Anime vs Manga

What is the difference? According to Wikipedia, anime is animation either hand drawn or computer assisted. Anime was an art form started in Japan about 1917. Modern Manga is often considered an offshoot of anime evolving into a new comic format. However the earliest manga was a picture book published in the 1700's. Modern manga and anime often feature big wide eyes and have a cartoon art form. They both exploded in popularity after the war. Anime and manga are not genres. They have many genres within the art form.

Manga means comics in Japanese. Manga is mainly a paper culture although there is an increasing amount of manga online. Manga is sometimes scanned and put online by fans. Leading companies like Tokyopop and Viz have their own online manga. Tokyopop has an online player that works fairly well so that that the reader can read online. It looks just like a book with a colored cover, black and white inside, and the pages turn. Online manga is usually not for young children.

Anime is television, films, video, internet, etc. Anime is colorful. Traditional manga is black and white. but this is changing as manga goes global. Often both feature the warrior traditions of the Japanese culture but defined in a pop culture or futuristic setting. Japanese societial mores regarding nudity, gender roles, violence, and even roles of students in schools are often depicted. These roles are much different in the United States. There are anime for children. Adult anime is often shown in the middle of the night on American television. Although the art form is cartoon, the content is not for young children.

There has been a huge globalization of manga and anime all over the world. Pokeman was originally a video game, but the brand is marketed in toys, books, and videos all over the world. Anime movies have won many global awards. In the last few years United States bookstores have developed increasingly large manga sections. Many elementary school age students have favorite manga authors or series.

The Lexile Framework for Reading

Should students independent reading be guided by their Lexile score? The Lexile Framework for Reading suggests that students read books within the range of 100L below or 50L above their score. This may be difficult as not all books are found on the Lexile book search, librarians do not know the students Lexile score, and graphic novels are often not included in the database. A teacher will not find Spider-Man Versus Doc Ock in the Lexile database. The score reflects sentence length and vocabulary difficulty. The score does not take into account organization, content, or the desire of the student to read the book.

According to Stephen Krashen in the California School Library Journal using Lexile scores is not necessary. Krashen believes students can choose the book to read by reading some of the text to discover if the text is too hard or too easy. This goes back to the old five finger test. The student opens the book to a page, tries to read it, preferably out loud, and puts up a finger for every word they don't know. If they use all five fingers, they get another book. This is a practical and easy way for students to find a book especially if they are searching without a librarians or teachers help.

Although most of the Captain Underpants books are in the Lexile database, many graphic novels/comics are not. Publishers can submit books to be included in the database, however they are charged a fee for analyzing the book. If the publishers don't do this, their book will not be in the database. Graphic novels sometimes have NC in front of the score. This means non conforming text. The vocabulary and sentence structure does not necessarily match content nor the design of the book. Books with NC are usually for advanced students at their level. Manga books are not in the Lexile database, but the desire of the student is often very high to read them. Here is an example of a few graphic novels in the Lexile database.

• Tiger Moth: Insect Ninja 360L
• Adventures of Marco Polo 620L
• Adventures of Captain Underpants 720L
• Robot Rampage 370L
• Out From Boneville NC360L

If you are looking for lexile scores by grade level take a look at Understanding Lexiles. This will tell you the possible range of scores for each grade.

Managing a Graphic Novel Collection

In an elementary school students have a limited amount of time to have a lesson and checkout independent reading materials especially if their library is a prep time. I find it easier for students and myself if I have a completely separate graphic novel section. It is faster to shelve the books and keep an eye on the collection. The turnover rate is high. Most of the books are cataloged for 741 but some are B or picture books. I put all the graphic novels in one section somewhat separated from the rest of the collection that is easy to observe. Students tend to congregate there to discuss and choose books. Sometimes students will even argue or fight over a certain book. As a general rule as long as you can see students well and they know you can see them less problems occur.

Some of the easier books such as Robot Rampage for the very young readers( grades 1 & 2) are pulled and put in their easy reader section. I try to keep Bone and most of the manga books for grades 3, 4, and 5. Although I could find no evidence to prove back to front reading is a problem for very young students, it may be a challenge to read from right to left. Some teachers are not happy about back to front reading for students in grades 1-3.