I’ll run into small groups of them (especially the Gaming Room). I even run into graduates who were not only former students, but former club kids too now several years out of the high school enjoying what they loved then too.

The tight timeline to get the permission slips back, make sure teenagers are up and on time for the bus to leave from the high school, and that I have all of them on our return trip are enough to add a few extra grey hairs, but I wouldn’t do it for any other group. This is the same club that convinced me that I should take our Falcons to Japan and while that didn’t come to fruition (thanks, pandemic), I’ll do anything if it makes them happy. On the darkened bus, I was shown things they purchased and pictures of cosplay that they loved all while yawning.

Since I cosplayed Ms. Marvel last year, I figured I would need to up my game this year. I took a poll a few weeks back on whether I should play Alana from Saga or Coco from Witch Hat Atelier, so IYKYK, here I am as Coco in my “work in progress” cosplay (complete with a sylph my son drew on the bottom of my Peter Pan shoes so that if I had my witchy way, I could levitate.

In a convention center full of super fans, I was happy that I had several people recognize me and ask to take my picture– isn’t that the ultimate compliment of a cosplay well played? I know I have more work to add some extras, but for a few weeks of shopping, I think I repped Coco well (and added my brush buddy to boot).

The stress of the beginning of a school year always adds some extra pressure, but planning a field trip ups the ante and a short turnaround time even more so. Luckily there are some fabulous people to assist including a teaching assistant at the high school who runs the Con’s social media and also helps with Japanese Culture Club, though during the Con, she’s busy running panels and taking photos. Then there is a new intern at the school who has been helping out at our club, adding a Pokemon League for some of our students, who was the second chaperone.

There’s always May, however, I’ve got a plan for another field trip– something a little different if I can manage it before the year is out. It wouldn’t require cosplay, but it would include one of my favorite indulgences (and again, a busload of high schoolers!)

Our Falcons came, saw, and conquered the Con. Now, today, Sunday, I rest.

 
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Posted by on November 13, 2022 in Comics, Events, Manga

 

Readers advisory for October ’22

31 Oct

If there ever was a month to label as “mixed bag”, it would have to be October.

This is just a smattering of the books I read either in print, digitally, or audio and they range from a true crime audiobook of two women murdered in the Shenandoah National Park to the GOAT of horror manga, Juji Ito’s Uzumaki. Then there are middle grade fiction titles like Key Player by Kelly Yang and my continued obsession with Spy x Family. All told there were sixty-three books read for the month.

It was a result of several converging events, committees, and activities:

  • With a conference presentation a few weeks ago, at the beginning of the month I was trying to squeeze in some anticipated titles of 2023 while also reading a few 2022 titles to be ready to talk books.
  • Sitting on a “Best of” books selection committee for nonfiction so I had a few nonfiction titles that I didn’t know about to read to better argue which were the best!
  • A little countdown to Halloween on my Instagram, I read a spooky book a day for the last week that included the wacky spirals of Ito’s imagination to reliving the dramatic 1990 movie The Witches based on Roald Dahl’s The Witches which I had never read and decided to listen to the audiobook of today while traveling in the car. Plus I discovered the delightful Ghoulia.
  • And of course, fitting in the general love of certain series or titles that sit on my endless TBR that I pick up based on length, topic, and format.

November is my birthday month, so I’m planning a few personal reading challenges and organizing my own readathon. Any suggestions?

 
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Posted by on October 31, 2022 in Adult, Audiobooks, Authors, Book of the Month, Childrens, Comics, Cover Love, Fiction, Graphic novels, Manga, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Young Adult

 

Visibility

01 Aug

Since last week, I have been turning over a conversation I had with a student last week during summer school. She had dropped in with a pass from her class to borrow a few books.

I didn’t recognize her, but that’s not uncommon in a school of 2,600 students and a new pool of students who are attending the summer school program from one of our alternative school as well. Either way, I introduced her to the temporary library that we’ve set up in a science classroom to be closer to the summer school classrooms while avoiding the construction around the new library. I asked her if she was looking for something in particular and quickly shared that she wanted manga to which I pointed her to several book carts spilling over with it and told her that if she wanted specific recommendations I could help, otherwise, she was free to browse and could check out when she was ready.

It’s what happened after she checked out the three books that gave me pause.

I handed the three back to her telling her that during the summer, students can keep the books until the start of the school year or bring them back during summer hours to get more. She asked me to hold on to them. I looked puzzled since she had come in to borrow them and didn’t spend any time during available periods in the library to read while she was in the building. And her response was that she would pick them up at the end of the period because she didn’t want to walk back to class with books in her hand because “people don’t know I read”. She further explained that it would be embarrassing to go back to class with them.

Comments like these are different than my interactions with undiscovered readers who are coming in with classes for upcoming projects who tell me they don’t read or don’t want to read. This was a very specific statement that she wanted to hide her reading identity and because I’ve never had this type of conversation before, I didn’t have a ready-made response. But I did respond.

I told her I could absolutely hold on to the books until after class, but did add that she could also be her awesome self and walk back to class with them because she might discover others who have read and like the same manga series and have something to talk about. She asked that I hold on to them. I told her I’d see her after the period was over.

She returned when the bell rang, however my one piece de resistance was that I inserted this Post-it into one of the books that I hope might give her just a moment to think about being proud of a reading identity because she is a reader.

It’s not particularly earth-shattering in its insight, plus I wanted it to be a positive message celebrating this identity and encouraging her to share it with others. Being proud of herself for having a world of entertainment and learning between the pages of books and finding her way to the library.

Now I’m thinking about the upcoming school year and all those readers who keep invisible. I don’t want to “out” their reading if they wish to keep it quiet, however there might be others who just need a bit of encouragement to join the many who read. How can I reach them?

 
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Posted by on August 1, 2022 in Manga, Reflections

 

Pure happiness at the Con

16 May

Field trips give me grey hairs, but they’re worth it. It’s also been a minute because the pandemic had put events on a shelf. And actually, when it hit in March 2020, I was ready to take a busload of students to another Con at a local college. Before that I had taken them to an inaugural one close by as well. To say that we live in an area that appreciates the Comic Con culture is an understatement now that I’m writing this out. There are many options to enjoy the company and costumes of others who love to cosplay in addition to the vendors selling their wares and panels featuring celebrities and celebration.

Therefore this weekend’s Saratoga Comic Con in Saratoga, New York left most of the students I took from our high school in a frenzied state– feasting on the sights, sounds, and paraphernalia of the Con. We weren’t even off the bus, tilted to one side as they all rushed to shout out the windows to costumed attendees for their fabulous attire. As we waited in line, another student kept shouting that this was the best day of his life. Then don’t get me started on their excitement once we got in. I needed to count them once again and hand out their wristbands which was akin to herding cats. They were itching to get moving and no one knew that more than the two gentlemen standing at the front doors pulling security. Throughout the day they joked with me about my Mother Hen clucking and said a warm goodbye after I corralled them on the stairs for one last post-Con picture.

Circling our photo were a handful of former students who were also Anime Club members that I ran in to throughout the day warming looking on the 28 students that bussed it up from thirty minutes south. We caught up on what they were doing now and posed for pictures. My homemade outfit was a hit though with the temperature getting up to 80 degrees, I left the tights and boots at home. Nonetheless, I got shouts and posed for pictures with the best of them. But mine paled in comparison to other epic attire including some of my own students.

The Con wasn’t just about dressing up and being around like-minded individuals, but learning and being entertained. The bus was close to coming back to pick us up, but many of them finished the day with me in the ballroom at a dance showcase of J-pop, K-pop, Asian-themed dancing that featured the emcee of many of the panels of the day who also happens to be employed at our high school and helps with Anime Club. Her knowledge and personality made our high school proud and the students definitely made her more social media famous as they recorded away as she performed.

I’ll be ready for more grey hairs next year seeing how happy they were by days end.

Signing off as Ms. Marvel for the day which as I was on my way home, I realized, no one was going to pump my gas for me. Back to the real world. I guess even superheroes have to do that.

 
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Posted by on May 16, 2022 in Comics, Events, Graphic novels, Manga

 

The 31 Days of December: Top 10 of 2021 graphic novels & manga edition

30 Dec

There is just one more day left in December that will be an homage to the reading and blogging in 2021, but for today I am finishing up the top tens– today graphic novels and manga.

What’s not to love about graphic novels and manga? Whether it’s a standalone or series, the varied abilities and styles of the illustrators and artists are equally matched by the writing of the authors (unless they’re one and the same to which hats-off for talent and skill. All of these titles bring sometimes special to readers from middle schoolers with Huda F Are You? to adults with In Love and Pajamas. There were superheroes and super sleuths, mysteries, and adventures. Plus one adaptation of a wildly successful historical fiction novel with Between Shades of Gray.

 
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Posted by on December 30, 2021 in Adult, Authors, Blogging, Cover Love, Fiction, Graphic novels, Manga, Middle grade, Young Adult

 

The 31 Days of December: The popularity of Junji Ito

11 Dec

Regardless of what level you work at in a school library, as a librarian part of your goal is to have books in the library that students want to read. Popularity is sometimes obvious, re: Dogman and sometimes it’s geographical or site-specific. This was evident several years ago when Karen McManus broke out on the scene for young adults with her murder mystery One Of Us Is Lying. Students should feel comfortable requesting the purchase of certain books. And sometimes they make it loud and clear.

Enter Junji Ito, the GOAT of horror manga since he entered the field in 1987. His popularity in our library is a confluence of one of our senior electives called Horror Fiction and Film, the large showing number of students who attend Anime Club (of which I’m the faculty advisor), and that manga regularly makes the top circulated items in our library.

Ito is the GOAT for a reason. They are dark, mind-bending, frightful, and intelligent horror stories and short stories. I’m drawn to them as so many of our students are. We recently started getting in our newest order which is adding more of Ito’s books to the collection and replacing well-worn books that have been in circulation for several years. He’s someone that we will likely always have on order.

First, read at least one of Ito’s books if not all of them. Second, remember to listen to your students when it comes to what’s on the shelves.

 
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Posted by on December 11, 2021 in Adult, Authors, Blogging, Fiction, Manga

 

Trifecta

08 Sep

Today is my sixteenth year in education. Fifteen of them have been right where I am today, as the high school librarian.

I have seen one facelift and one major update with the third around the corner– a completely new space to move in to next fall to the facility. I have had more than a dozen direct supervisors, building principals, and superintendents. With a graduating class hovering around six hundred students, I have likely interacted with close to 9,000 teenagers and hundreds of teachers. And whatever each school year brings, it always circles back to the kids. I saved this post to make on the first day of school, but it’s really a post that could have been shared on the last day of school last year. And it’s been sitting with me all summer long.

The three major subgenres of books that were most circulated last year– specifically reflecting why they were the most circulated as I often do at the end of a calendar year when making “best of” lists or the books most likely to be missing from the shelves and of course, when I’m putting new orders together for purchase.

Yes, we still checked out physical books through the curbside pickup method, the small number of students who were physically in the building, and the handfuls of drive-up to their curbside. And then there was the robust digital offerings. I booktalked until I couldn’t booktalk anymore– Google Meets, 1:1, and in-person.

What were they?

  1. Murder
  2. Romance
  3. Humor

Let’s break this down: the three most asked-for books in the library came down to murder, romance, and humor. And then I say, it was 2020. And you nod your head. Of course!

True crime is prevalent in Netflix series and podcasts, books and casual conversation. It’s a thing. And it’s a thing with our teenagers too. Being home with their families rather than playing team sports and attending school every day, I’m sure there was some level of interest in the subgenre because of these massive shifts in daily business. It’s easy to go to a darker place. And books are nothing if not a reflection of inner thoughts and feelings.

We all needed some love. We missed family gatherings and meeting up with friends. And for teenagers, a whole chunk of their socialization went out the window when schools shut down. Really, all they needed was some love. So can you see how a little romance went a long way?

And humor, there is comfort in the familiar. Yes, we have Diary of a Wimpy Kid in our high school library and no I couldn’t keep them on the shelves. They wanted the escape from the seriousness of the news and the pandemic. They wanted to laugh. And who can blame them?

I will remember this past school year because it was the year I lost my co-librarian for the majority of the school year to budget cuts and had to manage alone. It was isolating because staff were scattered and hunkered in their rooms talking to computer screens. But I still saw kids each day and I will remember that all they wanted were some books and those books had to do with murder, romance, or humor. And I replied, well then I’ve got a book for you…

Here’s to 2021-22!

 
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Posted by on September 8, 2021 in Blogging, Fiction, Graphic novels, Manga, Nonfiction, Poetry, Reflections, Short Story, Verse, Young Adult

 

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With all those books

15 Mar

Yesterday’s post was a celebration of reading at least a book a day for 365 straight days. I’ll continue though the rigidity will likely wane, but not today where I was able to finish an audiobook and read two additional books. It got me thinking, how many books did I read over 365 days? That answer was 852 which meant I averaged 2.3342 books per day. What were my favorites? See below. How to you find the time? Well, I have my ways. Therefore, a summary post was in order because I like a good listicle. Here are some mini-listicles about “my year of reading a book a day”.

Locations for reading

  • Car (audiobooks, people!)
  • Wherever I have to wait– an office or a long line for example
  • Anywhere in the house from the kitchen table to standing by the stove waiting for my hot water to boil but also most definitely when I’m cleaning or cooking
  • The lunch table at work (I often post with the hashtag #literarylunchbox)

Twenty favorites (in no particular order)

  • Punching the Air by Zoboi
  • You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why it Matters by Murphy
  • Poisoned Water: How the Citizens of Flint, Michigan, Fought for Their Lives and Warned the Nation by Cooper
  • Witch Hat Atelier by Shirahama
  • Skyward by Henderson
  • The School of Essential Ingredients by Bauermeister
  • All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys’ Soccer Team by Soontornvat
  • The Girl from the Other Side by Nagabe
  • My Life in Dog Years by Paulsen
  • The Midnight Library by Haig
  • That Way Madness Lies edited by Adler
  • Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World by Parker
  • The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Baum
  • Sigh, Gone: A Misfit’s Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In by Tran
  • My Life in France by Child with Prud’Homme
  • The House in the Cerulean Sea by Klune
  • Fighting Words by Brubaker Bradley
  • Jane Against the World: Roe v. Wade and the Fight for Reproductive Rights by Blumenthal
  • End of Days: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy by Swanson
  • Up All Night: 13 Stories Between Sunset and Sunrise edited by Silverman
  • The Beauty in Breaking by Harper
  • Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius by Holiday
  • A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Brown
  • Chicken Every Sunday: My Life with Mothers Boarders by Taylor
  • Fangs by Andersen

But how did you do it?

  • Read (and by reading I mean eyes on a page or ears open) every day
  • Always have a stack of books in the house or in a queue online
  • Sometimes reading won out over straightening up the house, for sure
  • Encourage a household of readers (because it’s easier to read yourself when everyone else is doing it too)
  • Participating in events like the Dewey’s 24-hour Readathon and the #24in48 readathon

What genre or category do you favor? (but really this is like asking me to pick a favorite child)

  • Nonfiction
    • Food memoirs
    • Animals especially histories, discoveries, and celebrations of
  • Young Adult short story collections
  • Verse novel and graphic novel formats
  • Fiction
    • Historical
    • Realistic

Who were your cheerleaders? (whether they knew it or not)

  • Stacey Rattner, a school librarian colleague who I often co-present with at conferences with her own blog and the co-host of the pandemic-inspired Author Fan Faceoff with Steve Sheinkin
  • My kids, readers in their own right, who read at the table for almost every meal and so many other occasions and places too
  • Reading communities big and small

Was there a question that I missed? If there was, ask me in the comments.

 
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Posted by on March 15, 2021 in Blogging, Fiction, Graphic novels, Manga, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Reflections, Short Story, Upcoming Releases, Verse, Young Adult

 

#24in48 whirlwind

10 Feb

I often post about my participation in the Dewey’s 24-hour readathon. It’s a break from reality which involves snack planning and stack prepping in addition to the amazing experience of focusing on your reading life for 24-hours (or as close to that as you can get).

Well from great ideas come more great ideas. One of the participants was inspired by her participation in Dewey’s but also knew that 24-hours straight was an unrealistic expectation for her so she created #24in48 in 2012 which expands upon the concept: in this one you strive for reading 24 hours over a 48 hour weekend that begins at 12am Saturday morning and ends at 11:59pm on Sunday night. 

This was my first participation and I’ll now keep these events on my calendar alongside Dewey’s. Did I manage at least 24 hours this weekend? Yes, I managed more than 25 and probably could have done more but I did take the time to enjoy the Superbowl on Sunday night. I filled the time with audiobooks and unadulterated print books throughout the weekend which included finishing two audiobooks and several e- and print books.

What I liked most was the inclusion of social media posts to include in an Instagram story centered around current reads and progress but my favorite was the “quotables” where readers could share a quote from a book they were reading with the book cover. I’m a quote lover, so it’s something I’m going to take from the readathon and share more of on social media: quotes that resonated with me in the hopes they lead to discussions with other readers.

Here’s what I read:

  • The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist by Balko and Carrigan
  • Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by May
  • Witch Hat Atelier #7 by Shirahama
  • Hunting Whitey: The Inside Story of the Capture and Killing of America’s Most Wanted Crime Boss by Sherman and Wedge (audiobook)
  • Reef Life: An Underwater Memoir by Roberts
  • A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Brown
  • Troop 6000: The Girl Scout Troop that Began in a Shelter and Inspired the World by Stewart (audiobook)
  • The Low, Low Woods by Machado and DaNi 

Are there reading events that you participate in? If so, which ones and why do you love them? 

 
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Posted by on February 10, 2021 in Adult, Events, Fiction, Graphic novels, Manga, Nonfiction, Young Adult

 

Grab bag of books

28 Sep

These last few weeks have far and away been the hardest of my school librarian career but one thing has remained steady and that’s the challenge I gave myself once COVID closed the doors to our school building and that was to read at least a book a day. Yes, I’m back in school, but we’re teaching our kids virtually which is a blog post for another day. And I’ve still been able to maintain a book a day so far. Here were some of the books I’ve read recently:

  • Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 6
    • Pre-order and purchased in print because I will own every book in this series
  • The Bird Way audiobook
    • I’m a nut for nonfiction animal books
  • Hello, Neighbor!
    • I’ve been diving into the world of Fred Rogers and this picture book by Matthew Cordell was delightful
  • Every Body Looking
    • Verse novels are more commonplace formats but Iloh chose this format wisely for this heavily biographical story
  • Flyy Girls, books one and two
    • A series by Woodfolk that are neatly-packed and easily accessible titles with realistic characters who work through their problems with the help of friends
  • Poisoned Water: How the Citizens of Flint, Michigan Fought for their Lives and Warned a Nation
    • It’s as riveting as it is upsetting to read
 
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Posted by on September 28, 2020 in Childrens, Fiction, Manga, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Verse, Young Adult

 
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