Follow Friday | 04

Follow Friday, or Feature & Follow, is a meme hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read. The premise is for bloggers to get to know other bloggers, and keep in touch with each other. This week's question:

Jumping Genres: Ever pick up a book from a genre you usually don't like and LOVE it? Tell us about it and why you picked it up in the first place.

Okay, so this is a hard one. I am a pretty diverse reader - I don't care what genre a book is, if it sounds interesting I will read it. Ever since I was a kid, I devoured books. I really am going to have dig deep here, and say that in high school, there was this time when I started getting into manga and graphic novels. Yes, when I was a kid I enjoyed reading those kiddie comics you find in magazines - I even liked MAD magazine and CRACKED magazine as a kid because I would steal them from my older brothers. But those were 'just for fun' comics, nothing that got me truly interested in the genre. 

But there are two series that really stand out for me, one which really got me into manga (Fruits Basket), and one which carved out a special place in my heart for graphic novels, period (W.I.T.C.H). 

These are two of the best comics I have ever read. Fruits Basket was amazing - if you've ever seen the anime, this goes much further. The basic premise is that this girl, Tohru, is homeless and living in a tent after her mother passes away, without realizing that she is on the land of some members of the Sohma family. They find out about this and decide to take her in, and she soon realizes that the family is cursed: whenever they are weak or hugged by someone of the opposite sex, they each turn into a different animal from the Chinese zodiac.

W.I.T.C.H, on the other hand, is an Italian comic about five teenage girls who discover that they each hold the power over a different element (Earth, Air, Water, Fire, and one girl is sort of the leader). They also learn that they are guardians of the veil, which was put up to keep the universe safe from those who wish to harm it. They aren't really witches, but they call themselves W.I.T.C.H because that's what their initials spell out.

Both comics are truly amazing, and do well to explain the power of friendship. Both are highly recommended if you're a fan of Harry Potter - especially W.I.T.C.H. These series are both what truly got me hooked on graphic novels, and I read them before I even got started on superhero comics.