Aya-Chan, Mitsuki’s best friend from her childhood, is back in Japan, back playing basketball, and just finished a tournament opposite Mitsuki’s new Fab Four basketball friends. But there’s something very different about Aya - she’s not a girl! While Mitsuki wrestles with this new information, and how it fits in to all her memories of Aya, Towa is determined not to lose to Aya in any way. Mitsuki tries to fit in with some girls in her class by inviting them to karaoke, but she’s an afterthought the whole time. She confesses her lack of friend making skills to Kyōsuke, one of the four basketballers, and he promises to get to know her better and be a better friend. Mitsuki doesn’t quite trust the offer but also doesn’t want to snub a chance at a friend! Aya finds out Mitsuki works at the Words Café across from the basketball court where they meet, and after one of her shifts, he’s very forward and promises to take her on a date after the next tournament. Mitsuki isn’t sure still how to handle Aya being a boy, let alone asking her on a date!
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Illustrated by Nate Powell
The final book in this trilogy picks up with events early in 1963 when a church in Birmingham was bombed, and four young girls were killed. John Lewis and SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and other Civil Rights groups came together after that bombing to try to get more representation on a state and national level since their local politicians were going to continue to turn a blind eye to violence. They organized into the Freedom Democratic Party and tried to take part in the Democratic National Convention, but drew the ire of LBJ in his re-election campaign. Larger demonstrations were necessary as violence mounted and became more blatant. Lewis and his fellows conceived of a march from Selma, Alabama, to the capital in Montgomery, an event that is now referred to as "Bloody Sunday" because of how badly law enforcement officers beat demonstrators. After that terrible day, another march was planned with Lewis and Martin Luther King, Jr., and this time, they were successful in reaching Montgomery. The finale ties together Lewis and Aydin discussing commemorating all the important work of Lewis' life into a comicbook.
Adaptation by P. Craig Russell, illustrated by Gabriel Hernández Walta, Sandy Jarrell, and Mark Buckingham, colors by Lovern Kindzierski, letters by Galen Showman
In this volume, Russell adapts several stories. We see the death of the God of Poetry by the hands of two dwarves, and how the Odin gets revenge on them. In another story, Thor and Loki travel to the land of giants and are put through several tests of their abilities that turn out to be major illusions. Loki mistakenly gives away the goddess who guards the Apples of Immortality and has to get her back before he's tortured by his aging family. We follow Frey and how he found and married his wife, but gave up the sword that might save him during Ragnarok.
Ascendance of a Bookworm: I'll Do Anything to become a Librarian! Part 1: If there aren't any books, I'll just have to make some!, illustrated by Suzuka
In the last volume, Myne gathered some reeds and cut them down very small in order to make papyrus. In this volume, she starts weaving her very thin strands together, but it’s just too hard of work for her small hands. Her mother weaves cloth on an apparatus in order to prepare for Tuuli’s baptism ceremony coming in the summer, and Myne wants to make a hairpin for her to liven up the outfit. Dad makes a small wooden crochet needle and hairpin, while Myne crochets a few flowers. Myne decides that she next wants to try making clay tablets, but she needs to build up enough strength to actually walk to the forest first. The first goal is to make it to the gate: if she makes it, Otto will teacher her how to write while she rests, then she can come home. Myne helps Otto with some of the math on his year end under report, so he thinks having her as an unofficial assistant would be great! Myne finally makes it to the forest and finds some clay, but the tablets don’t turn out the way she wants them to.
Mari has been stuck in a classroom by herself, forced to practice reviving things, while havoc goes on around her. Miriam and the demon she summoned, whose name is also Alice, apparently have a long history together. Lady Alice the demon sets things in motion between two other countries to spark a war, and the country they’re all in must decide which of their alliances are strongest. The countries then discover that it was the witches who started everything in their quest to get back at the humans for generations of abuse. The country starts attacking the school they’re all in just as Alice discovers Mari’s mother is in the witch’s crypt below the school. Lady Alice dares Mari to try and resurrect everyone she’s killed, but it turns out that everyone has misunderstood Mari’s powers from the beginning.
Vol 1: Before the Storm, translated by Greg Pak, illustrated by Keng, lettered (English edition) by Joe Caramagna
In an extremely non-linear plot line, we are introduced to Lei Ling, also known as Aero, a hero in Shanghai who has control over the air. When she’s not flying around her beloved city, Ling is an architect who designs homes for Shanghai citizens. Aero is currently battling animated buildings, some of which she designed, and desperately trying to stop a floating city from crashing into Shanghai. In the alternating scenes, we see glimpses of Ling’s past, where she and her boyfriend dine at a fancy restaurant just before he might get the courage and opportunity to propose to her, but she has to sneak away to save some folks trapped in a cyclone on a ferry. And then we meet Aero’s mentor, Madame Huang, who Aero is battling in the present while past Ling meets her for the first time.
Adapted by Aki
Draconia is on the brink of war with Nadasha, all in the name of the Priestess Princess, which is annoying little Asahi. Ruri decides she has to go talk to Asahi, regrettably, to maybe stave off a war that will get people killed. The talk doesn’t go well - Asahi does some pretty impressive mental gymnastics to get out of seeing Ruri’s points, so Ruri leaves, dejected. Meanwhile, her abrupt trip has sent the Dragon King into an absolute frenzy. He wants to go after Ruri, send search parties, appeal to the fairies - anything but run the kingdom. Ruri’s return stops the kingdom-wide panic, and the Dragon King finally gets back to some of the paperwork that’s been piling up. But soon, the news of war reaches them, and the Dragon Army must start preparing for what’s to come.
Illustrated by Stephen Green, colored by Rico Renzi
After the Shaman tried to rip the War Club out of Kadyn's body in the last bit of volume one, the boy and his father, Gil, are once again separated by light years. Gil and the Shaman end up on the menacing Space Leviathan who attacked the temple on the Sacred Moon in volume one. With them is Monkey and Dolphin, who spent most of volume one tagging along with Kadyn. Meanwhile, Kadyn is stranded in wild space with Dalla, and he’s not sure he can trust her after what she pulled with the evil shaman. The dark spirit inhabiting the Shaman leaves him and infests Gil, which gives him the ability to commune with the Leviathan and see a path to Kadyn. Swirling around all of this is still the magic War Club and what its power means for these space people and creatures. Kadyn must do some soul searching in addition to searching for his dad.
Vol 1: Japanese Cuisine, illustrated by Akira Hanasaki
Tōzai News has decided to commission a special news story - The Ultimate Menu. Yamaoka and Yūko are seeking some of the best of Japanese cuisine. Yamaoka is estranged from his father, who runs a Gourmet Club and especially loves Japanese cuisine, and the two often bump into each other to disastrous effect. In their pursuits, Yamaoka and Yūko delve into many parts of Japanese cuisine: how to use Dashi correctly and subtlety, knife skills and how it changes the flavor of food, how chefs cannot smoke because the tobacco transfers onto the flesh of fish, Japanese tea ceremonies, the artistry of sashimi, and so much more.
In continuing the theme that every powerful person who meets Freya’s falls in love with her, we somehow run into the Sigurdian prince on a ship where Freya is bound for the kingdom of Nacht to secure the first of many alliances against Sigurd. Prince Dimitri decides to entertain himself by trying to get Freya to go to bed with him, but she skillfully avoids his advances. Once they land in Nacht, Freya and her hand-picked band of retainers learn that the Queen, who was a Sigurdian princess, sends her servants to the town to select young, beautiful men to be her evening’s entertainment. Of course, Julius stands out among the rest, and they all get an invitation to the castle. They discover that there’s more to her request than companionship and a dinner guest. The queen has actually been seeking a brave soul to save her kingdom from a vengeful person, and she begs Julius to be that soul.
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About MeI've been reading manga and comicbooks for years. Now, I write reviews and other helpful things for School Librarians, teachers, parents, and students. Search this siteRatings, Audience, and Subject Tags
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