Queen Bee

Queen Bee by Chynna Clugston. Graphix, Imprint of Scholastic. Library copy. Graphic Novel.

The Plot: Haley is the new girl in 7th grade. She's glad she's in a new school; it's a chance to start over and be popular! The only problem . . . she's got this little thing called psychokinesis. Which can cause a wee bit of trouble.

The Good: It's classic middle school story line. Girl wants to be popular so doesn't hang out with the friendly girl. Popular group has a Queen Bee. There's a nice shy boy; but he's not cool enough.

The new twists: it's in graphic novel format. Haley manages to rise to the top of the social structure... but it's tricky staying on top. When new girl Alexa shows up, she not only becomes the new Queen Bee; Haley finds herself struggling to keep any of her popularity. It's not easy, because Alexa doesn't fight fair. Middle School politics are front and center, with a healthy dose of manipulation. All assisted by psychokinesis. Haley can move things with her mind! (But she has some control issues.)

The wrap up is interesting: a little American Idol, a little High School Musical, as the school's drama show determines who will be the Queen Bee. For this volume, at least.

Links:
Author's LiveJournal.
Review by TangognaT at Chicken Spaghetti.
The Goddess of YA Literature - GNs for gurlz

Emma, Volume 1

Emma Volume 1 by Kaoru Mori. Copy donated by publisher, CMX, in support of Cybils. Cybils long list.

The Plot: Set in Victorian England. Emma is a maid; she meets a gentleman, William Jones. As the book copy says, "an upstairs gentleman and a downstairs servant share a secret love."

The Good: Ah, romance, as Emma and William exchange glances and William does things like leaves a glove behind to ensure a second meeting.

There is a lot of quiet in this book. Emma says little; she is quiet, shy, almost to the point of being a shadow. Because so much is not said, the illustrations become very important; it's how the reader knows what is going on in Emma's head. They are full of details; reading the dialogue and skimming the pictures means you'll miss parts of the story.

Along with the quiet there is a sense of slowness; a leisurely pace, almost, as the characters navigate the structure of their world. William may like Emma, and she him, but there is no rush. There is hesitancy.

What else? There are hints that there is something more going on, with both Emma's own background as well as that of her employer/mentor, Mrs. Stowner; despite Emma's reticence, or perhaps because of it, she has quite the few men falling for her. Yet at all times she is the proper young maid.

The final test for me: do I want to read more? Do I want to learn more about Emma and to find out whether Emma and William get together despite their class and money differences? Yes, yes, yes!

At this wikipedia entry on the series, I found out that not only has the book inspired such things as an Emma cafe, but also that Mori is very sensitive to the question of historical accuracy, to the point of hiring a historical consultant.

Rating: most manga is rated for the entire series; this one is T+, Teen Plus Suggestive Situations. While I didn't see anything really in this one, I'm assuming that the rating is earned in future volumes.

Links: the TangognaT review
The official website
The Comics Journal review
Publisher website (includes interior art)

Little Butterfly, Volume 1

Little Butterfly, Volume 1 by Hinako Takanaga. Digital Manga, Inc. Copy donated by publisher; Cybils nominee.

The Plot: It's about two teenage boys in their last year of high school. Kojima has many friends and everyone likes him. Nakahara is the brooding loner. The only other thing I need to add -- it's yaoi manga. Which means, Kojima and Nakahara get together.

The Good: This is a romance with two very pretty boys. It's fairly tame: boy meets boy, boy feels something for the other boy but doesn't realize what happens, kissing, confusion, anger, reunion, kissing. I've been told that later volumes are more explicit, which is probably why the publisher has put this on the cover: "Yaoi Manga. Parental Advisory. Explicit Content. M for Mature Audiences. 18 +" I'd follow the publisher on this one, and if buying it for a library shelve it in the adult collection.

For those of you new to manga: from what I've seen in the library, it's the norm for manga publishers to include some type of age advisory. In my opinion, this volume doesn't warrant such an explicit label; but, if this advisory is being done for the entire series, I appreciate that the publishers are up front about that and view the story as a whole.

Another explanation for those new to manga: Yaoi is like slash fanfiction; it's about boys with boys. And like slash, it's read mainly by girls and women. As a matter of fact, the flap of the book has a link to a website, yaoi-manga.com, with the tagline "the girls only sanctuary".

While I'm aware of yaoi, this is the first yaoi one that I've read. What struck me is that it was a very non-seduction seduction. Kojima likes Nakahara and wants to be his friend, but is oblivious that Nakahara loves Kojima. Nakahara kisses Kojima and oh, the angst! Add to it that it has the whole good boy/ bad boy thing going on, and OF COURSE, the bad boy has a wounded inner child that only the good boy knows about . . .

It's a sweet romance, very emotional about who likes who as Kojima tries to figure out what he is feeling and what he wants. The pretty boys (and these are two very pretty boys) end up together (hello, no spoiler there! I TOLD you it was a romance, and everyone knows that romances have happy endings!); but since this is first in a series, there is more angst and drama to come. I'm interested in reading the rest of the series, to see what happens to these two.

Note to those who know more about me: If I've totally messed up a definition or such, please let me know in the comments, just be kind!

Links: Mitali's Fire Escape asks about Yaoi
Yet Another Comics Blog: Asks for Yaoi Recommendations

Dramacon Vol. 2

Dramacon Vol. 2, created by Svetlana Chmakova. Copy donated by TokyoPop, in support of the Cybils.

The Plot: During an anime convention, Christie, a teenage writer of online comics and manga, meets up with her crush (Matt) from last year's convention and has assorted con adventures.

The Good: LOVED IT. I cannot wait to read the entire series. And I'm adding it to my Best Books of 2006 list.

This is Volume 2; Volume 1 takes place at the previous year's con, where Christie was there with her abusive artist boyfriend, Matt helped her out of a bad situation, and Christie met one of her favorite writers/artists. All that backstory is nicely recapped in this volume; which means, you do not have to read Volume 1 to enjoy Volume 2, but having read Volume 2 you most certainly want to read Volume 1. I cannot wait to read the whole series, and thank goodness, some of Volume 1 is online. I'm assuming that Volume 3, due out next year, takes place a year from Volume 2.

It's a clever storytelling device; a window into Christie's life every year, following her for a few short days.

Do you need to know a lot about manga and anime and anime conventions to enjoy this story? Hell, no! I loved it and have never been to an anime convention (but have been to other conventions) and have no real experience with manga fandom (beyond being a librarian who is aware of manga, read a handful of titles, and have had anime nights with cosplay and DDR and the like). Dramacon is funny, Christie is great (she is constantly getting lost at the convention center); and I also liked that two teenage girls are not just creating a comic, they are out there promoting it.

I loved the convention storyline; the arguments about what is manga (which is being discussed over at A Year of Reading); fans, fanart, and fandom (which is rather universal); being a professional comics artist and writer.

But what really rocked my world was the semi-romance between Christie and Matt. Christie likes Matt, Matt likes Christie, but after last year they each went their separate ways. Meaning, while Christie is single she dated other guys; and Matt is now dating Emily. Oh, the deliciousness of it all, as they exchange looks, and we, like Christie, first hate Emily (just because!) and then find things to like in Emily, and then ---

OK, I refuse to spoil the entire storyline. Both Christie and Matt try to deal with their feelings about each other contrasted with the realities of their lives. And I loved, loved, loved every second of it.

This series is labelled Romance and Teen Age 13 Plus. Tho, honestly? In this volume, at least, I didn't see anything (i.e., sexual content, language, violence) to warrant a 13 Plus rating; I do think it's going to be mainly of interest to those 13 and over, so it's correct in that way. It's also possible that it's a rating for the entire series.

Links: Reading YA: Readers Rants review.
TangognaT review.