I recommend this book both to adult readers and young adults. Apart from giving a window into a different culture, it also gives words to emotions we all feel though we may no longer traverse the hallowed halls of high school. Hatsu is a remarkable protagonist and the book is less a story that neatly ties up its endings and more a tale that will leave you musing long after the last page has been turned.

Read the full article here:
https://thebookwars.wordpress.com/2015/06/23/snapshots-i-want-to-kick-you-in-the-back-by-risa-wataya/

At first glance, author Matthue Roth and illustrator Rohan Daniel Eason's The Gobblings is as different from their first picture book, My First Kafka, as can be. While My First Kafka reached into the past to retell three Kafka tales, The Gobblings launches the reader into a distant future full of aliens, space machinery, and that perennial, universal picture-book fixture, loneliness. But very much like My First Kafka, The Gobblings is inspired in part by a Jewish master storyteller, the Baal Shem Tov.

Read full article here:
http://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/the-gobblings

“The writing remains as lively and interesting as it was back in its time, capturing a sense of adventure and nautical experiences from an author who died at sea of malaria at the age of 48.”

Read full article:
http://donovansliteraryservices.com/june-2015-ipp.html

While creator Shoujo Kawamori's Aquarion Evol manga continues to exhibit its quirky defining characteristics, it's with pleasure that I report that the manga's second volume improves upon all of the weaknesses of the first book. Uneven pacing and tone, opaque narrative, and obscured battle choreography all plagued the introductory volume of the manga. All of those attributes are addressed and improved in the second book.

Read full article here:
http://www.animenation.net/blog/2015/06/03/aquarion-evol-volume-2-excels/

“This manga opens with Amata Sora, a boy with air elemental powers meeting Mikono Suzushiro, a girl whose previous response to growing up in a world filled with robot battles, elemental powers, and random kidnappings was to become a shut-in.”

Read full article:
http://mangabookshelf.com/48589/bookshelf-briefs-52615/

Explorations of the teenage mind are not in short supply these days but as a winner of Japan's prestigious Akutagawa Prize for rising literary talent, Risa Wataya's I Want to Kick You in the Back is an uncommonly sublime and textured look at the unclear feelings of a lonely teenager.

Read the full article here:
http://anitay.kinja.com/i-want-to-kick-you-in-the-back-a-review-1704980476

Dozens of $50 million-plus superyachts cruise the high seas in the ultimate expression of 21st-century wealth, but the yachting life wasn't so posh in 1876 when the 175-foot Sunbeam (steam and sail powered) set sail from the Isle of Wight on a forty-six-week, 35,000-mile circumnavigation with Thomas and Annie Brassey, their four children, and a crew of thirty-seven. Madeira, Rio, Chile, Tahiti, Hawaii, Japan, the Suez Canal—and Annie got her pen and kept it busy in this delightful sea tale of journal entries, originally published in 1878.

Read full review:
https://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/a-voyage-in-the-sunbeam/

Particularly since English-speaking fans began to recognize and adopt Japanese anime culture and since American comic culture permeated mainstream culture roughly in the early 2000s, the Japanese fascination with ¡Ècostume play¡É has spread globally. Anime and comic book conventions in America are now hotspots for enthusiastic individuals to garb themselves in the elaborate costumes of fantasy and comic characters. The hobby has emerged with such passionate vehemence that it's even spawned a cable television show. Recognizing the intense & widespread interest in this immersive, interactive facet of comic culture, One Peace Books has translated Cosplay Basics: A Beginners Guide to the Art of Costume Play (Hajimete Demo Anshin Cosplay Nyuumon). True to its title, the book is a thorough and informative walkthrough that introduces seemingly every aspect of ¡Ècosplay¡É to readers who are intrigued but inexperienced with the hobby.

Read full article here:
http://www.animenation.net/blog/2015/04/27/commendation-for-cosplay-basics/

Creator Shoujo Kawamori's original fantasy/sci-fi/giant robot anime series Genesis of Aquarion premiered in 2005, slowly developing into a cult hit. Seven years later the sequel series, Aquarion Evol, premiered simultaneously in anime and manga formats. Kawamori wrote and directed the television anime and also penned the manga adaptation capably illustrated by artist Aogiri. While the manga series is due to conclude in Japan this June, the series has just made its official English language debut courtesy of One Peace Books.

Read full article here:
http://www.animenation.net/blog/2015/04/15/accolade-for-aquarion-evol/

Last week light novel series Rising of The Shield Hero was licensed, and it didn't exactly leap off the page in anyone's memory. So, I decided to find out just what this series is and even talked to the managing director who licensed it. Let's break it down simply.

Read the full article here:
http://organizationasg.kokidokom.net/2015/04/09/so-what-is-aneko-yusagis-rising-of-the-shield-hero-all-about/