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My earliest memories associated with reading : 

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My earliest memories associated with reading : 

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This book was one of the first book's I'd ever read, more specifically, what my mother used to read to me. She would read this book to me every night on our big yellow rocking chair, until I fell asleep in her arms. This book was one of my favorite bedtime stories, because the images in the book were tangible!

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Another early childhood memory associated with reading : 

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Another early childhood memory associated with reading : 

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My father used to read this book to me before bed, along with the Ugly Duckling. The book cover awakens a deep memory inside my childhood brain, and instantly puts me at ease. I used to study the cover all the time, enamored by it's aesthetics and deep colors. One of my happiest memories in my childhood was just studying it's cover, since that was even enough to put me to sleep.

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I loved to read when I was young. I used to write stories with my friends all of the time, and I'd invent these characters and worlds I could completely escape to. I wanted to read more, despite not having the complete brain maturity to fully understand what I was reading. I read the Secret Garden, and Little Women when I was in the third grade, just so I could say I was smart. (I barely understood what I was reading, but my mind developed because of it.) I became more interested in older books when I entered middle school, after reading Fahrenheit 451. I loved dystopian novels like the giver because of its world building and interesting concepts. Ever since then I've been searching for more books that can interest me, and I explored new books like The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which dove deeper into mental health and teenagers. I grew up with books, and at the same time, books grew up with me.

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Books and other publications that have been important in my reading journey : 

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Books and other publications that have been important in my reading journey : 

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As I mentioned before in my shifts in reading experience, the books that helped me discover myself as a reader began with Little Women, The Secret Garden, and other earlier publications. I really enjoyed graphic novels as a kid too, and comics such as Smile or Drama, they were always so emotional and entertaining. I even enjoyed manga's, a Japanese styled comic book. I would often for their impressive and complex stories, as well as their masterful artwork. As I grew older, I began exploring more adult themes, like dystopian novels, like The Giver, and Fahrenheit 451. Overtime, I cam to love more adult novels that explored topics other than the imbalances in our society, such as The Perks of Being a Wallflower. This novel, now my favorite, opened me to a new world of reading, one that focused more on characters and world building rather than an overarching enemy the hero had to face or beat. I have a wide variety of books I like to read, and those are just the few examples of them.

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“Weird...something happens when you smile at people. They smile back”
― Raina Telgemeier, Smile

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“Margo, they're afraid of us. They're afraid of everything.' And then I kept on talking without really thinking, until it turned into a chant:

They're afraid of change, and we must change.
They're afraid of the young, and we are the young.
They're afraid of music, and music is our life.
They're afraid of books, and knowledge, and ideas.
They're most afraid of our magic.”
― James Patterson, Witch & Wizard

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“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

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"Don't try to make me grow up before my time…”
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

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“We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?”
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

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Enders Game ( I had to include this too! )

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Enders Game ( I had to include this too! )

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“So the whole war is because we can't talk to each other.”
― Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game

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“We accept the love we think we deserve.”
― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

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My most recent illustrated novel : On a Sunbeam!

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My most recent illustrated novel : On a Sunbeam!

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“It's like the older you get the more you forget that you can change things.

Which is stupid because adults have money. Which means you can afford to buy a sledgehammer and break down the room you're stuck in.

Kids don't have sledgehammer money ... [sic.]”
― Tillie Walden, On a Sunbeam

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My mother was a big motivator in my reading journey. She's a teacher, and she loves to read to her students She had so many books in her room that she would read to them, and she would let me and Sydney read them when she was cleaning her classroom at the end of the day. One of my other mentors was a girl named Dani, who is now a published author at the age of 17. Me and her would make stories and characters, and she'd write about mine very often. She motivated me to read so I could impress her with my writing skills, and in a way, I believe we motivated each other.

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I have an over active imagination, and sometimes it would take over my thoughts and what I should have been focusing on. Reading helped me control this, it helped me channel my imagination in a controlled way. I love world building, going in depth into character descriptions, and character development. There's so much I love about reading, and my imagination makes the experience all the better.

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When I read, I often loose focus on what I'm reading on accident, or I'll start picturing something else. If the book doesn't peak my interest, it's very difficult for me to keep focus. I had a bit of a short attention span. I also have a hard time following the text, since there's no line for me to follow. I often repeat sentences too, which frustrates me a lot.

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I hope to continue to do more with reading, especially with writing and creating stories. I hope to collaborate with other readers and writers, or go onto read more challenging book series in the future.

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The parenting-book world is flooded with jeremiads about how tween culture breeds sociopaths and prostitots, ergo we should unplug the Internet. But this is a narrative belied by the thriving field of age-appropriate books epitomized by the nice-girls-finish-first graphic novels of Raina Telgemeier, poetic illustrator of middle-school life.

Telgemeier's charming "Smile," an autobiographical account of her junior high orthodontic treatment, was a best seller when it came out in 2010. A sixth grader and a Girl Scout, Raina trips and knocks her front teeth out of place, which leads to a four-and-a-half-year ordeal of braces, false teeth, retainers and headgear. The book had a hyper-sincere moral: "The more I focused on my interests, the more it brought out things I liked about myself. And that affected the way other people saw me!" Cynical, Telgemeier is not.

Her latest, and more sophisticated, hobbies-before-hotties book, "Drama," trades braces for another staple of geek youth - the theater tech crew. Callie is the head of set design for her middle school's spring musical, and such an ambitious theater geek that she explodes a cannon onstage in a perfect comic book "KA-BOOM." This former tech director can testify to the authenticity of Telgemeier's backstage world, where friendship and romance flourish in the intimate monotony of snack runs, flat-painting and cue-calling.

Callie works hard on the tech crew while facing the standard tween tribulations: her little brother snoops in her room, clueless grown-ups ask stupid questions, and cute boys are distractingly fickle. Her date ignores her at the school dance and then says, "I guess you shouldn't fall in love with every nice guy you meet?" Callie responds, "Well then, I guess I'll just have to find some JERK to take me home, huh?" before opting to walk home alone.

She could be an American girl of any era, but there are hints it's 2012. She IM's with friends, texts with guys and is unfazed when a couple of her theater friends turn out to be gay.

Telgemeier's momentum-building visual style veers from leisurely montages during rehearsals to dramatic moments like the sharp half-page describing a disaster on show night. There are also some deeply emotional scenes. The pages showing Callie running to the baseball field to meet the boy she likes only to find an empty playing field encapsulate young-adult existential misery. Telgemeier's use of color, created with the design team Gurihiru, is eloquent; Callie's amethyst-colored hair complements her suburb's sky-blue skies and pistachio-green grass.

Telgemeier's work is part of a boom in smart, wholesome comics for young people, but unlike most next-level graphic novels for this age range - notably, Jeff Smith's "Bone" and Kazu Kibuishi's "Amulet" - Telgemeier offers familiar home and school situations rather than fantastical cow races and walking houses. In her stories, relatable girls make the first move, add and shed friends according to a niceness-ocracy, and roll with setbacks. "Drama" has an inspirational message for girls, and it's communicated more subtly here than in "Smile." What makes Callie happiest is not catching the eye of that week's crush, but winning the coveted position of stage manager and finding her place in the world.

The Horatio Alger of graphic novelists, Telgemeier draws up-by-their-book-bags characters who value hard work and seize a chance that has nothing to do with looks or even with love. While capable of boy craziness, they concentrate on friendship and creative fulfillment. The better Telgemeier's books sell, the less hand-wringing to do over the next generation. If this is what the youth of America are into, the kids are all right.

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The parenting-book world is flooded with jeremiads about how tween culture breeds sociopaths and prostitots, ergo we should unplug the Internet. But this is a narrative belied by the thriving field of age-appropriate books epitomized by the nice-girls-finish-first graphic novels of Raina Telgemeier, poetic illustrator of middle-school life.

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source via unsplash.com

The definition of manga: A style of Japanese comic books and graphic novels, typically aimed at adults as well as children.

As an avid manga and anime fan since a young age, the prejudice against both has been something I have faced. My hobby was called 'childish' and 'weird'. 'Hentai' (a sub-genre of the two, characterised by sexually explicit plot lines and art) is still commonly associated with manga and therefore the people who read them are often stereotyped as bizarre at best. At worst, we're depraved.

However, manga is so much more.

Economically, manga is one of the biggest sources of income in the publishing industry in Japan, with one of the most popular series, , selling 454 million copies worldwide as of September 2019.

Due to its simplistic story lines, distinctive art-styles and well-fleshed out characters, manga allows important topics such as history, politics and social issues to be explained in simple, but entertaining terms that will capture any readers imagination whilst still educating them on a wide range of topics. Like the "Western" graphic novel, it's an accessible and artistic way to express a range of emotions and themes.

An example which I often refer to when introducing others to manga is the Fullmetal Alchemistseries. What starts with two young brothers trying to get their bodies back to normal, ends in military corruption and the consequences of war on all sides. With the addition of the magical elements of alchemy, described as 'equivalent exchange', thought-provoking dialogue and epic fight scenes, it is no wonder why Fullmetal Alchemist is universally loved, both as manga and anime.

Manga is diverse. From teenagers turning into weapons to stories about the afterlife. From ninjas and demons to deeper, more thoughtful works. And also volleyball. There are so many different genres of manga that they can't really be placed under one roof. To say "I don't like manga" is akin to saying "I don't like films." And if you haven't tried it, ask yourself: where is this preconception coming from?

There is something for everyone, however hard you may have to look. The intricate drawings allow characters to come alive on the page and the reader sees precisely what the author and artist was imagining when writing/drawing.

Culturally and socially, manga has been an integral part of many people's lives, including my own. Manga is one of the reasons I'm now so interested in language and writing, and why I'm doing a graphic novel as one of my final projects of my Creative Writing degree! I met one of my best friends because of our shared interest in manga.

For a great number of people, it has also been the gateway to exploring Japanese culture as manga has a global fanbase. People have social media accounts dedicated to manga and anime, chatting to people on the other side of the globe, getting to know what their life is like.

Manga is such a global phenomenon that it has managed to transcend language and connect people all over the world. That is something truly beautiful.

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The definition of manga: A style of Japanese comic books and graphic novels, typically aimed at adults as well as children. As an avid manga and anime fan since a young age, the prejudice against both has been something I have faced. My hobby was called 'childish' and 'weird'.

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Greek Mythology

Women in Greek mythology were perceived to be more as sexual objects than individuals. Many were taken advantage of by the Gods and by human beings. One would see that women's rights were very limited and they were not allowed to express much of their freedoms. Within this time period women were blamed for wars, destruction of towns, and the death of men. It was not unliky to see goddesses using their powers for vengeance. Although the role of human women was limited the existence of goddesses attributed great amounts of power to female characters.

Medieval L iterature

The women of the Medieval times were surprisingly a lot more candid and sexual than one might expect of an era where the ideal of femininity was Mary, the mother of Jesus. In actuality, the women in the literature of the period, as well as the historical female figures seemed to be torn between the ideal and the physical desires and domineering character that her antagonist, Eve, embodies. In a careful reading of the literature of the time, one finds the first buds of a feminist literature emerging from the words on the pages.

Elizabethan Literature

The theme of misogyny and superiority of men was the typical genre that authors took within their writing. Women were not looked to as a person but were considered a mere necessity for the procreation process. Women continued to be split between the ideal of the Virgin Mary, and her fallible counterpart, Eve. Unfortunately, the Virgin Mary was one of a kind, so there was often a general distrust of women. This distrust of women lead to most works degrading the female race, and terming females as the "other", which was to be feared. Equality between the sexes was not present within this era, and is evident from the numerous writings degrading the female race.

Victorian and Turn of the Century Literature

The role of women in 19th century literature was one in which they redefine their place in society by accepting an image of themselves which involved both home-centeredness and inferiority. Elizabeth Gaskell did not concede to the idea of women's inferiority, although she does concede to the notion that a woman's place is in the home, as is evident by her portrayal of Bessie in her poem "Cranford." In this time period, women were being portrayed as protagonists more often than in the past. In Gustave Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary, Emma, the lead character, is portrayed as a "tragic heroine." At the time the book was written (1856), the character of Emma was viewed as foolish and putting herself in narrow circumstances. Her suicide demonstrates the dangers of life for women who were looking to become independent at that time. Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem, "The Princess" states,Man for the field and woman for the hearth,

Man for the sword and for the needle she:
It is evident from these works that during this time women were still in a subjugated role despite their desire to break free of societies' restrictions.
Man with the head and woman with the heart:
Man to command and woman to obey

20th Century Literature

Women's roles in literature has evolved throughout history and had lead women to develop into strong independent roles. Modern literature has served as an outlet and sounding board for women's rights and feminist pioneers. Female writers have come to the fore front and provided today's readers with a vast array of ethnic and cultural perspectives. The unique voice of female minorities is a common theme in many coming of age novels that allows each writer to establish a separate identity for their characters and themselves. Women in modern literature often include strong independent females juxtaposed by oppressed women to provide examples for young female readers and to critique short comings of our society. The emergence of the independent female novelist in America has allowed for a new evolution of the role of women in fiction al literature.

Spanish and Latin American Literature

It is difficult to summarize the role of women in Hispanic literature, as it has been ever changing. At times she may be submissive, at others, the fiercest of beasts, and most surprisingly sometimes seemingly weak but in actuality the most contriving of creatures. It is surprising to see a feminist view point since the Medieval times in Spanish and Latin American literature, but it's most productive era has come to exist in the last twenty years.

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The Role of Women Throughout the Ages of Literature

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Greek Mythology Women in Greek mythology were perceived to be more as sexual objects than individuals. Many were taken advantage of by the Gods and by human beings. One would see that women's rights were very limited and they were not allowed to express much of their freedoms. Within this time period women were blamed for wars, destruction of towns, and the death of men.

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Thanks for reading! Leave me a critique or comment!