By Library Support Services, Peel District School Board
One of our primary goals as teacher librarians is to “… assist[ing] learners to hone and apply an expanded notion of literacy as well as foster[ing] an active reading culture. (Canadian School Libraries Standards of Practice – Fostering Literacies to Empower Life Long Learners)
How then, might the LLC, and teacher librarians support students in engaging with reading for their enjoyment?
From Leading Learning’s (2024) provocation questions
How might the LLC support and model cultural literacy development within the whole school community and ultimately enable student partnership in building responsive collections?
As the communities we serve evolve, so must our collections. Manga and graphic novels have surged to the forefront of many school collections and student requests.
Why are these specific curations so important to foster a love of literacy and empower agency with communities we serve?
The addition of Manga and graphic novels in school library collections support Universal Design for Learning (UDL) by providing readers with multiple means of representation, combining visual and textual elements to reduce print barriers and increase accessibility for diverse learners.
Manga and graphic novel collections can additonally support culturally responsive practices by providing texts that function as mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors—affirming students’ identities while expanding intercultural understanding through diverse global narratives. Thoughtful manga curations can also broaden representation, increase student engagement, and enable learners to see themselves reflected in texts whilst meaningfully encountering perspectives beyond their own lived experiences.
However, knowing what is appropriate for the schools we serve can be challenging if we are not familiar with the content in a text or series. School library budgets are often constrained, making it even more imperative to choose the right books for the right learners in the space.
The Role of the Professional Library Collection
In order to assist and help school libraries make informed purchasing decisions, the Professional Library at the Peel District School Board introduced “Manga Tasting Kits”— kits of designed to expose students to a variety of series and styles through a lens of Culturally Responsive and Relevant Pedagogy (CRRP).
From Pilot to Program
The journey began with a pilot in Spring 2024, where schools were invited to borrow kits through the Professional Library as a “tasting experience” with the communities they served, and received a positive reception.
Capitalizing on this success, we decided to update the number of kits being offered in October of the same year.
The kits are now permanently included in a broader “Lit Kit” collection for borrowing, available through the Professional Library which aims to diversify reading options across all grade levels.
Community Engagement and Expert Curation Advice
To ensure high-quality and age-appropriate content, the Library Support Services team collaborated with our tendered vendor, The Beguiling in Toronto. Through dialogue, we were able to establish clear parameters for the collection that focused on identity-affirming texts where all lived experiences were represented and meaningfully/intentionally included to empower learning for agency.
Manga Kits are divided into two distinct experience levels across three grade groupings (K-5, 6-8, and 9-12):
- First Bites (Beginner): These kits serve as an introduction to Manga, featuring first volumes of popular, age-appropriate series such as Pokémon.
- Connoisseur (Advanced): Designed for students already familiar with the medium, these kits offer newer releases or more obscure titles to broaden their horizons.
Each of the six unique kits contains approximately 15 books. For example, the Connoisseur Grade 9-12 kit includes a diverse range of titles such as Akane Banashi, Blue Box, Delicious in Dungeon, Kaiju No 8, and Witch Hat Atelier.
Managing the Kits
Maintaining a mobile collection requires careful organization. Every book is labelled to easily indicate the kit it belongs to – which is important if schools borrow more than one kit at a time! The sets are housed in fabric courier bags, each containing a detailed inventory list to help staff track the items.
The booking process is integrated into our BYOD page, in our Library Booking System within the online catalogue. Staff can select their preferred delivery dates, and kits are transported via the internal school courier for a three-week loan period. A dedicated “Lit Kit” booklist and online link also direct staff to the full Manga kit inventory.
Student and Educator Curation and Engagement
The response from educators and students has been overwhelmingly positive. During its inaugural year, Manga Tasting Kits circulated 15 times across elementary, middle, and secondary divisions. Engagement was nearly evenly split between the Connoisseur collection (8 borrowings) and the First Bites collection (7 borrowings), reflecting interest from both emerging and experienced Manga readers. As a first-year initiative, these figures establish a strong baseline for measuring future growth and program impact.
*Manga kit circulation accounts for almost 20% of the Professional Library Circulation this year.
The kits have served as both a reading engagement tool and a collection development resource.
I used the kits to expose students to new Manga and if they liked them, I was able to order them with my budget.
PDSB Teacher-Librarian
Teacher-librarians have also noted that the kits also fostered a sense of community. Feedback shared was that students enjoyed coming together to chat about the titles, even if some advanced readers had already explored the popular volumes.
Ultimately, the kits have empowered students to take an active role in library curation. In several schools, Friday Book Clubs used the kits to vote on which series should be added to their permanent school library collections.
By “tasting” these series first, students and staff are working together to build more vibrant, student-centered Manga collections.
Use of AI in this Article: Google’s Gemini AI assistant was used to help sort and sequence generated ideas of the Library Support Services team in order to create the initial draft of this article. Human intelligence and critical analysis was used to edit, re-shape and re-structure the final draft to what is currently presented.