Friday, October 15, 2010

Review- Gamer Girl by Mari Mancusi

Published in 2008

This book is fabulous!!  For me, it seemed to bridge two worlds- my world and the anime girl's world.  I personally have nothing against anime- my sister loves it, but I have never gotten into it.  However, as a teacher, it's important for me to understand and embrace all kinds of literacy, so I do try to read a wide variety of YA books.  This book is about a girl who dresses in black and loves manga and has moved to a new school because of her parents' divorce.  She starts playing a... I know I will butcher this, and my friends will laugh at me if they find out... MMO RPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) and meets a boy online.  I've always been curious about these games, and one day when I have time, maybe a broken leg haha, I will definitely see about getting involved.

Anyways.  This book catalogues Maddy's struggle with bullies and divorce, and we get to follow along as she develops her power as a girl and stands up for herself.  Maddy is a likeable character and very relatable.  At times she deals with problems in a healthy way, and other times, not so much.  I love it when characters aren't perfect- it is good to see someone make a mistake, deal with it, and move on.  I wish that some more drawings were included with the book, to further introduce people like me to the world of manga.  I am so excited to read a book that I can recommend to my sister (13!) without worrying about the message it sends to girls or if she can relate to it.

And now I might actually read a graphic novel... any suggestions on what to start with?

Grab this book from your local library and read it!  It's short, fun, and relaxing, with a great ending.  5 stars!!

The author, Mari Mancusi, has also written some vampire books- has anyone read those?  How are they?

2 comments:

  1. So glad to read you liked it! I really enjoyed it too and felt it did an awesome job of targeting a type of girl that is really common now but isn't written about very much. Thanks for the great review and good luck into your mange adventures.

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  2. Graphic novels come in all genres. For non-fiction, I recommend Smile, Maus and Persepolis. Thanks for stopping by The Prairie Library!

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