Update on the awesomeness

[telophase]

Thank you for all your suggestions on my post asking for gift ideas for an anonymous 10-year-old Harry Potter/anime/fantasy fan. While I really wanted to give her manga, reading the guidelines a bit more closely revealed that they mentioned that batteries were a luxury item, and therefore to avoid gifts that required them. While manga does not, in general, require batteries,* most of them require purchasing more manga to get the full story, and I didn't want to leave a young reader hanging on a cliffhanger if she might not have the ability to get more (and might not have the ability to get to the library, either, as I don't know her circumstances).

So I ended up going for the first four books in Tamora Pierce's Circle of Magic series, as they formed a complete story arc, with additional stories later if she wanted to explore more in the world. Don't know her reading level, but I figure if she can read Harry Potter she can read this series just fine**, and I know she's got an affinity for the "school of magic" genre. :) And I left in the receipt in case she had already read them and wanted to get something else.


* Except perhaps for some very special titles.

** Unless she's a media fan and prefers the movie versions, but I have to make some assumptions!

Comments

[lnhammer]

FWIW, when they were published, the first four Circle of Magic books were marketed as middle-grade, or about the same level as the early Harry Potter books. The next five books with the protagonists aged up head into YA territory, though the 10th is back to MG.

---L.

[telophase]

I thought they were middle-grade, but I found them shelved in the YA section after getting on the Barnes & Noble website via phone and searching for them to see if they were in the store or not.

Guess they got booted up to YA by dint of the current urban-fantasy/Harry Potter boom?

[lnhammer]

Or by dint of association with the sequels?

The principals are 10+/- in the first quartet, 14+/- in the second.

---L.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

I would say since she liked manga, she's probably a reader, so I'd say you're safe. ;-)