Teen Review-Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba

Hi my name is Abryana, I am 13 years old and I go to the west end library in Pittsburgh. I love anime and manga, and I want to share it to you:)

 

 

 

 

 

Death Note-Tsugumi Ohba

 

I love this anime series!!

It is about a straight A high school student named Light Yagami who finds a notebook outside of his class room. Being curious, he picks it up and finds what it was about. It said Death Note in the front. He skimmed though the beginning of the notebook, and he thought that it was a sick prank. But even though he thought that, he brought to his house to read more about it. It said that “The person’s name that is written in this book shall die.”

Half disbelieving, he watched the news and found out a criminal was holding hostages in a nursery home. He wonder what would happen if he wrote his name in the notebook. So then a few minutes later thinking hard about it, he decided to put his name in the note book. In exactly 40 seconds later the criminal dropped dead!

Light was stunned but still he thought it was by luck. Later on in the day he did the same thing with another criminal and the same results happened! Now he believes that the Death Note is real, and he is using it to purify the world. He said that he wanted to be the “god of the new world.”

Suddenly, Light started to write the names of criminals who are the most notorious in the world. He started to kill 5 criminals a day then later on he started to kill 25 a day!! A  Shinigami (a god of death) showed up and warned Light what will happen to him when he dies. The public started to notice and the police too.

The police are doing everything in their power to stop it, but now they are desperate and begged a legendary detective nicknamed L. Now the battle between Light Yagami and L begins.

Read Horror Manga Now!

Every October, as the wind turns chilly and whistles around the corners of buildings like some creep, I re-read The Enigma of Amigara Fault by Junji Ito. Just to get myself into the Halloween mood — I love things where I can’t stand reading any more, but I can’t stop, either. Amigara never fails to fill me with uncanny dread, even though it’s only 32 pages long and has nary a monster in sight.

The premise is that an earthquake in Japan has opened up a mysterious fault line in a mountain, revealing a series of human-sized holes.  Some people who have seen the images of the holes on television are mysteriously compelled to go look at them in person. And some think that there is a hole in the mountainside that is shaped just like them. Made for them. And they start to think that they should go into the mountain.

I won’t say any more, so as not to ruin it for you, but I will give you some more ideas of horror manga that you can check out from the library.  You’ll find more atmospheric stories featuring inexplicable compulsions that lead to grotesque consequences, as well as different kinds of spirits and demons than in Western culture’s horror stories.  And best (or worst) of all, it’s illustrated.  So the horrific images can be burned into your psyche.

Uzumaki Vol. 1-3 / Junji Ito

Strange things begin to happen in a small Japanese village. Its residents are being consumed in different ways by the form of the spiral – from contorting their own bodies to being strangely infected by giant snails.  Inhabitants try to leave but are unable. (Also available in animated form!)

Scary Book, Vol. 3 / Kazuo Umezu

There’s a horror manga prize named after Umezu (Junji Ito has won it) so you know he must be good!  I have read the excellent Cat-Eyed Boy, which is now sadly gone from the library system (*sniff*), but we still have this volume to check out and enjoy.

Mushishi / Yuki Urushibara

So, I wouldn’t technically call this horror manga, but it does have to do with unseen things that affect humans in weird ways, and I really enjoyed reading it. Ginko is a traveling supernatural doctor. He diagnoses diseases caused by the Mushi – normally invisible creatures that are tapped into the life force and cause strange side effects when they infect humans.

Rohan at the Louvre / Hirohiko Araki

Rohan is a mangaka who falls for a girl who is haunted by the story of a painting made with the blackest ink known on earth. He gets obsessed with the painting in turn and goes to the Louvre to see it for himself. Things get weird from there.

 

Have a favorite horror manga?  Let me know in the comments – I’m always looking for new ones to read.

 

- Tessa, CLP – East Liberty

We need your opinion! Be a graphic novel reviewer.

Every year, the Young Adult Services Association, a national association of Young Adult Librarians/Library Staff/Library Advocates, puts out lists of the best media of the year in a bunch of different subjects.  Don’t like long, slow books? Take a look at the Quick Picks list. Prefer movies? We have Fabulous Films for you. Want to read nonfiction? They have it. Into books published for adults?  They’re onto that too.

There is also a list of the best graphic novels published for teens, and that’s where we need your help.  In January, this list is voted on through a committee.  I’ve volunteered to be on it, so all this year I’ve been reading comics and graphic novels to find what I think are the best ones that teens would like.  The rest of the committee and other graphic novel readers have also been nominating titles for the list.  But we need to know what the teen readers really think. After all, we’re making the list for you.

If you want to let the committee know what you think of the nominated titles, you can do so by

1. finding a nominated title by looking at the list

2. getting it from your library (or asking me if I have a reading copy you can borrow)

3. reading it

4. using this online form to tell me what you thought of it.

Then I can take your opinions with me to help us decide what really are the Great Graphic Novels of this year.

Have a title that’s not nominated yet, but you think it should be?  You can nominate it using this form – but it has to have been published after September 2011.

Happy reading,

-Tessa, CLP – East Liberty

Calling All Comic, Graphic Novel, and Manga Readers!!!

The nominations for YALSA’s 2012 Great Graphic Novels for Teens list have been finalized!  All year I’ve been reading all the new graphic novels, superhero stories, and manga I can get my hands on to evaluate and nominate titles, because last year I was selected as a committee member for this list.  But the committee doesn’t just need my opinion.  We also want to hear what you think about the titles that have been nominated to be on the list.

Our final discussions will take place during the ALA Midwinter Conference.  That’s on January 20-24 of next year.  That still gives you time to read some of the books and send me your thoughts. Many of them are available from the library!  But some of them are so new we haven’t even gotten them on the shelves yet.  However, I have copies!

Publishers generously send the committee members review copies of nominated titles, so I have a whole shelf of them here at CLP – East Liberty.  Leave a comment on this post telling me which ones you’re interested in, the library branch you go to, and the librarian that you know there, and I’ll send the books over for you to read. All you have to do is fill out a one page evaluation form telling me your thoughts about whatever you’ve read.  OR you can email me the info at barbert@carnegielibrary.org

The opinions of actual readers are so helpful to us when discussion time comes around.  So please lend me your voice and help us select the books that will end up being Great Graphic Novels for Teens 2012.  Once again, the list of nominations can be found here.  And below you’ll see a sampling of some of the covers of the nominated books.

Thanks! I look forward to hearing from you.

Tessa, CLP – East Liberty

Teen Intern Manga Review: A Certain Scientific Railgun

Today CLP East Liberty‘s own Teen Youth Intern, Savion, will review a recently published volume of manga. It was sent to me for review by the publisher, Seven Seas, and I wanted to see if had any appeal for the teen collection. Here’s what he has to say:

This manga called A Certain Scientific Railgun by Kazuma Kamachi and illustrated by Motoi Fuyukawa is nothing short of awesome. The main character’s name is Mikoto Misaka. She is almost the most powerful mutant in town.

I liked this book because, the topic entertained me, and the idea of a middle school girl having the power of a railgun just seems exquisite–she basically uses electricity to fight but the voltage level is very high*. Everyone does not have powers, only the mutants–other locals are just humans. The kids who do have powers are special.

In school Mikoto and her friends learn how to control their powers and become more powerful. Every mutant has a power level that goes from 0 to 5, 5 is the most powerful level. Mikoto is a level 5 and she has the power of a railgun.

I like this book because it has a lot of action in it, like when the main character Mikoto fights other mutants. I like her use of her powers of the railgun. Another thing I like about this book is the characters’ personalities. They feel like real people but just inside of a book. I like the art style in the book. It is manga of course. This book flows a lot like anime and I happen to really like anime. I like how this book goes more on the teen side then the younger audience.

I don’t have many dislikes of this book. But it could have a better variety of powers to distinguish throughout all of the characters. I don’t like how Mikoto only uses her powers to fight. She could also use them to hack into computers and lots of other cool fun things that have to do with electricity.

I highly recommend this title for the library.

-Savion, CLP – East Liberty

*NOTE – I had to look this up while I was reading the book, so I thought I’d pass on the information: a railgun is a gun that does not use gunpowder. Instead, its power comes from an electrified magnetic field. (Click here for more detailed information.)  That’s why Mikoto’s nickname is “the Railgun”.  Check out this video to see how much destruction a railgun can create:

The library doesn’t have this book (yet?) but if you’re looking for similar action-style manga we do have these options:

Like reading about so-called “mutants”? We have a ton of X-Men comics…




 

 

 







Prefer to stick with manga?

Code:Breaker / Akimine Kamijyo: Teenage assassins with superpowers!

 

 

 

 

Rurouni Kenshin / story and art by Nobuhiro Watsuki:

Kenshin is a wandering former assassin during the Meiji period in Japan. Some of the characters have superhuman skills.

 

 

 

 

 

The Prince of Tennis / story & art by Takeshi Konomi.

What if you could defy physics? Would you use your skills to play tennis?

Teen review: Claymore by Norihiro Yagi

Hello again,

Hello again all. My name is Isaiah and I review manga, comics, CD’s or anything else I find that seems interesting, today I will be reviewing the manga Claymore vol. 1.

Claymore has been continually recommended to me by many but never had the opportunity to check it out. Now that I have, let’s get right into this one.

I first start off by reading the back of the book as always, in short it says, that there are these monsters called Yoma, they eat humans and live among them in disguise. The only beings strong enough to fight these monsters are called Claymores, which are half human and half Yoma monster. Seems pretty solid to me.

The book starts off in a town where one more person has just been found dead by the Yoma, soon after, the Claymore arrives. The Claymore isn’t the generic loud-mouth manga character which I think is pretty cool . I won’t really continue with the plot summary because I may give some away, which I don’t want.

This book is actually pretty easy to follow, not too much ridiculous back-story to cope with, making it a pretty smooth read. The art isn’t always the best at times but the details put into the Claymores uniform and other places really adds to it. I think the action was really solid in this book. The fighting was always quick, crisp, and did not get repetitive. As of right now I’m really digging the story too. There is a sort of freelance feel to it, which I think is always fun. The only problem I have with this as of right now is the lack of comedy. I feel that the lack of comedy may make the book seem to drag on a little. So I’ll give Claymore an 8/10 for nice art, cool story, and original concept.

Next time, I’ll be reviewing the Strokes album, First Impressions of Earth.

Keep Our Manga Collections Alive by Checking Them Out! (P.S. – Miss Shojo Beat?)

Naruto never gives up! And neither should you... on our manga collection.

One of the most inspiring things from 2009 was watching tons of awesome teens help save their Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh neighborhood libraries through advocacy efforts that helped fund us through some really tough budgetary times.

However, what this library of the future actually has to offer could easily change if you don’t actually use the library to check out materials–and tell all your friends to do the same.

I’m going to give you a quick and easy lesson about how library budgets work:

If you don’t use it, you lose it.

I buy the manga for the Main library here in Oakland, and a lot of my decisions are duplicated (aka “piggybacked”) in our many branch libraries. The decisions I make and the amount of money I have to spend impacts the amount of manga available to check out throughout Pittsburgh.

If I can’t justify buying a new series (or continuing an old one) based on how many times people check out similar manga (or older titles in the same series), then everybody loses:

1. I lose because I can’t buy cool new stuff, which is one of the fun parts of my job.
2. Branch libraries lose because they have less and less to choose from when it comes to piggybacking.
3. YOU LOSE because you can’t curl up at home with a free new manga that you were able to check out–again, for free–from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

Circulation of manga fell 15% between 2008 and 2009. You can guess what happened to the budget.

Part of this is probably because you can pretty much read any translated manga series you want, online, for free, within a week of when it’s published in Japan. I can understand that.

What I hope you understand is what happens when you go entirely online and give up on the kinds of books that you can drag with you to bed, on a couch, or one of the comfy “foof chairs” we have in the Main library Teen section: they start to disappear.

And the whole reason you advocated for the library to begin with? All of the cool materials and services we provide to teens across Pittsburgh?

They’re gone.

~Joseph
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh – Main

P.S. – DID YOU KNOW: The former manga monthly magazine Shojo Beat has re-emerged in an online-only format. Check it out here: Viz Signature Ikki!

International Manga Library!

photo by flickr user Telstar Logistics

Last month Meiji University in Tokyo opened the International Manga Library on its Surugadai campus.   According to this article from the Japan Times Online, the library has over 2 million volumes of manga, and if you’re ever in Tokyo, you could become a one-day member.

The Carnegie Library system doesn’t have a manga collection that’s quite that big, but ours isn’t too shabby.  Our librarians have put together a booklist of recommendations over on the Books and More section of our teen page, or you can browse our holdings by clicking here.  That’s 678 records, and some of those records are for series with 20+ volumes, so it would take someone a while to work through them all. 

Other Resources:

• If you are getting a gift of money for the holidays and need some fun Japanese swag to use it on, there’s a shop in Pittsburgh called Kawaii that might be able to help.
• Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat will give you previews of new manga on their websites.

Learning can be fun!

 I recently discovered a fabulous new series in the Teen section!  The Manga Guides combine story with technology.  The first in the series is The Manga Guide to Databases.

 

I really did learn the basic concepts involved in building and using databases.  SQL (Structured Query Language) is no longer a total mystery to me. 

Check out other titles now available:

• The Manga Guide To Calculus
• The Manga Guide To Electricity
• The Manga Guide To Molecular Biology
• The Manga Guide To Physics
• The Manga Guide To Statistics

 These guide books are a lot more fun to read then regular text books.  The Manga Guides are a great way to get started when studying some complex subjects.

 Updates are available at the publisher’s website.  www.nostarch.com

All of these guides can be found at the Main Library and at each neighborhood branch in the Teen section.

marianj

Free Comic Book Day 2008 – Saturday May 3rd, 2008

 

 

“Free Comic Book Day is a single day when participating comic book shops across North America and around the world give away comic books absolutely free to anyone who comes into their stores.”

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From manga to horror, superhero comics to those wacky teens from Riverdale, Free Comic Book Day has what you need!  What a great way to get into comics, or — if you’ve fallen off the wagon — what a great time to get back in the habit!  Check out these local comic shops this Saturday to see what it’s all about:

Phantom of the Attic @ 406 South Craig St. in Oakland.  Open 10 AM to 7 PM on Saturday.

The Copacetic Comics Company @ 1505 Asbury Pl. in Sq. Hill.  Open 11 AM to 5 PM on Saturday.

Eide’s Entertainment @ 1121 Penn Avenue, Downtown.  Open 9:30 AM to  6:30 PM on Saturday.

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And remember, comics are always free at the library!  We’ve got thousands of graphic novels, manga and zines to choose from.  Stop by the teen desk and we’ll recommend something great.

- Corey W.

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Main – Teen