After school nightmare volume 1 by Setona Mizushiro.  [S.l]:  Go comi, 2006.

ISBN:  1933617160

Illustrator:  Setona Mizushiro

Media:  Pen and ink/Computer zip-a-tone effects

4Q/4P

Curricular connection:  Gender studies and sexual identity. Sexual pressures and sex identity are two curricular connections that share a relationship with gender studies and sexual education.  Graphic novels like, Second Thought, Night Fisher, Ghost World and The Complete Persepolis are suitable for this type of curriculum.

Reading level:  8^th to 9^th grade 

Scenario for hypothetical educational challenge:  The middle school is in a close-knit neighborhood of Portland, Oregon on the outskirts of the city.  Within the surrounding area there is a religious population of conservative Christians and politically correct leftists.  Hypothetically After School Nightmare Volume 1

might be a potential challenge in a school library because the story questions sexual identity and traditional gender roles.  Graphic novels recently have sparked several debates over censorship issues in public and school libraries.  Graphic novels have been previously challenged as being overtly violent, hypersexual and lacking in literary value.  It is difficult to determine what is going to trigger censors to react, but graphic novels have been challenge as being inappropriate in some library collections.  Speculating After School Nightmare as a book challenge, I see the material appropriate for a library’s collection emphasizing the sexual pressures that occur during adolescence when forming a sexual identity.  The scenario reminds me of an article I read in LIBR 280 History of Books and Libraries entitled, A Corrupt Medium:  Stephen Burroughs and the Bridgehampton, New York, Library in Libraries & Culture:  v38(2), 93-120 by Ashton, Susanna.  (2003).  Burroughs when selecting books for the library’s collection confronted contrary personal interpretations of the literary material chosen.  Burroughs retorted that those criticizing the selection had not even read the material, and therefore had no justification for disapproval. 

Annotation:  Ichijo Mashiro has a secret that has been kept from everyone.  Mashiro is neither a man, nor woman.  Although he looks like a man from the waist up, he has the body of a woman from the waist down.  In order to graduate Mashiro will have to attend an after school class that will deliver the key to graduation.  One theme of After School Nightmare Volume 1 is personal identity. 

 KRF 6/30/09