Orange Crows, Volume 1 (Orange Crows manga)

Five years ago, a young witch named Cierra broke the one unforgivable law of the witch society: she attempted to create her own magic. Her unlawful tampering burnt down a research room and injured the Mayor's daughter, Cierra's best friend. As punishment, she was exiled to the Wilderness, a barren wasteland crawling with the witch-devouring Fairies and the bloodthirsty Forsaken. After surviving for five ruthless years, her exile has now ended, and she has been ushered back to civilization, only to discover that the world around her has changed dramatically.

After five years of criminal exile, young witch Cierra is brought back to civilization. Under the care of the Special Witch and Warlock Squadron, Cierra must learn to deal with a changed world while hiding the dangerous changes within herself and her magic. Perry has crafted an intriguing, if imperfect, world. Part dark fantasy and part science fiction, his tale is full of action and unique details. Chapter breaks explaining those details show a lack of confidence in his readers and betray his inexperience, and while he doesn’t make the mistake of rushing his story too much for a first volume, the ending doesn’t stand on its own as well as it should. Kawakami’s art has a desert-punk feel that supports Perry’s story well, but the sharp edges that it relies on are blunted by overuse of screentones. The sound effects are in kanji without a translation, which is unfortunately standard for Tokyopop titles, making reading tricky in several parts. All of these elements combine to make an interesting read, but a secondary manga purchase. Grades 8-12. --Snow Wildsmith