After an intense year and the burn out that followed, Angelica is easing back into having responsibilities by interning at the local community theater. This winter, they're reviving a classic and honoring a community favorite play, The Bear Prince, which includes Peri the Bear. The Bear Prince was one of Angelica's favorite plays as a kid, and Peri was her favorite character, so she can't wait to start her internship and help put together the production. But also, Angelica has been messaging someone through the theater's social media page over the summer, someone claiming to be Peri. She knows her childhood dreams aren't reality, but it's also been nice to have someone to talk to...
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Newly departed souls must make a perilous journey through purgatory, but if they have sustenance for their long, forty day journey, they won’t fade along the way in the harshness of purgatory. One way loved ones can help is by purchasing purgatory cakes from a specialized bakery. These cakes take special ingredients and infuse memories from the living, and they are delicately baked with the utmost care by a skilled and kind baker with some otherworldly powers. Each chapter is a visit into these memories as the client purchases their specialized cake for their departed one.
Allen sets off on his first mission as part of the black order with a partner who doesn’t like anyone very much, Allen included. The two are sent to Italy to retrieve some Innocence that is under the attack of many akuma. Kanda, Allen’s new partner, explains that humans find pieces of Innocence around the world and they are the basis of many ghost story and tall tales, so the Order investigates many of these happenings to recover the Innocence materials behind them. Once Allen and Kanda arrive in Italy, they find an akuma that has transformed thanks to the deaths of many humans, and it had many powers that other akuma haven’t had before.
Zoe, a fledgling witch from a secluded island, was told from a young age that people on the mainland would persecute her and burn her at the stake. One day, she and her friend, Shishka, sneak away and discover the mainland is unlike what it was reported to be. Instead, Zoe meets and falls in love with Clive, a kindhearted young man who takes them in. Clive tragically dies soon after their wedding, leaving Zoe lost and in a sea of anguish. Zoe also meets a scarab beetle named Eliza in the same predicament. The two take comfort in each other’s grief, discover that Shishka is also a widow, and all three decide to study magic in earnest to find a way to bring their partners back to life.
At a young age, Allen Walker was constricted into the fight against the Millennium Earl and his deadly cruel Akuma, machines built upon the grief and sin of humans longing for the souls of a dearly departed loved one. With a powerful weapon embedded into his left hand and a cursed eye that can see Akuma trapped inside their human hosts, Allen is on a mission to find Innocence, a material that can be manufactured into new weapons to take on the Earl. This will help build up the power of the Black Order, the group of exorcists sworn to protect humanity and fight the Millennium Earl's Akuma weapons.
Adapted by Dan Jolley, illustrated by James L. Barry
School Library Journal review - part of Spring 2025 Fiction Made Simple, "8 Manga Fiction Series with Emotion, Drama, and All the Feels" Sara's Rating: 8/10 Suitability Level: Grades 4-6 Publisher: Spotlight/ABDO (reprint & separation of TOKYOPOP 3-volume series) Publication Date: December 15, 2024 ISBNs: (Library reinforced hardcovers) 9781098255411, 9781098255428, 9781098255435, 9781098255442, 9781098255459, 9781098255466, 9781098255473, 9781098255480, 9781098255497 Tags: Rating: 8/10, Suitability: Elementary School, Manga, Animals, Action Adventure, Family, Survival, Grief  School Library Journal review
Sara's Rating: 8/10 Suitability Level: Grades 9-12 Publisher: Yen Press Publication Date: December 17, 2024 ISBN: 9781975380120 (Paperback) Tags: Rating: 8/10, Suitability: High School, Manga, Family, Grief, Romance, Yen Press 
Hiroto is a pretty carefree 29-year-old, except he finds it difficult to talk to attractive women around his own age. He has no problem befriending older ladies, including an 81-year-old former lunch lady he affectionately calls Granny. He has dinner at her house twice a week until she suddenly dies of a heart attack and leaves her two-bedroom house to him. When Hiroto’s cousin Nat comes to live with him as she attends art school, the two learn to live together and figure out what it means to be adults in their various stages of life - Nat as a struggling college student with social anxiety, and Hiroto trying to figure out his purpose in life.
Akira is mostly an average high school student who, on an outing looking for an out of stock manga, gets caught up in a skirmish that changes his life. He boards a subway and finds himself in a confrontation between an actual extra-terrestrial and the Alien Management Organization, the group tasked with making sure aliens follow the rule of law while they’re on Planet Earth. One of those officers is none other than Akita’s handsome and physically fit classmate, Sho Tenkubashi! Instead of wiping his memory and sending him on his way, The AMO decides to enlist Akira despite having no training and no physical prowess to match Sho. What could he possibly bring to the table?
One summer, Hikaru went up into the mountain, but what returned might not be Hikaru. Yoshiki doesn’t want to believe his best friend is dead, but he has a suspicion that whatever this thing is, isn’t his friend Hikaru. This creature might have all of Hikaru’s mannerisms and memories, but it’s not his best friend. However, is being around this thing better than not having Hikaru at all? Yoshiki receives several warnings from the townsfolk that what he’s with is evil, that he shouldn’t get too close, but the conflict in him only grows.
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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 site
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