Kingdom Hearts vols 1-4 by Shiro Amano

On a small island world, a young hopeful adventurer named Sora builds a raft with two of his closest friends, Riku and Kairi. Then, on the night before they plan to set sail and explore distant worlds, a storm hits and consumes their world in darkness, setting Sora onto a path as the wielder of a mythical weapon known as the Keyblade and separating him from his two best friends. Sora awakens in another world called Traverse Town where he meets Donald Duck and Goofy, and he learns of the epic quest he must undertake to save princesses and seal worlds away from the evil plan laid out by the Heartless. Together, Sora, Donald, and Goofy travel to many different worlds in search of King Mickey, Riku, Kairi, but also in hopes of saving even more worlds from disappearing.

This series follows the storyline of the video game Kingdom Hearts originally released in 2002 for the Play Station 2 system and blends together Disney properties with Final Fantasy properties. Many readers will be familiar with the Disney characters throughout this series, but not necessarily the Final Fantasy characters. However, being familiar with the Final Fantasy characters is not necessary.

This series does a decent job at translating the video game story to page considering there are some moments where players are left to struggle through puzzles or scenarios. Much of this game is about cooperative team fights with the three party members, but those scenes are largely glossed over in favor of advancing the story. Strangely, the original localization and successive reprints have never translated the sound effects, so readers will have to use their own imagination.

I've previously reviewed this entire series of manga, but this version is specifically for the ABDO reprint with the Reinforced Library Binding. The price point is considerably higher than the original TOKYOPOP or even the updated Yen Press versions of the manga at $24,95 per volume ($107 for the set), but there's a reason for it. Libraries are paying for hardcovers with protective coating, sewn binding and reinforced end-papers to deter splitting at the spine, and much thicker paper than a traditional manga. Kingdom Hearts is a great series for elementary students, and they can be rough on pages, so the thicker paper is helpful with our small, indelicate pager turners. Many paperback manga and even hardcovers put out by traditional publishers come apart after a handful of checkouts, so buying these volumes at double the cost of a single volume is worth the investment for a popular series that will see high circulation.

Sara's Rating: 8/10
Suitability Level: Grades 3-12

Publisher: ABDO
Publication Date: August 1 2023
ISBN: 9781098253295 (set- Hardcover)

​Tags: Rating: 8/10, Suitability: Elementary School, Suitability: Middle School, Suitability: High School, Manga, Action Adventure, Fantasy, Friendship, Video Games, ABDO