The Tarot Cafe

BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION:

The Tarot Café, Volume 1. Park, Sang-Sun. Tokyopop, Los Angeles. ISBN: 1-59532-555-7

PLOT SUMMARY:

Pamela is the owner of the Tarot Café. Her clientele includes vampire, fairies and other creatures. For a fee she will consult the Tarot cards and advised her unique clientele. There are four stories in the first volume of The Tarot Café.

Pamela’s first client is a cat, but not just an ordinary cat, a wish-granting cat. Wish-granting cats can grant three wishes and then they die. He has fallen in love with Alicia, but Alicia can only see him as a cat. He uses two of his wishes to make her happy. Will he risk granting a third and ending his life?

The second client is a vampire; he had fallen in love with a woman Isabel many years ago. He killed her sister, Isabel found out. Isabel accidentally falls to her death. The vampire searches for years to find Isabel. He knows she has come back.

The third client is a fairy trapped in the body of a young girl. She needs to break the spell and return to her fairy form so that she can return home to her fiancé. She does not understand the answer that lies in the cards.

The last client is an alchemist that created living protein dolls. He has fallen for the beauty of a woman. He kidnaps her in the hope that she will love him. In his quest to make her happy, he learns a horrible truth.

CRITICAL EVALUATION:

First, I need to mention that I am not a fan of manga. I find the stories hard to follow, possibly from a lack of interest. That said, the artwork in The Tarot Café is fantastic. While the artwork is beautiful, I had a very hard time figuring out if the characters were male or female. Until you read the story, it is impossible to tell. All of the characters look like women. I found this to be the most distracting thing about this graphic novel. I spent more time trying to figure out if a character was a man or woman, than I spent on the actual story. I found that to be the downfall of The Tarot Café. The depiction of the characters takes away from the story. It’s a shame, because the story is interesting. The creatures that are part of the story are different. They are not the run of the mill fairies and vampires that seems to dominate young adult fiction. To ensure the reader comes back for more, the last tale continues in volume two. I can’t say that I will be reading volume two in the future. However, teens that enjoy manga and are used to this type of artwork will find the story interesting.

READER’S ANNOTATION:

Pamela is the owner of The Tarot Café. She reads cards for the other creatures of this world. Can she help them find happiness?

AUTHOR:

Sang-Sun Park is a Korean artist and author. She was born in South Korea on August 9, 1974. Her favorite character in The Tarot Café series is Belus, because he can keep his emotions in check. Unfortunately, I was not able to locate any other information about this author. Oddly, I was able to find out that her blood type is AB. (Unknown, Baka-Updates)

GENRE:

Fiction, manga

CURRICULUM TIES:

New York State: English, Art

BOOK TALKING IDEAS:

Reading tarot cards, do you believe in them?
Can vampires and other creatures find happiness?

READING LEVEL/INTEREST AGE:

14 and up

CHALLENGE ISSUES:

Violence, Homosexuality.

In order to prepare yourself should this book be challenged you may wish to take the following steps:

•Read the book or familiarize yourself with the book and its contents.
•Refer to the library’s collection development policy.
•Read the book reviews from sources such as Booklist, School Library Journal, Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA), Publisher’s Weekly, or BookSpot.com
•Seek the opinion of teen readers that have read the book.

Should this book be challenged you should follow the additional steps below:

•Advise the senior staff of the challenge.
•Let the patron know that their challenge will be filed and that senior library management will review their request and notify them once a decision has been made.
•Offer any further assistance

WHY DID I INCLUDE THIS BOOK?

Teens seem to love manga. I thought it was important to include it in the blog.