I have a confession to make: I don’t read manga.
I know! As a teen librarian, this seems like a major faux pas. I do my best to read as much as I can, but there’s never enough time. (A problem that we can all relate to!) And as a result, manga has slipped lower and lower on my priority list as I try to keep up with the latest in The Grandest Games trilogy or Sabaa Tahir’s newest book. And this gap in knowledge makes growing and maintaining my manga collection overwhelming at times. When I saw Manga from the Mouth of Teens on the schedule, it was an immediate yes to attending. In this panel, presenter Alicia Abdul shared quotes directly from teens about what they enjoy reading, broke down suggestions by genre for new titles to order, and gave helpful tips for collection maintenance.
Overall, when it comes to your manga collection, you have to “feed it, weed it, and water it.”
Feed It:
Try to put them where teens can access them quickly. It’s not a like a grocery store – sticking it in the back will not make teens pick-up additional books on their way in and out of the library! Put it out where teens will see it, even if that means using a table for it. And get creative with how you display it – try stacking them behind each other, and having face outs! As one teen pointed out in their quote, the pictures and art are key to the story and can draw people in to picking up a title.
Weed It:
Make sure you are on top of your collection! Abdul recommends keeping the first 5-8 titles in a series, and to then evaluate if you need to order the rest of the series. Be sure to check that you actually have all of them, and that you aren’t randomly missing number 3 or number 6 – that happens a lot! She also recommends purchasing multiple copies of the first book in each series – that way, more people can get into it!
Keep an eye on the condition of books in the collection as well. Titles that are loved will get worn down quickly and will need to be replaced often, especially because they are traditionally published in paperback. You don’t want to find yourself in the position of not being able to give a teen the next title in the series because it’s hanging together by a thread!
Water It:
Watering your collection can also be looked at as defending your collection: Why should your library have a manga collection in the first place? Have reviews, like these from teens, ready to justify its right to take up space and that there is a demand for it. Seek out new ways to incorporate manga into your curriculum! One teen even said that they wanted to become a nurse after reading Cells at Work, and Abdul is working to see if it can be incorporated into a biology class.
Our breakout session ended with a well curated list of suggestions by genre to get you started with your collections – my list of titles to add is now so long that I need to figure out how to add more shelving to my library! Here are my top five categories & titles that I plan to purchase:
- Missing Often, Presumed Amazing: Maid to Skate
- Sports: Blue Box
- Humor: Delicious & Dungeon
- Fantasy: Witch Hat Atelier (Adbul noted it as one of her favorites!)
- Mystery: Bungo Stray Dogs
I may have already downloaded Maid to Skate onto my Kindle to read while I travel back home – the teens made me do it!
Today’s Conference blogger is Amy D’Arco (she/her/hers). Amy is the Teen Librarian at the The Manhasset Public Library in Manhasset, NY and is the 2026 president of the Young Adult Services Division of the Nassau County Library Association. She has been a young adult and teen services librarian for the last five years after making a career shift from working in publishing. She is looking forward to meeting fellow teen librarians and hearing Delali Adjoa discuss The Free Verse Society, especially now that it has been longlisted for the National Book Award! When not at the library, Amy can most likely be found drinking entirely too much coffee, watching Survivor with her husband, quoting Gilmore Girls, or cuddling with her cats, Stella and Luna (yes, like the picture book!).
Please note that as a guest post, the views expressed here do not represent the official position of ALA or ALSC.
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