Short and Simple (8)

Title: The Color Trilogy: The Color of Earth

Mangaka: Kim Dong Hwa

Age Group: Older Teens

Series is: Completed with 3 volumes
Volume(s) Reviewing: 1

My Rating: 2/5

Sentence Summary: Ehwa is a young girl who lives with her widowed mother. Ehwa learns and grows each day as she is exposed to the different aspects of life and becoming a young woman.

Speaking Straightly: I can see why this manhwa is raved about. However, it's not my style. The manhwa focuses heavily on her and her mother dealing with romance. I personally found it too slow-moving for my liking. This is more for people who enjoys a very realistic story on a day-to-day basis.

~~~

Title: Akumetsu
Mangaka: Tabata Yoshiaki
Age Group: Older Teens
Series is: Completed with 18 volumes
Volume(s) Reviewing: 1
My Rating: 4/5


Sentence Summary: When Japan's economy is at its worse, the citizens are losing hope while the rich of the rich are reaping the benefits from the country. A mysterious masked man by the name of Akumetsu is out to rid the evil of Japan in the name of justice.


Speaking Straightly: This is a more violent type of manga where it's villain against villain (depending on how you view Akumetsu). It's similar to Death Note where the protagonist has a certain way of viewing justice and doesn't mind getting rid of those they believe shouldn't be alive. However, the difference between Light and Akumetsu is that Akumetsu doesn't mind going out and getting his own hands dirty rather than doing it behind magic or whatnot.


Many shonen fans will love this series.

The Heights, the Depths, and Everything in Between by Sally Nemeth

Title: The Heights, the Depths, and Everything in Between
Author: Sally Nemeth
Age Group: Tweens/Teens
# of Pages: 263
My Rating: 4/5

Lucy Small is not-so-small because she towers over everyone in her grade! Meanwhile, her best friend Jake is the shortest boy in their class! Being together makes them the funny duo.

When the new student Gary comes along, things started to change for the two best friends. In this heart-warming story about growing up, it is one that anyone can relate to.

Being someone who is particular with the protagonist's age whenever I am reading, I was pleased with the turn out of this novel. I loved the innocence of the youths because it gave something refreshing to read compared to a majority of YA novels.

This novel is set in the 1970s, which is definitely a nice touch because it makes everything oh-so-more innocent. Reading from Lucy's perspective, you get to see the things that she has to go through. As any young tween, she has school problems and family problems. With her father out to find himself, it's only her and her mother for the majority of the novel. When he father did come back, she had to deal with the probability of him leaving again. Meanwhile at school, Jake has gone off with Gary and not being himself. As well, he is really against the idea of his mother dating someone. From a tween's perspective, the problems and events are very realistic. One can definitely relate, especially having to gone through that age or is going through that age.

Overall, I found this to be a great read for anyone who would like to pick out something more age appropriate for a tween. It has to do a lot with growing up and the little bumps in life.

Won copy from Teens Read Too (no longer active).

Q4U: What were your reading phases?

Q4U (Question 4 U) is a feature on Stop, Drop, and Read! that likes to pop up on a random day. A question is asked for you to answer, where it could range from getting feedbacks for the blog to a start of a fun topic!

I remember my very first school book fair in first grade. I was absolutely awed by the amount of assorted books they had out on display and I couldn't choose what I wanted. I forgot how many books my mom purchased for me that day, but I remember that I got one picture book that were about colourful butterflies. That was my first real book purchase.

I didn't actively start reading until third grade however. One day, I decided to go to the library. My goal was to finish a chapter book each day (I sped read through Artemis Fowl and all I remembered that there was something about fairies and a thief...). From then on, I was hooked onto reading in general.

Fast-forward to grade six, anime was starting to get popular. My friend was obsessed with Inuyasha and introduced the series to me. Once I got into it, I started browsing for the manga version of it. Next thing I knew, I was COMPLETELY obsessed with manga and anime. I completely ditched reading novels altogether and heavily focused on reading mangas. I collected quite a bit from then and through high school with about 200 mangas in my collection at the moment (I did ended up selling about 12 of them when university started).

While in my manga phase, I wanted to get back into reading regular novels during the start of high school. That was when I started to look into YA novels. I did not dive into the world on YA completely just yet. I wanted more books, but I liked the idea of winning one. This was when I went online in search of an online YA book giveaway (I won my first book from In Bed with Books! Hi Liviania!). After discovering the existence of book blogs, I decided to take a shot at it too. I thought it would be a great way for me to keep track of the books I have read thus far (and this was before I discovered the existence of ARCs). Therefore, the next few years I dedicated my reading and reviewing YA novels along with mangas (for older bloggers, you may remember my most active years from 2008-2010).

After I entered university, my readings became less and less frequent. Now that I am in my second year, I have no time to read at all. Especially since I have joined a student organization that I am dedicating a lot of time to. All I read now are the latest releases of a manga that has not yet been licensed called Cage of Eden (Eden no Ori), which is once a week.

I have no idea if this will change anytime soon, highly likely not (until summer break that is). So...

What were your reading phases?