Kids Lit
Books and More for Children and Teens

NPR has a fairly lengthy piece on the latest installment on the newest Dark Tower graphic novel The Long Road Home.  There are simply gorgeous images from the book on the NPR site, nice and large, bright but dark. 

If you are a King fan, you can also follow links to other conversations with King on NPR. 

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The San Francisco Chronicle has a great list of eight must-read comic books.  Plenty of tights and capes but also the beloved Bone appear on the list.  Librarians looking for comics they can be proud to hand their patrons should commit the list to memory.

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American Born Chinese author Gene Luen Yang was recently interviewed by NPR about the medium of the graphic novel, getting started as a comic book artist, and how American Born Chinese started as a series of mini-comics.  A fascinating glimpse of Yang, Chinese culture, and shame.

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The Arrival by Shaun Tan.

I had expected to see this honored by the Printz Committee, but that was not to be...  I consider this one of the top graphic novels of the year for two reasons.  First, I heard buzz about it from those in the graphic-novel know.  Second, I personally loved it.

The Arrival is a wordless graphic novel that tells the story of a man who is forced to leave his wife and child behind and head to a new country.  The land he leaves behind is shadowed with long reptilian tails filled with spikes.  The world he finds when he lands is filled with strange beings, machines that make no sense, and a society he cannot comprehend.  But he struggles on, his small white alien-like being at his side, until he can bring his family to be with him.  The girl is astonished at the new world, but soon learns her own way around and finds herself able to lend a newcomer a hand.

The beauty of this book is in the discovery.  It reads as a science fiction/fantasy graphic novel at first until the reader slowly realizes that the strangeness of the world is really revealing aspects of the universal struggle of immigrants to a new land.  There is a moment where readers will suddenly comprehend the book, and if they are anything like me will gasp and sigh in great satisfaction. 

The illustrations are wondrous, creating a world of astonishing detail, different enough from our own world to make the confusion universal.   Done in black and white and sepia, they combine an old-world quality with science fiction subjects. 

Highly recommended for teens and late elementary students ages 11-17. 

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DC Comics will be publishing a collection of graphic novels based on NBC's hit Heroes TV show.  The stories were originally created for the official website for the show.  Look for a hardcover release of the graphic novels this fall. 

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Oni Press is working with author Karin Slaughter to create an imprint of graphic novels written by prose writers.  I love her take on graphic novels:

"Graphic novels let you take risks that just
wouldn't fly in the conventional book form," Slaughter said. "Visual
story telling is at once immediate and subversive."

It will be interesting to see what sorts of crossover this creates.  Will it be readers of prose moving to graphic novels or graphic novel readers seeking out the prose of the authors?  Definitely an exciting new approach that we will all have to keep an eye on.

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The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg.

This is a graphic novel featuring Jane whose life changes when she is in Metro City and a bomb falls.  She is scraped up from the incident, but profoundly affected.  Her parents move with her to the suburbs for safety.  But Jane finds it hard to fit in and continues writing to a man who was found next to her on the sidewalk when the bomb fell.  He is in a coma and no one has identified him.  Jane pours her heart out to him in letters as she slowly makes a group of friends who become the Plain Janes, and perform guerrilla art throughout their suburban community. 

This is a great book.  It has so many dimensions working together.  First, the fear of attack and the search for safey.  The finding of real friends and peers in a high school.  The need to express one's self through art.  And it ties them all up into a very digestible and friendly bundle. 

The entire book rocks with great writing and wonderful art.  It is a graphic novel that is purely American but has the feel of manga.  I can see it being a gateway book to manga and the graphic novel genre for many teen girls. 

This one definitely deserves a place on library shelves across the country. 

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Kampung Boy by Lat. 

Amazing, amazing, amazing.  This is a graphic novel that reveals a lost lifestyle of small villages in Malaysia.  Mat recounts his life from birth to when he leaves the village to go to school.  It is filled with details of rural Muslim life and brims with good humor and the grace of a simple life. 

This one belongs in all graphic novel collections.  It will be enjoyed by children in elementary school, but will be most appreciated by those older than that who will see the difference in the culture and life that Mat lives. 

I can't wait for the next volume!

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AnimeNewsNetwork as an article about TOKYOPOP's Fruits Basket series reaching two million books in print!  Amazing!  Fruits Basket was one of the first manga that I ever read and one of the first I purchased for the library. 

I love the quote from the author:


When TIME Magazine asked Ms. Takaya her feelings on having the

top-selling manga in the U.S., she responded, "That definitely flatters

and pleases me. Thank you very much. As for a reason, I can't clearly

distinguish one, but if people read Fruits Basket and think 'I like

this,' then that alone is enough to bring me joy."

This series certainly brings a lot of people around the world joy too.

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The New York Times has an article on the huge push from DC Comics to promote Minx, a new line of graphic novels for girls.  Cecil Castellucci, a great teen novelist, has been commissioned to write them.  Hurrah! 

I will be very interested to see what this new venture creates, especially seeing that it is said to be the largest promotional push that DC Comics has done in 30 years! 

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An interesting AP article on the topic of increasing challenges to graphic novels in libraries, shows that people are finding graphic illustrations of adult themes much more provocative than the same actions in written form. They have some examples of adult graphic novels that are being questioned in public libraries.

When I went to library school, I learned that if a librarian is doing their job and truly selecting items that will serve even the marginal people in their community then you definitely can expect to have materials questioned. Sounds like this new director at the library has pushed the envelope a bit more than her predecessor. Complaints about materials aren't the end of the world, they may just be the indication that you are doing your job extremely well.

Via LISNews.org

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Check out the 2006 Graphic Spotlight from Kirkus.  Graphic novels appropriate for teens are scattered among those that are not, and if you are looking for titles for children, scroll all the way down to page 22.  Keep an eye out for their Best of 2006 Children's Books list that will be released in early December. 

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ALA has a new document to help librarians deal with the intellectual freedom issues that come along with offering graphic novels: Dealing with Challenges to Graphic Novels. Their advice is simple but effective: be prepared. They go into details about dealing with the media, language for answering pointed questions, and how to deal with complaints in an effective way.

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Infoblog has a podcast featuring Michael Cart on the best graphic novels where he defines the genre of graphic novels and gives some of the best of the best. No download is needed, you can listen to the podcast right in your browser.

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Kirkus has just released its 2006 Graphic Spotlight which contains reviews of graphic novels for children, teens and adults. Some of the children's graphic novels look like great fun, though I wish that there were more of them listed.

One warning. This is a very large pdf file. Make sure you have Adobe installed and then be very patient. Have a book nearby to read while you wait. :)

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How Do Children's Get the Book Bug? is not an article about research.  Rather, it is about a family that reads, in both English and Welsh.  This is lovely stuff!  I especially enjoy the description of them reading aloud at the beach:  "they were listening open-mouthed, staring into the distance."

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Graphic Novels are still growing!  Nielsen Bookscan reports that they grew 35 percent from 2004 to 2005, which is right about the time that libraries started to get on the bandwagon.  This article has all the stats, but also some real bad advice like reading about the genre before beginning to read the actual graphic novels.  While that is fine for some, many understand the genre already because they read comics as children.  The teens who read and love graphic novels are not worried about understanding the genre as a whole, they are just jumping right in and enjoying it.  Try it!

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BookPage has an article on new graphic novels where the perspectives are a-changing.  The article covers traditional comic heroes, comic books, manga, and informational books on the genre. 

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School Library Journal's cover story for this month offers information on Graphic Novels for (Really) Young Readers.  This is a great list of graphic novels for the younger set, including some of my favorites like the Owly series and Bone.

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Woot!  Tamora Pierce, author of so many great fantasy books for teens that it is impossible to list them, has signed an exclusive deal with Marvel Comics.

“Her first project will be WHITE TIGER.
Tamora’s going to revisit the concept, linking it to the original Tiger
and creating a new female hero with street smarts, guts, and a whole
lotta obsession. I hope all Marvel fans will take a look and join us on
this new adventure.”

I definitely will!

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For kids at the Chicago Sun-Times has a brief article on the new graphic novel series, Babymouse by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm. Many of us are looking for good graphic novels for younger children, and this is a good one for elementary age girls.

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The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has this article: Graphic novels catch eyes and minds of students which contains the following section:

"Max Yela, head of special collections at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee libraries, said he'd like to start collecting more graphic novels. On Wednesday, the school is slated to host a talk by graphic novelist Art Spiegelman, who won a Special Citation for Letters from the Pulitzer Board in 1992 for his book "Maus" that depicted Jews as mice and Nazis as cats.

Yela said his collection documents changes in books and communications, particularly since the advent of computers. Graphic novels, he said, are a big part of that.

"I think it's inevitable in many ways that graphic literacy will have a greater weight," he said. "Do you let go of the traditional ways of educating students, in terms of text-literacy? No. But I do think teachers will have to come to grips with the fact that graphic-based communication is going to become more prevalent.""

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This is a handy list for librarians to have: Titles available both as anime and manga in the United States. It is nice because the titles of the anime and manga often differ, so someone not familiar with the films and books may not even realize that they are the same story and characters.

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Bags and Boards is a blog from Variety that follows the comic book industry.

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Japanese Sound effects and what they mean is exactly that, an alphabetical list of Japanese sound effects that you will find in manga. Great fun!

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Seattlepi has an article on the efforts DC comics is making to recreate their vintage heroes into ones with more modern appeal: DC revamps its heroes for a grittier century.

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Barbelith Underground > Comic Books

Barbelith is an online community that encourages discussion. Their comic book area is a very active discussion board all about comics and graphic novels.

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The New York Times has an article on Manga for Girls that speaks to the different maturity levels of titles even within the same series and to why American girls are flocking to this new genre.

I was also interested to read that Harlequin has teamed up with Dark Horse Comics to release some of their romance novels in graphic novel format.

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Amelia Rules is a great graphic novel series for children. But don't take my word for it! Visit their dynamic site where you can read a sample, examine reviews, and of course buy the books.

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Bookshelf Comics offers information on graphic novels, including news, reviews, feature articles, and new and forthcoming titles.

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The Seattle Times: Faith & values: Christian comics growing on youth

Yet another trend in graphic novels and comics that libraries will want to keep an eye on. I would expect that more than a few of us will have clergy in the library suggesting that we purchase these to balance our graphic novel collections.

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Kid-friendly comics return with 'Marvel Adventures' | The Arizona Daily Star

Marvel Adventures looks like a comic book series to watch for, especially with a Fantastic Four book coming out this summer. I really like that it is aimed for kids 10 or younger. This is definitely one series I will be looking to see at ALA. Is Marvel going to have a booth?

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I had no idea that TIME Magazine offers coverage of graphic novels! Andrew Arnold has a biweekly column covering them. And they just ran an article on 5 Fantastic Graphic Novels. Very cool!

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The CCBC now offers a Booklist of Graphic Novels for Children's and Young Adult Library Collections. The bibliography is for building graphic novel collections in both public and school libraries. I appreciate the fact that there is a lengthy list of titles for elementary age kids as well as lists for middle school and high school age.

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USATODAY.com - Teachers are getting graphic is a great article on how librarians and teachers are embracing the graphic novel format to reach kids, especially boys, who are reluctant readers.

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The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is a nonprofit organization that defends the First Amendment rights of comic book readers. The site offers news, feature articles, and information on conventions.

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ActiveAnime is a blog that offers information on anime and manga, including reviews, editorials, interviews, and a list of release dates.

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USATODAY.com - 'Nancy Drew' finds clues in graphic novel is an article about the newest version of Nancy Drew: manga style! Our library purchased the first one in both the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew graphic novel series to see how they will circ. I do wonder if they will lead kids to the old novels, if a completely different group of graphic-novel-reading kids will enjoy them, or if they will simply be ignored and not really work as a cross over. We will see!

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I have started reading some graphic novels. The last ones I had read were my brother's collection of Batman, X-Men and other super heroes. I have found that manga can be a very mixed bag. Some of the books I found very confusing with the storylines jumbled and unclear. But I have found some other manga that I really enjoyed, including the Oh, My Goddess series and Mars series. In fact, I am interested enough to continue to read both series.

I still have quite a pile of other graphic novels to read through. I will post more of my favorites as I read on!

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Komikwerks, a great comic and graphic novel site, is now offering previews of iBooks graphic novels. They include a couple for younger readers the Amelia Rules books and Penguins on Ice.

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Cognitive Dissonance offers a nice blog entry on Marvel's group of teenage super heroes. This is definitely a list for those of us building graphic novel collections to consider.

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The Portland Press Herald has an article covering the two sides of the manga in libraries debate: Racy fluff or reading aid? Make sure you scroll down to the bottom to read at least some of the over 100 responses to the article by manga fans. Many of them demonstrate the intelligence and quality writing of manga readers.

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The Galveston County Daily News has a nice article about manga in the U.S. The writer obviously understands manga and its appeal, remarking on its sophisticated storylines and art. Nice to see an article that understands manga rather than questions it.

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TOKYOPOP holds an annual competition for amateur manga creators. Now is the time to vote in the 5th competition for your favorite. Manga Player lets you take a close look at the art style and writing.

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Sequential Tart's "What's the Best Comic Starting Point is a very helpful article for libraries building comic or graphic novel collections. The focus on what books will stimulate people to read more of the genre is a perfect match for us. Best of all, Sequential Tart asked some of the top names in comics what ones they would recommend. Beware, some of the graphic novels have adult content, but all of them are great reads.

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no flying, no tights is a great site for graphic novel reviews. I have mentioned them before here. Now they have just completed a major update with new reviews, new sections, and lots to look at.

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