Forum - View topicManga for a middle school library?
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YourFriendlyLibrarian
Posts: 3 |
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I was hoping I could find some people on here who could help me with this. (My daughter, who I also asked about titles for middle schoolers and was given an "uhh", pointed me towards this site and set up an account for me.)
I am a head middle school librarian for the upcoming school year. The school has noticed a rise in students who are interested in anime and manga, and have encouraged me to start buying some manga series for the more reluctant readers who enjoy these types of books. The only problem being I don't know where to start. I'm a cinema buff on the side of being a book nerd, the only anime I've seen are movies like Spirited Away, Ghost in the Shell, and Tokyo Godfathers. I used to watch Speed Racer reruns and Sailor Moon on TV if those count. However some of these manga I see on Amazon look pretty risque from their front covers, so where do I start with a thing like this? The school is okay with mild profanity and some violence as we do have things like Stephen King books in the library. (Not like The Shining, but we do have Carrie and some short story collections of his.) Graphic sex and nudity are off-limits as these ARE middle schoolers, though some mild sexual references are okay as young adult novels usually have some. |
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Tamaria
 Posts: 1512 Location: De Achterhoek |
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Some of the top 10 lists posted by Deb Aoki would be a good start.
http://manga.about.com/od/recommendedreading/tp/top10shojo.htm http://manga.about.com/od/recommendedreading/tp/50-Best-Manga-For-Libraries.htm I also remember a blog about comics by and for librarians that covered a lot of manga. I forgot the URL, but I'll see if I can find it for you 
Edit: http://blogs.slj.com/goodcomicsforkids As for series I would recommend: Chi's Sweet Home Fullmetal Alchemist Bakuman Hikaru no Go Dragon Ball Detective Conan Natsume's Book of Friends Sailor Moon Unico Astroboy The Story of Saiunkoku Yotsuba&! Summer Wars Kekkaishi Gegege no Kitaro Some titles (like The Story of Saiunkoku and Fullmetal Alchemist) may be less suitable for the youngest middle schoolers because of some heavy themes, but all in all these are titles I would let my tweenaged cousins read. |
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st_owly
 Posts: 5234 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland |
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I found this list by Googling, and I'd definitely agree with most of the suggestions Naruto and Bleach are both very long though, and still ongoing. I don't know what your budget is like, but there's a word of warning. However, they are being rereleased as 3 in 1 volumes which aren't as good quality but much cheaper ($14.99 I think as opposed to $9.99 for a single volume)
Fruits Basket is only available on the second hand market now as the publisher went bust, but if you can get a hold of a set on eBay or something, do it. Sometimes, things are popular for a reason. I would caution against Tsubasa for the reasons given in the article: "Every library should have at least one CLAMP title in their collection. This particular series might be a bit confusing for the reader who has not read many CLAMP series but it is intriguing and packed full of adventure. The companion series XXXHolic should be included but is not a necessity" The CLAMP series I'd recommend for a middle school library would be Magic Knight Rayearth and Angelic Layer. They're much more easily accessible to people who haven't read any of CLAMP's other works, and I think the stories would appeal to teenagers the most, whilst not being too sexual. Now for my own recommendations: For the girls: Off the top of my head, I think Kitchen Princess and Arisa by Natsumi Ando would be good. I was once in my local comic store and one of the staff asked me to recommend something to a customer for his young teenage daughter which wasn't just romance mush, and these are the 2 I suggested. They seem like fluffy shojo at first, but they're actually a lot deeper. Kitchen Princess has spoiler[a main character dying in a car accident] and Arisa is a fairly dark mystery story. KP was rereleased in omnibus form by Kodansha (4 volumes), Arisa in singles (12 volumes). Here's a bit about the first volume of Arisa Kamisama Kiss would also be a good one. The anime is super popular and the manga is really cute as well. It's about a girl who ends up running a shrine. There's nothing too sexual in it, so it would be good for middle schoolers. Review of volume 3 For something for the boys, I'd suggest Kekkaishi by Yellow Tanabe. It's 35 volumes, but it's complete unlike Naruto and Bleach. I found it to be a little slow starting, but once it hits its stride, it's really fun. I'm sure you won't but please for the love of whatever deity you believe in don't just buy the first few volumes of a series then never finish it off. My school library did that and it was utterly maddening. [/spoiler] |
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YourFriendlyLibrarian
Posts: 3 |
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Wow, thank both of you. I had no idea Sailor Moon was still in print - I assumed it was way too old. I am definitely going to buy that.
Also, I found these series searching under manga titles for 12-14 year olds on Barnes and Noble, but I am a bit iffy about that category as I regularly see things like Family Guy comics appear there...can anyone tell me a bit about the content in the series "Black Bird", "Vampire Knight", "Rosario+Vampire", "Nana", or "Loveless"? Sorry if I'm a bit overwhelming, I do that sometimes. Bad habit... |
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st_owly
Posts: 5234 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland |
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Sailor Moon was just brought back into print within the last couple of years. It has massive nostalgia value for a lot of people, so it's sold very well.
Black Bird is definitely not suitable for middle schoolers. It's very sexual, and one of the main plot points in the story is spoiler[the heroine losing her virginity to her boyfriend so he becomes more powerful] I'd say Vampire Knight is borderline. It depends how OK your school is with blood and violence as there's not much explicit sexual content, although bloodsucking is presented quite sexually sometimes. The anime series was (mostly) rated 12 here in the UK, although Viz rated the manga 16+. It's very popular though and the art is lovely. Loveless, I'd say is borderline as well. Viz have rated it 13+, but it really depends how OK your school is with lots of implied homoeroticism. Do also bear in mind that of the 2 main characters, one is 12 and one is in his early 20's, and there's a lot of homoeroticism between them. Nana is wonderful, but not for middle schoolers. Viz started rating it 18+ after the first few volumes were released. It's very frank, sex positive,(and negative as well), and very adult (not in the pornographic sense) in the themes it covers. It's a shame none of the author's earlier works have been released in English, as they were more geared to teenagers. It's been a long time since I read Rosario+Vampire, but my memory is telling me it's probably too sexual for middle schoolers. There's lots of underwear shots and exploding clothes, if I remember correctly. Last edited by st_owly on Tue Jun 17, 2014 4:19 am; edited 3 times in total |
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Tamaria
Posts: 1512 Location: De Achterhoek |
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Sailor Moon was recently rereleased by Kodansha. They also published volumes with sidestories
Titles like that will do well among the girls who love books like the Twilight series, but I'm not too comfortable with younger teens reading books like that. Those books have heavy sexual undertones and may feature some very unhealthy relationships, especially Black Bird and Loveless. So yeah, you're right not to trust Barnes and Nobles. Vampire Knight is the most innocent of the three and I'm sure the older girls will love it, but it's really the type of title you need to check for yourself to see if it's suitable for your school library. Edit: you're fast, st_owly 
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zawa113
 Posts: 7357 |
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My county library can't sort out teen vs adult graphic novels either, they really need someone like me there to tell them that Bokurano is not a teen graphic novel.
For series I'd recommend: Hikaru no Go-fantastic series about a board game. I'd consider getting some cheap go-boards and how-tos for the library if this series does well, it really is a modern shonen classic. It involves a kid who gets possessed by an awesome ghost who loves the game of Go. But rather than just let the ghost play all the time, he takes a genuine interest in it for himself. Baby & Me-A middle school age kid who has to take care of his 2 year old brother after his mother dies in a car accident in chapter 1. Bone-not a manga, but it is a really damn good graphic novel that you should definitely get for your library. One of the best all-ages comic in existence. I would also consider getting the graphic novels for popular TV shows, like Adventure Time (those are good) and Avatar: The Last Airbender. Tezuka's kid friendly books, so: Princess Knight, Twin Knight, Unico, Captain Ken, Astro Boy, Atomcat, Dororo, Triton of the Sea (Captain Ken is having a Kickstarter right now, very likely to make it, $1000 to go!) Yen publishes some manga based on young adult novels (because they're owned by Little,Brown). A lot of James Patterson novels get them (Witch & Wizard, Daniel X, Maximum Ride) and Cirque du Freak has one too. For your more romance loving young teens, From Far Away is great. I would recommend it over similar Basara for two reasons: From Far Away is in print, Viz reprinted some copies recently and Basara is hard to find and two, Basara has some sex (consensual, but still, sex) I am quite enjoying Tegami Bachi right now. It involves delivering letters in this wasteland like place, but has lots of fight scenes and interesting characters. Magi is another current shonen that I'm quite enjoying. If you are somehow able to actually get a complete run of Firefighter Daigo, I would. But that's very unlikely, it's out of print, you'd have to go on eBay. If you can get other out of print things on eBay or something, I would get Recipe for Gertrude and Palette of 12 Secret Colors, both former CMX titles. NG Life is a great series that's out of print, but not too hard to find either (you can still find the volumes on Right Stuf, which is most Americans on here's place to get stuff). Other things I shall list: Full Moon Sandland Cowa! Dragon Ball Kekkaishi Beet the Vandel Buster Speed Racer Penguin Revolution Eensy Weensy Monster Voice Over Kiichi and the Magic Books Suikoden III Kazan Witch Buster Gimmick! (NOT Hot Gimmick) Gaba Kawa +Anima |
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YourFriendlyLibrarian
Posts: 3 |
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Okay, so far I have ordered the first "3 in 1" editions of Naruto, Loveless and Kekkaishi, Hikaru no Go volume 1, Vampire Knight volumes 1-2 (I have hope for this series as it's about vampires; I just fear about the condition of the books in a year if they get popular), Case Closed volume 1, and Sailor Moon volume 1.
I might have to talk with the school board a bit about Loveless; it might end up restricted to 8th graders or perhaps using it as a nice donation to the high school library. I'd say I only have about...$50-$60 of my budget left to spend on manga, as the rest I want to use to pick up replacement copies and new young adult books. Looking at a few sets on eBay as well for some series. |
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zawa113
Posts: 7357 |
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http://agfgo.org/pages/hikaru.php
I was just remembering this place that wanted to help libraries get this series, so check them out. |
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Dessa
 Posts: 4438 |
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To start with, here's a thread from about a year and a half ago. It's specifically for a high school library, so it'll be skewed a bit higher than your age group, but it's a good place to get ideas.
Other than the "big popular stuff" (Naruto and One Piece for boys, Sailor Moon for girls), I personally would recommend trying to aim towards shorter (≤10 volumes) series, instead of huge ongoing ones. If you get the ongoing ones, then you run into the problem of keeping up. I'd also check to see what your local public library has, so you can point kids there to supplement your own collection. My roommate's a librarian herself, as well as a) a manga fan, b) a YA fan, and c) her library's unofficial teen librarian, so I'll get input from her once she gets up, too. |
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yuna49
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If you think having companion animated versions might motivate some of your kids to read the associated manga, then you can point them to both Hikaru no Go and Cross Game which are streamed legally by Viz. Both streams are subtitled so watching them will help with your kids' reading skills.
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Tamaria
Posts: 1512 Location: De Achterhoek |
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Good point. And those series take up a large amount of space as well. On the other hand, following a big series is so much fun when you're that age.
I'd be surprised if the books don't circulate like crazy once the girls discover them
That's a great place to find some older series! Since stuff that's a little less recent is an option, I would like to second the recommendations for From Far Away, Recipe for Gertrude, Palette of 12 Secret Colors and Kiichi and the Magic Books. The first three are great for young girls thanks to their strong and likable heroines and age appropriate romance, but there's a lot older readers will like as well. The last one is great because it's an exciting and epic story about books that's in no way preachy. The premise is that the stories and information in books come alive as the paper and ink age. To keep books available to the public, librarians who've mastered the magic of books travel around with small collections. A boy with horns is shunned by the people in his village, but when he sees creatures like him in a book he follows the librarian to find out more about his kind. It doesn't take long for the boy's journey to turn into an epic quest to save the world. Lovely story about friendship and sacrifice. |
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lys
 Posts: 1008 Location: mitten-state |
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Sandland (1 volume)
Cowa! (1 vol) Penguin Revolution (7 vol) Eensy Weensy Monster (2 vol) Voice Over (5+ vol—complete at 12 in Japan) +Anima (10 vols) I'll second these from classicalzawa's list—especially some of the shorter ones to work within the budget limitations. Eensy Weensy Monster is an adorable little love story about two very strong personalities—it's short, sweet, and a lot of fun. If you can find a good deal on sets, Penguin Revolution, and other works by the author (Land of the Blindfolded (9 vol), Sweet Rein (3 vol)) are also quite sweet and nice. Sandland and Cowa! are fun, imaginative adventures from the creator of Dragonball. I'll also throw in Sugar Sugar Rune (8 vol), which is a fun and stylish and cute story about young girls from a magic kingdom who visit our world :) Oh, and Chi's Sweet Home for cat lovers!! |
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Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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Another problem with a long series is that the more volumes there are the greater the chance is that one of them will go missing. Unless a person is willing to skip a volume everything from the missing volume on is inaccessible. Maybe your school's library does not have as much of a problem with missing items as my local public library. Right now they are missing at least four volumes of One Piece. |
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st_owly
Posts: 5234 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland |
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I'd beware of Case Closed for middle schoolers. It's not sexual, but the violence is pretty graphic. If I remember correctly, the first volume has someone on a rollercoaster being pretty vividly decapitated by a piano wire strung across the tracks....
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