Passport to Manga Clubs Rachel Shankles

What is Manga? Manga: Japanese word referring both to comics and cartooning. "Manga" as a term used outside Japan refers specifically to comics originally published in Japan. The word itself means ‘whimsical drawings’ in Japanese. Shōjo manga is for girls and Shōnen manga is for boys. In the 1990’s a translator went after the American and Canadian market. By 2008, the U.S. and Canadian manga market generated $175 million in annual sales. Manga reads back to front.

Forming a Club Notice the students checking out your Naruto and Bleach series. Talk to them about a Manga Club. Have a sign up sheet the first two weeks of school for anyone to join this club from any grade. Mine goes 8 th through 12 th These kids are usually loners or nerds, may not do well in school but are very intelligent.

Meetings The good thing is you don’t have to buy them free books to give out for book club meetings. They just like to sit and talk about the series. We have had guided activities like tearing up pages of old, worn-out titles of Bleach or Naruto and then making bookmarks during a meeting by gluing them on an Ellison cutout of a book mark and adding yarn as a tassel My aide made bookmarks with DeathNote and other characters for them for Christmas We have had an artist come to demonstrate how the big eyes and faces are drawn My club meets at 7:30 am every other week on Thursdays

Related Gaming Activities Another librarian from a local high school formed an Anime Club about the same time and we talked about having some kind of contest and settled on a Wii game contest using a game that has Manga characters. We used Dragonball Z as the first tournament game between Hot Spgs High and Lakeside High The Garland County Library was happy to hold the tournament for us and offer a trophy and other prizes on a Saturday in January. Games: Drazonball Z, Smash Brothers, Soul Caliber

Advantages An oddball group of kids find a niche and develop some social skills; they come in at lunch and before school to practice the Wii games for the tournaments My circulation stats have sky-rocketed as all these kids talk about the series I have and they check out like 5 a day each. I give them rights to more than two books at a time if in the club I have some donated titles in a back room that are not cataloged; I don’t have Marc records so they feel privileged to go back there and take books to read from that cart too (they keep a log)

Recommended Series Naruto and Bleach are standards for jr/sr high; about 4 new titles come out each year. Yu-gi-oh has several different sets like Millennium and Volume Captive Hearts Death Note- not for middle school The Prince of Tennis Sailor Moon DragonBall Z or GT Fruits Basket – great for mid sch Full Metal Alchemist Mars Rebirth – only for high school Genji no Seiza

More Titles Shaman King Ouran High School Host Club Vampire Game Dragon Knights One Piece Beet Whistle Silver Diamond Her Majesty’s Dog Marmalade Boy The Queen’s Knights Hot Gimmick

Where to Purchase? Delaney Educational’s Sherrie Torgerson (479) (she cks & reads the reviews and tells me which one will be appropriate) Titlewave.com through Follett has some of the big sets in hardback Amazon.com - to complete a set or replace a volume

We made tee shirts for the contests.

Getting the first trophy from GCL

Tournament Rounds