Also, congrats to Claribel Ortega & Rose Bousamra for winning the 2023 Pura Belpré Children’s Author Award for Frizzy, a graphic novel about a girl who learns to love her natural hair. Out now from @[email protected] - https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250259639/frizzy #LibLearnX23

Amazing to see “Victory, Stand! Raising My Fist for Justice by Tommie Smith. Derrick Barnes and Dawud Anyabwile get several awards at the ALA Youth Media Awards ceremony this morning, including Excellence in Non Fiction & two Coretta Scott King Book Awards #LibLearnX23

Also a shoutout to @[email protected] for her illustrations for ALA Youth Media Awards Stonewall Children’s Honor Book “Strong” by Rob Kearney & Eric Rosswood from @[email protected] #LibLearnX23

Also a shoutout to @[email protected] for her illustrations for ALA Youth Media Awards Stonewall Children’s Honor Book “Strong” by Rob Kearney & Eric Rosswood from @[email protected] #LibLearnX23

At the Youth Media Awards ceremony at ALA #liblearnx23 - thrilled to see Wash Day Diaries by @[email protected] & Robyn Smith fr @[email protected] honored by the YALSA/ Alex Awards, “books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults”

The other issue that libraries have with manga is that “there are not enough reviews of manga in professional journals/trusted news sources like @[email protected], @[email protected] or @[email protected].” Without it, it’s hard for them to buy/try manga. #LibLearnX23

There weren’t too many graphic novel-related panels / programming at ALA #LibLearnX23, but to be fair, this is the first time they’re trying this show format after 2 years of virtual-only events. Both librarians and exhibitors seem to be feeling this show out for now

The other kinda manga-related issue i observed at ALA #LibLearnX23 was that no one knows how to describe “manga-inspired/kinda like manga” books, such as Taili by French-Laotian creator Sourya (fr @[email protected]) or The Moth Keeper by K. O’Neill fr @[email protected]

The other common painpoint about manga I’m hearing at ALA #LibLearnX23 is how difficult it is to buy long series, no matter how popular, and getting missing volumes if a series is out of print, or not easy to order through established channels like Ingram or Baker & Taylor