Manga: The Complete Guide by Jason Thompson (amazon)

I was eagerly awaiting the release of this book, since it combines two of my main passions – manga and reference books. Manga: The Complete Guide combines manga reviews with overviews of manga genres and creators. It would be a great reference book for any public library. Parents could use it to get an overview of their children’s reading habits. Manga fans can use it to get ideas for what to read next. Librarians can use the book as a collection development resource. The book opens with a brief history of manga, with a timeline included. The reviews in the book include age ratings, series are rated from 0-4 stars. Yaoi and adult manga are reviewed in separate sections at the end of the book. The genre overviews include shonen, shoujo, seinen, and josei as well as cooking, crime, magical girls, phantom thieves, and more. I hope the publisher decides to produce supplemental volumes in the future because while the reviews are comprehensive now, with the rate publishers are churning out translated manga there will soon be many series that aren’t covered in this book. Manga: The Complete Guide would make a great gift for your favorite YA librarian or manga fan.