{"id":7625,"date":"2013-11-27T09:17:30","date_gmt":"2013-11-27T14:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=7625"},"modified":"2025-06-17T13:39:47","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T17:39:47","slug":"film-to-book-avatar-the-last-airbender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2013\/11\/film-to-book-avatar-the-last-airbender\/","title":{"rendered":"Film to Book: Avatar, The Last Airbender"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have a policy in my library regarding books based on movies and tv shows: we don’t buy them. In general, we try to avoid Dora, Sponge-Bob, and their friends. Of course there are always exceptions, especially when the books in question satisfy a need in our population or when they are of the highest quality. The graphic novelizations which accompany the Nickelodeon TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender<\/em><\/a> fit that latter category to a T.<\/p>\n

Avatar<\/em>, or ATLA, premiered on Nickelodeon in 2005 to rave <\/a>reviews<\/a>. I first learned of the show when my boss at Barnes and Noble started praising its quality storytelling to high heaven. She was so enthused about it that I decided to check it out. Soon I too was hooked on a show about a 100-year old boy-monk frozen in ice and destined to save the world.<\/p>\n

Our library owns all 3 seasons (or books, as the creators call them) of the show: Water, Earth, and Fire. We have two copies of each and they are never on the shelf! The element-related action can be intense but is never too scary, and the stories have real heart, which makes the entire series an easy sell to kids and parents.<\/p>\n

\"atl2\"<\/a>
Cover of the first graphic novel released in 2012<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The series concluded in 2008 and launched its critically-acclaimed sequel show Avatar: The Legend of Korra<\/em> in 2012. Also launched in 2012? My favorite media tie-in, ever! The continuing adventures of Aang and the gang can be traced in sequel graphic novels. These self-contained, 3-part graphic novels are written by recent National Book Award finalist Gene Yang<\/a>. The stories have amazing flow and lovely illustrations, and they have proved as popular with our patrons as the original series was. Two 3-part series have launched so far. 2012 saw the publication of Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Promise <\/em><\/a>and last month saw the release of the third part of Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Search.
\n<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Both series were among the best graphic novels I read this year, and a further illustration that not all media tie-ins should be kept out of the library.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have a policy in my library regarding books based on movies and tv shows: we don’t buy them. In general, we try to avoid Dora, Sponge-Bob, and their friends. Of course there are always exceptions, especially when the books in question satisfy a need in our population or when they are of the highest quality. The graphic novelizations which accompany the Nickelodeon TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender fit that latter category to a T. Avatar, or ATLA, premiered on Nickelodeon in 2005 to rave reviews. I first learned of the show when my boss at Barnes and Noble started praising its quality storytelling to high heaven. She was so enthused about it that I decided to check it out. Soon I too was hooked on a show about a 100-year old boy-monk frozen in ice and destined to save the world. Our library owns all 3 seasons (or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":153,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[236,22,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogger-elisabeth-gattullo","category-childrens-literature","category-evaluation-of-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/153"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}