Become an anime and manga expert with this must-have beginner's guide! It's packed with compelling history and fascinating facts that both new and longtime fans won't want to miss! Manga and anime are a whole lot more than just comics and animation from Japan. They are massive pop-culture phenomena reaching hundreds of millions of fans worldwide -- and they've had a huge impact on TV, movies, music, and more. But did you know that manga and anime...

"Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy are having a really tough year: Not only is their father overseas with the military and their mother working overtime to make ends meet, but each girl is struggling with her own unique problems. Whether it's school woes, health issues, boy troubles or simply feeling lost, the March sisters all need the same thing: support from each other. By coming together -- and sharing lots of laughs and tears -- these four young women find...

Meet Rubi, a tiny ant with a big personality and an even bigger love for stories. Who knew the small world of her colony could be full of unexpected friendships, epic adventures, and death-defying escapes?

"Socially anxious high school student Shoko Komi's greatest dream is to make some friends, but everyone at school mistakes her crippling social anxiety for cool reserve. Luckily she meets Tadano, a timid wallflower who decides to step out of his comfort zone in order to help her achieve her goal of making 100 friends. Itan High is in danger! Proxy Chair Icho has accidentally placed the school on the chopping block, but the students still have one...

The bad guys are out to save the world, but to do so, they must borrow a rocket, deal with nastiness inside a space suit, and handle some noxious gas.

"Juniper and Hadley have a good thing going in Larkspur, spending their respective days apprenticing at a little bakery and performing at the local inn. But when a stranger makes an unusual order at the bakery, the two friends (and Hadley's pet snake, Fern) set out on a journey to forage the magical mushrooms needed to make the requested galette pastries. Along the way, Juniper and Hadley stumble across a mystery too compelling to ignore: Something...

"No magic. No sketchbook. No friends. Again?! Dany's magical sketchbook has steered most of her middle-school life so far -- it even helped create her best friend, Madison. But now that the sketchbook is gone, and Madison with it, Dany's back to being a loner. Then one day, Dany tunes in to the new hit TV show My Magical Best Friend, and it's starring her magical best friend, Madison! The show is clearly based on Dany's life, and she watches it regularly...

"When cousins Riley Halfmoon and Maya Dawn move to Urbanopolis to live with their activist grandma, they get off to a rocky start. Outgoing Riley misses her Muscogee cousins but is sure that she and Maya will be instant BFFs. Meanwhile, introvert Maya misses her parents, on active duty in Japan, and just wants some space to herself. At school, Maya joins Robotics Club and Riley bonds with fellow gymnasts. Just when they start to feel at home, their...

The Bailey School kids believe that the new pizza place, with its medieval theme and a man dressed as a knight, has a fire-breathing dragon as its cook.

"A precocious puppy with a penchant for solving mysteries is newly adopted into a family, causing havoc for their comfortable housecat"--