Fruits Basket. 1

Fruits Basket. 1 by Natsuki Takaya
Original ISBN 978-84-964151-3-3
Tokyopop, 2004
216 pages

Plot Summary: In the first book of the series, readers are introduced to Tohru Honda, an orphaned high school girl, who stumbles into the home of the Sohma family and ends up living there. Thirteen members of the Sohma family, including a few of Tohru’s classmates, are victims of a curse that change them into the animals of the Chinese zodiac.

Critical Evaluation: I’ll be completely honest: I don’t understand manga.
I don’t really understand how to read it and I don’t understand the appeal. But teens LOVE manga and they love this series in particular. In Japan, Fruits Basket was an extremely popular manga series and it was turned into an anime series. It was once considered the best-selling manga in the world and has amassed some of the highest selling records of any graphic novel in North America.

I will admit that the illustrations are wonderful and the plotline is very interesting.

Reader’s Annotation: How will an everyday girl change a family afflicted with an old curse?

Author Information: Natsuki Takaya is the pen name of Japanese manga artist Nana Hatake. There are twenty-three volumes in the Fruits Basket series. Takaya has written and illustrated six other series.

Genre: Manga

Curriculum Ties: Art (Anime)

Booktalking Ideas: I would first introduce this book during Chinese New Year and introduce the Chinese zodiac. Imagine changing into an animal whenever anyone hugged you. How would that change your life?

Reading Level / Interest Age: Grades 6-10

Lexile: NA

Challenge Issues: NA

Reason for Item’s Inclusion: Books from the Fruits Basket series constitute seven of the top ten books checked out of my high school library.

References:

Natsuki Takaya. (2012, November 20). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natsuki_Takaya