I couldn't be more excited!
This is a genre I'm super passionate about. I started reading comics and the like when I could barely read. My brother would share his Life with Betty and Betty's Diary comics with me.
This one is a national treasure, I'm sure.
Though probably advanced as far as writing and subject matter, I was hooked. "Archies" are still my favorite comics, as trite and tired as some may be. Yes, Dan DeCarlo, we can tell that you whited-out some 70's band and hand wrote "*NSYNC" as a band Veronica needed her groovy autograph book for. You are fooling no one.
Even then, my love of books and comics grew. I hate to admit how big of a consumer I was as a child, but it was the late 80s and early 90s and that is what we were raised to be. My parents, however, pushed me to make as much as consume, so more often than not I would act out or write stories based on the things I already loved.
Anime was becoming increasingly popular in my middle school years, probably due to the mass amounts of people that now had cable. It wasn't a taboo like it had been, where people were going to conventions to buy subtitled or fan dubbed VHS tapes of Ghost in the Shell or Fushigi Yugi. No, there were famous voice actors, professional subs supplied by local company FUNimation, and more fans than ever. I started watching Toonami after TRL every day after school (dating myself much?), and was absolutely in love with this wacky, beautiful Japanese world. My favorite show was Gundam Wing and I bought manga and feature length films at my very first A-Kon that changed my life forever.
How could you not fall in love with these sci-fi soldiers? One of them is even a test tube baby!
I became obsessed--literally. I spent times when friends were sleeping at slumber parties reading through the entire Mars manga series, reading all the countless Mobile Suite Gundam offshoots, as well as discovering new favorites in Nausicaa and Kare Kano (His and Her Circumstances). My heart was full.
Super heroes had always been a love of mine as well, but anime took the front seat for a long while. Once I graduated high school, however, the world of the graphic novel, including super heroes, had changed immensely.
I have been in love ever since.
Continuations of favorite movies or TV shows, beautiful allegories for family relationships, whatever it may be, I loved it. This beautiful medium can transport the reader to their world of choice with friends of choice. You get to peek on characters you might never meet in this life or galaxy.
There comes those goose bumps again, dangit.
With my history of loving graphic novels, I am so thrilled and honored to be ordering literature that can and will shape a child's view in some way. It's crazy to think that every thing I potentially do impacts a student in some way or another. It's incredibly humbling.
This order, I specifically searched for a lot of pro-girl graphic novels. Even in today's state, it's incredibly difficult to find age-appropriate books that have a strong female protagonist that is not a princess or anything silly like that. I found some great titles in that vein, as well as some that are perfectly gender neutral. I've told some of my manga loving girls that I've got some fun things coming their way and they get so excited! Some are so adorably excited I cannot wait to share these books with them.
Speaking of the books, I made a little collage of some of them! Some are re-orders or extra copies (one can never have too many Amulet books!) so I've omitted some of my order. Here's the visual of a glimpse of what we're getting:
Look at all those potential friends and memories to be made! I can't wait to read Li'l Gotham and Monster Turkey/Monster Christmas.
Happy Reading!
Christine
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