Sure, you will show a great Graphic Novels: A Genre Guide to Comic Books, Manga, and More (Genreflecting Advisory Series) (by Libraries Unlimited) :
Customer Review for this product :
Ambitious and Successful -
While there are a lot of guides to graphic novels out there, this one is by far the most ambitious and successful. Because titles are arranged by genre, you can use this as a great tool for readers' advisory. Because titles are carefully labeled for age appropriateness, you can use this same book for collection development for all ages, elementary through adult. And because this includes comics as well as a significant amount of manga (about 50% of the titles I'm guessing) you can start with just this one book instead of having to buy separate guides to graphic novels and manga. This book is well worth the price and is something to which you will refer constantly as you build your graphic novel collection.
I do have some criticisms, although most of them are related to format restrictions of the "Genreflecting Advisory Series." Although it's usually a nice feature that each title includes ISBNs, in this case it doesn't work because for some of the manga series with twenty or thirty volumes, the lists of ISBNs sometimes extend for over half a page. This is wasted space and it would have been sufficient to list the ISBN for just the first volume. Despite the vast number of titles in this book there are still some of my favorites that weren't included, so I wish those pages could have been used to list more titles instead of a bunch of ISBNs.
Also the annotations with each title are more plot summary than review, and there is no star rating system or other guide to quality. As a result, you really can't order any titles just based on their inclusion in this guide, and will have to find another source with reviews before adding anything to your collection. For example, take two shojo manga titles listed opposite each other in the Romance section, both rated for older teens -- the racy and controversial "Hot Gimmick" series and the sweet classic "Imadoki." The superb librarian's guide Understanding Manga and Anime gives you a heads-up that there may be some concerns about adding "Hot Gimmick", with its acceptance of abusive teen relationships, into your collection.
I also wish there was a list in the back that included every title in each age rating, so for example an elementary librarian could see the "All Ages" titles listed in the same place, and then turn to read more about each book on the appropriate page. Right now you basically have to page through the whole book and scan the age rating in each listing to locate the relevant titles. In addition, there is no genre or list for homosexual titles even though yaoi is an important category in manga. While individual titles do indicate in the description if they are yaoi/yuri, there are not many of these titles and they can only be located by flipping randomly through the book. By contrast, Manga: The Complete Guide has great specific listings of these and other mature titles.
And while this IS a great book of lists, it is NOT really an introduction to graphic novels. There is a cute section in the front, in comic form, that briefly discusses issues like cataloging and promotion -- however this book is really for people who have already decided graphic novels are worth purchasing. It is not an introduction to the format for newbies; librarians who are still struggling to decide whether or not they want to start a graphic novel collection at all may want to look at something like The Librarian's Guide to Graphic Novels for Children and Tweens first.
Despite those criticisms, this is still the most thorough single volume guide to graphic novels available, and I highly recommend it to librarians serving all populations.
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Customer Review for this product :
Ambitious and Successful - While there are a lot of guides to graphic novels out there, this one is by far the most ambitious and successful. Because titles are arranged by genre, you can use this as a great tool for readers' advisory. Because titles are carefully labeled for age appropriateness, you can use this same book for collection development for all ages, elementary through adult. And because this includes comics as well as a significant amount of manga (about 50% of the titles I'm guessing) you can start with just this one book instead of having to buy separate guides to graphic novels and manga. This book is well worth the price and is something to which you will refer constantly as you build your graphic novel collection.
I do have some criticisms, although most of them are related to format restrictions of the "Genreflecting Advisory Series." Although it's usually a nice feature that each title includes ISBNs, in this case it doesn't work because for some of the manga series with twenty or thirty volumes, the lists of ISBNs sometimes extend for over half a page. This is wasted space and it would have been sufficient to list the ISBN for just the first volume. Despite the vast number of titles in this book there are still some of my favorites that weren't included, so I wish those pages could have been used to list more titles instead of a bunch of ISBNs.
Also the annotations with each title are more plot summary than review, and there is no star rating system or other guide to quality. As a result, you really can't order any titles just based on their inclusion in this guide, and will have to find another source with reviews before adding anything to your collection. For example, take two shojo manga titles listed opposite each other in the Romance section, both rated for older teens -- the racy and controversial "Hot Gimmick" series and the sweet classic "Imadoki." The superb librarian's guide Understanding Manga and Anime gives you a heads-up that there may be some concerns about adding "Hot Gimmick", with its acceptance of abusive teen relationships, into your collection.
I also wish there was a list in the back that included every title in each age rating, so for example an elementary librarian could see the "All Ages" titles listed in the same place, and then turn to read more about each book on the appropriate page. Right now you basically have to page through the whole book and scan the age rating in each listing to locate the relevant titles. In addition, there is no genre or list for homosexual titles even though yaoi is an important category in manga. While individual titles do indicate in the description if they are yaoi/yuri, there are not many of these titles and they can only be located by flipping randomly through the book. By contrast, Manga: The Complete Guide has great specific listings of these and other mature titles.
And while this IS a great book of lists, it is NOT really an introduction to graphic novels. There is a cute section in the front, in comic form, that briefly discusses issues like cataloging and promotion -- however this book is really for people who have already decided graphic novels are worth purchasing. It is not an introduction to the format for newbies; librarians who are still struggling to decide whether or not they want to start a graphic novel collection at all may want to look at something like The Librarian's Guide to Graphic Novels for Children and Tweens first.
Despite those criticisms, this is still the most thorough single volume guide to graphic novels available, and I highly recommend it to librarians serving all populations.
Check Best Price Here
More Detailed Product Description
Adding graphic novels to your library collection is a surefire way to boost circulation and build customer loyalty. But with thousands of graphic novels being published annually and no sign of a slowdown, how do you determine which graphic novels to purchase, and which to recommend to teen and adult readers? This guide is intended to help you start, update, or maintain a graphic novel collection and advise readers about the genre. It covers more than 2,400 titles, including series titles, and organizes them according to genre, subgenre, and theme-from super-heroes and adventure to crime, humor, and nonfiction. Reading levels, awards/recognition, and core titles are identified; and tie-ins with gaming, film, anime, and television are noted. Grade 6 through adult.
In addition, it will cite resources for learning more about the genre, and provide information on awards. Hundreds of images illustrate the guide.
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