Brilliant!!!

In spite of the fact that I can't stand them (and the fact that most of them are out of print), "Choose Your Own Adventure" books are a perennial favorite in libraries. And everybody knows that graphic novels are insanely popular for kids of all ages. So why hasn't anybody combined these two genres into an insanely popular hybrid? Somebody has! Jason Shiga's new book, Meanwhile, is a graphic novel that features different "paths" through the different comic panels. The reader must make choices that lead him along these different paths--following tabs to different sections of the book and always facing different choices. There are also special codes and top-secret pages. I can't even STAND how popular I think this book is going to be!!!

Graphic Versions of Teen Favorites

There are a lot of people in this world who like to read graphic novels (aka comic books), and the format has proven to be very helpful to those who think visually and thus have trouble reading entire pages of text. HCL has just purchased a bunch of new graphic novels to supplement and expand our collection. We've gotten some classics of the genre, like Maus (a retelling of the WWII concentration camp experience with mice standing in for the Jews and cats as Nazis) and The Watchmen (a superhero book which was recently released as a movie). We've also just gotten several graphic novel versions of series books that are already popular among teen readers. Artemis Fowl, Alex Rider, and Maximum Ride fall into this category. Interestingly, several of these seem to employ classic manga style to tell their stories, which should make for a good mix of genres.