The Bottom Shelf: My Favorite Books As a Child

On the very bottom shelf of my book-case there is an odd combination of books, from picture books to slim learning-to-read chapter books the bottom shelf of my bookcase is home to the books I have loved so much in the past I can't possibly bear to get rid of them. Some of them are falling apart and all of them have been read multiple times, with creases on the pages and breaks is in the spine, these books have followed me from my childhood. While my bottom shelf is teaming with books there are three that stand out to me in particular.



Leo the Late Bloomer by Robert Kraus was my favorite book as a toddler, having forced my parents to read it to me on most likely a daily basis I had the story memorized word for word and could flip the pages along with the story without even knowing how to read. Leo the Late Bloomer is the story of a young tiger who is behind his friends in the areas of reading, writing, speaking, eating neatly, and drawing. Leo's father becomes concerned and Leo's mother explains that Leo is a late bloomer and by the end of the story Leo has "bloomed" and is able to do all the things he previously could not do.



Having purchased The T.F. Letters by Karen Ray at a school book fair in second or third grade it soon became one of my favorites. When young Alex finally looses her first tooth she writes a letter to the tooth fairy asking her to please leave the tooth behind when she arrives to leave Alex money under her pillow and help her fathers job as their family is moving from Texas to California. In a PS at the bottom of the page Alex asks the tooth fairy to please write her back and Alex's mother takes up the role of writing letters from the tooth fairy teaching Alex lessons and giving her words of wisdom along the way.



In fifth grade I went through the greatest obsession I ever had with a book, The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau remains one of my favorite books of all time. Having at one time kept a running tally of the times I had read it in the front cover I got all the way to fourteen times before I lost track. The city of Ember is an underground city built to protect the inhabitants from nuclear war, having been given resources to live underground for 200 years a box with instructions on how to return to the surface has been lost when being passed down from mayor to mayor. In the year 241 resources are running out and the city is running out of light bulbs, the only source of light in the city, and is experiencing frequent blackouts. Twelve year old Lina and her friend Doon piece together the puzzle of escaping and rescue the cities inhabitants before it is too late.

Manga and Anime

One of my biggest loves in life is manga and anime, comics and cartoons from Japan. Manga are cartoons, usually serialized in popular Japanese magazines and later converted into books while anime refers to cartoons, usually based off a manga or book.  Manga and anime is created for all ages in Japan, from young children to adults, and is a huge part of their culture.

To my disgust I've found that most people in America don't find manga worth reading and don't consider it viable reading material. Like books, some manga is silly and funny while some can focus on serious questions and moral issues. What most people do not realize is how much work goes into creating a manga, most manga are hand drawn, hours of work go into creating one volume.

Getting into manga can be daunting, some series contain over 100 volumes and their anime counterparts can contain just as many, if not more, episodes. In this post I've compiled a list of fantastic manga and anime series that I love and sincerely hope you will give a try.

Bleach:

One of my favorite series, Bleach has become one of the more popular anime/manga series in America. Bleach is about a fifteen year old boy, Ichigo Kurosaki, who becomes a Soul Reaper (or "Death God") in order to save his family. It follows the adventures as Ichigo and his friends as they defeat ghosts gone bad called Hallows, who are out to destroy human life. The manga has been translated into English and the anime is both subtitled and dubbed in English. Personally I prefer the English subtitles because the low-budget in America for anime causes the voice actors in English dubs to be rather poor. Bleach appeals to both boys and girls but is aimed more towards boys.

The Wallflower:

The Wallflower takes the cake as my favorite manga/anime series. The Wallflower is a bit of an obscure series but never the less fantastic. Sunako Nakahara is a goth girl, obsessed with horror movies and gore. When she is sent to live with her eccentric aunt she finds that her aunt as employed the help of four beautiful boys to turn Sunako into a "proper lady", in exchange the boys receive  free rent and are able to live in the luxurious mansion Sunako's aunt owns. Absolutely hilarious The Wallflower is full of side-splitting moments as the boys struggle to make Sunako a lady and Sunako vehemently resists. The manga and anime are equally amazing, but the manga is a bit dark while the anime has a more lighthearted tone. The Wallflower is focused more toward girls and both the manga and anime have been translated into English.

High School Debut:

High School Debut follows the story of Haruna Nagashima, a tomboy softball star who recently started high school and is desperate for a boyfriend. With a tendency for ridiculous outfits and awkwardness she is having a bit of trouble finding the love of her life. When she meets Yoh Komiyama, the most attractive boy at her school, she begs him to become her mentor. Yoh eventually agrees with one condition, she must never fall in love with him. High School Debut has some of the most beautiful artwork I've ever seen in a manga, the characters are flawlessly drawn and the plot is hilarious. The High School Debut  manga has been translated into English and there is currently no anime series, High School debut is aimed at girls.

Death Note:

Death Note is on the more serious side of manga and anime, when Light Yagami finds a notebook on the ground, called a Death Note, he is granted the power to kill someone just by thinking of their face and writing their name in the notebook. Light soon becomes obsessed with killing criminals and cleansing the world of evil, his main goal is becoming a god of the new land. The killings soon become noticed by the government and by other nations, bringing in the force of the detective merely called L. Light and L play a game of cat and mouse as L embarks on his quest to catch Light and Light stays one step ahead of L. Death Note brings to question some serious moral questions, such as who has the power to decide who lives and dies. Death Note is both a manga and an anime and both have been translated into English, Death Note is centered toward boys but can also appeal to girls.