Manga for kids and Christmas signings

How is it november? Linear time continues to baffle me

Greetings mortals!

Apologies for the large gap between newsletters. I’ve been deep in a deadline hole. I still am, to be honest, but I wanted to peek up above the parapet for a moment to share a couple of things. (Below the parapet I am brewing book five AND an activity book that’s coming in March next year, more on that soon.)

A christmas signing

I will be doing a Christmas signing in north london! (Not the Piccadilly quiz, for those asking. I had to say no to that because I become a MONSTER when I do quizzes and nobody needs to see that. Genuinely. Current fans would become ex fans when they discover the true evil that lurks in my heart when provoked by a quiz master who I disagree with - still furious about a quiz 20 years ago that claimed “And did those feet in ancient times” was from “Blake’s poem called Jerusalem”… NO! IT IS FROM HIS POEM CALLED MILTON (for short)! IF YOU WANT TO REFERENCE THE HYMN JERUSALEM DO NOT CALL IT BLAKE’S POEM CALLED JERUSALEM! BLAKE DID WRITE A POEM CALLED JERUSALEM BUT THAT IS A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT POEM….and you may see why I do not do quizzes any more, for the sake of my own dignity.) 

But signing, without quizzes? That does not bring out the worst in me. There shall be doodles and joy! So if you’re free on SATURDAY 14th DECEMBER come to Waterstones Finchley Road and you’ll meet not just me but all these amazing authors - Elle McNicholl, Kieran Larwood, Laura Ellen Anderson, Dominique Valente! It’s gonna be FUN. 

Manga for 11(ish) year olds

Because I talk about kids’ comics a lot, parents often ask me for manga recs for kids too. But I don’t actually read much kids’ manga. So I put out a call on the roughly 9 million social medias I’m now on for recommendations that are suitable for 11-13 year olds. And this is what I got back, from a mix of librarians, parents, teachers and manga fans. 

One note: your definition of “child friendly” might vary. Some of these are quite violent and dark (character death etc) but when I look back at what I read at that age, violence was definitely on the cards. I am gen X tho so perhaps that skews things, given that I read When the Wind Blows as a much younger child… 

Recs gathered from librarians, parents and young readers

Apologies if I don’t credit everyone, some I noted down without noting the provenance… this is why I could never be a librarian or an academic.

A list from public librarian Nick Honeywell via Bluesky - thanks nick!

Come here for nick's list

(from public librarian Nick Honeywell via bluesky) 

Misc recs - sorry, forgotten who recced these!

Chi's Sweet Home

Detective Bones

Case Closed

Shigeru Mizuki's Kitaro series

Dragon Ball (and other Akira Toriyama books) (Louie note: I read those as a kid myself and loved)

Yowamushi Pedal

Witch Hat Atelier

Thanks to Martin Wong on twitter for unearthing these lists

Anime planet family friendly manga

Anime Planet the manga librarian list

From an Actual Eleven Year Old (some quite violent fyi)

Assassination Classroom

Demon Slayer

Spy x Family

Bluesky recs

I had a discussion with a few people on Bluesky about options, including what their kids like. Some love for Evil Secret Society of Cats, Lovely Muco, Splatoon, Yokai Watch, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. One Piece and Naruto also popular with the age group but contain some more mature themes so worth reading yourself first to see if right for your kid.

NLT have a list (slightly buried in a PDF on their site and you have to log in):

One Piece

My Hero academia

Spy x Family (see above, also recced by Actual Child!)

Naruto

Threads recs:

From Will Dobson on threads:

Dragon Ball

Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro (English version simply titled Kitaro) by Shigeru Mizuki, one of the greatest creators who reinvigorated interest in yokai)

Pokémon

Full Metal Alchemist

Doraemon

Nausicaa Valley of the Wind (Hayao Miyazaki)

Captain Tsubasa (for the football lover)

Here are some more external lists I rootled out too:

Waterstones list:

https://www.waterstones.com/blog/the-best-manga-for-children

List of kid friendly manga that includes some younger stuff:

https://www.slj.com/story/winning-manga-for-grades-1-8

https://fivebooks.com/best-books/best-manga-for-children-and-teens-oscar/

That’s all for this month. Back to drawing pictures and writing words! I recently drew Loki as Moo Deng as an Axolotl for the activity book. No one will remember Moo Deng by next march but he will be immortalised. Or was it she? I never checked.

Oh and do add your Manga for kids recs in the comments!

Louie xx