Back in May we explored Japan with various posts to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Due to one of those posts Immedium contacted me asking if I would be interested in reviewing their newest in The Asian Hall of Fame Series, The Discovery of Anime and Manga by Phil Amara and Oliver Chin and illustrated by Juan Calle. I have reviewed many books from Immedium previously and have enjoyed them.
Let's start with the fact that this is the first children's book in English on the history of anime and manga. The book is a bilingual book with Japanese translations on every page. The pictures themselves have a bit of a cartoonish look or manga look to them. The story takes us through the beginning of the creation of both the Japanese arts of anime and manga.
Now the series features Ethan and Emma begin to wonder about different Asian things and a magical red panda named Dao You appears and takes them through time to learn how the thing was discovered. In this book Ethan and Emma go into a comics expo. They start to look at some Japanese manga. That is when Dao You appears and tells them the Japanese words for comics and animation. They travel to the 12th century in Nara where Buddhist monks practiced telling a story from a scroll called e-toki. Then they learn about Hokusai a famous Japanese artist as well as Osamu Tezuka. Readers are introduced to many of the classic anime characters including Speed Racer, Tetsujin 28 and more. There is even information about Pokemon. Their journey ends back at the comics expo after traveling all the way through the 1990's.
At the end of the book is a glossary to help kids learn about the Japanese words and names. The book is very informative and presents the history of manga in an appropriate way for kids to truly understand it. The suggested ages are 3 to 12. I think the younger kids would enjoy the colorful pictures and the older kids would enjoy the learning the history of some of their favorite characters and art forms. The book is a fun read and a great resource for any home or classroom. I hope you will check it out!
