Manga Shoujo (Kids Draw Series) »

Christopher Hart is the world's best—selling author of drawing and cartooning titles, with more than two million books sold. He lives in Connecticut with his family.

Kids flock to manga -- they watch the television shows, they go to the movies, they carry the licensed products everywhere. And the most popular manga of all is manga shoujo, a clean-lined style with stories about friends, romance, school, and magic. Girls love it, boys love it, and parents love it, too, because it's bright, cheerful, and appealing. Kids Draw Manga Shoujo starts with basic heads, faces, bodies, and costumes, then goes on to show dozens of high-energy characters in Christopher Hart's easy-to-follow step-by-step drawings and clear, engaging text. Teens, school kids, magical girls and boys, fairies, elves, demigods, and goddesses are all part of the world of manga shoujo -- and now kids everywhere can be part of that world with Kids Draw Manga Shoujo.

Children's Literature

Manga means comics in Japanese. Shoujo is a style of manga that is very popular. It is identifiable because the characters have big eyes. Shoujo stories are full of adventure as well as friendship, loyalty and teamwork. They appeal to both boys and girls. Step-by-step illustrations demonstrate how each of the characters is drawn. The first lesson shows how to draw girls and boys heads. Most of the features are representational except the eyes. They are as much as four times larger than normal human eyes. Spiky hair and thick eyebrows are a few of the common traits of shoujo boys. The leading men of shoujo are called bishies, or handsome men. Unlike the boys and girls who have rounded faces, the bishies have long thin features. Their eyes are not as exaggerated as the boys and girls, and all of the bishie bodies are long and thin. Many pages are devoted to instructions for drawing the figures. Once the figures are mastered, the characters are drawn in different scenarios; a girl is seated at a desk in school and skateboarding. Planetary commanders, magical boy, gallant knight, goddess and fairies complete the cast of characters for shoujo.