A guide for families
Right to left: a manga how-to for families
A manga printed the Japanese way starts at what looks like the back cover and runs right to left. Ten minutes with the practice strip on this page and most children have it. The manga wing lists every manga on Peabody and which way each one reads.
Start here: The manga wing · Checked
What manga is
Manga are comics from Japan. Japanese books open from the right, and their pages turn the other way from an English book, so the story runs from the right-hand page to the left. Many English editions keep that order, because flipping the pages would mirror the art. Others are flipped so they read like any comic. The back cover or the publisher's page usually says which.
Cute drawings are no promise that a manga was written for children. Peabody lists a manga only when it is sold for children in English, even if it first ran in a Japanese magazine for older readers, and each series page says whose age is printed for it.
Five steps to read it
- Hold the book with the spine on your right, and open it from what looks like the back.
- Start at the top right panel of the right-hand page.
- Read the row from right to left, then drop to the next row and start again at the right.
- Inside a panel, read the bubbles right to left as well, the higher ones first.
- If you land on a page that tells you to stop, you have started at the end. Turn the book over and begin again.
Try it on the practice strip
The strip on this page has no pictures, only numbered panels, so you can check the path with a finger before you open a real book. Say the numbers out loud as you point. Then cover the numbers with your hand and see whether your child can say them in order. The second strip is the same page read the English way, so you can both feel the difference.
Which of ours read which way
Printed right to left, the Japanese way: Yotsuba&!.
Flipped to read left to right in English: Chi's Sweet Home.
Drawn in a manga style but made in English, so it reads left to right: Berrybrook Middle School.
Tips for the first book
Read the first chapter together. Let the child hold the book and turn the pages; turning backwards is the part that feels strange, and it stops feeling strange after a few pages. Sound words are often left in Japanese with a small English word beside them. Point them out, they are part of the fun. If your child gets lost, go back to the top right of the page and start the row again.
A child who has read one right-to-left book can read them all. It is a small skill with a big reward: a whole new part of the library opens up.
Grown-ups often find it harder than children do. If you are reading aloud, keep a finger on the panel you are on, and let your child tell you which one comes next.