Avatar: The Last Airbender, Vol. 1

Very cute, but definitely the kids version. Upon further inspection, and a bit of googling, I realized the dialogue in this series is an exact copy of the dialogue from the show. So this is not the actual manga series. I was a little dissapointed that it was not mentioned in the description. But on the upside I can keep them for my kids. Just be aware adult fans that this is not the actual comic series that goes into more depth!

If you are not familiar with the world of the Avatar there are four different realms of 'bending' or mastery of the elements: air, fire, water, and earth. Aang, the principle character, is the last Airbender and the one who is destined to be the Avatar, or person who is to master all four bending traditions in order to save the world from the dominance plans of the Fire Nation. As for the book itself, you should know that it is a graphic novel. If you are not familiar with what a graphic novel is, think of it as an upgraded comic book. The paper used in this series, for example, is glossy and sturdy and the color runs from edge to edge. And in this particular volume the adventure begins with two siblings, Katara and Soko, who rediscover the frozen Aang in the far north. It then follows the three young people and their animal friends to the point where they find the northern water bending tribe as well as an abandoned Fire Nation ship where two of them get trapped. Now we purchased this book as part of our never ending search to find material that will be both interesting and challenging for our soon to be 7 y.o. daughter. If you are in the same boat you know there are a great many 'readers' that are not suited to children who read at, or above, age level. Either the word level is right but the plot is too babyish (even for a first grader), or else, the plot is interesting but you'd have to have a fifth grade vocabulary to deal with the text. Well, this book almost fixes those problems. The Avatar story is extremely good. However it turns out, in our case, to be a little bit too challenging. [Note: that might not be the case for your child. But read on.] The problem we faced was not the vocabulary per se -though it was challenging -- but rather the font. The one the publisher/artist/someone chose is small, slants and places the words close together - at least for a first grader. A more advanced reader probably wouldn't have these problems. Five Stars. Outstanding storyline. Good Read-aloud: both my 5 and 7 y.o.'s enjoyed it. (Okay my husband and I did too.) The artwork is fun and expressive and humorous. I would say the reading level is fairly advanced with words such as: paranoid, penguin, sequence, ruptured, and revealing. In addition, for younger readers, there could be a problem with the font and word spacing. My advice would be to buy it, try it as a reader, and if it's too much for your youngster(s) read it to them.

I think this book was exelent!!!!! that is why i bought THE INTIRE SERIES!!!!!!!!!!!and 60 of each!!!!!!!!!!!!!!-Chance

I bought this book for my daughters 6th birthday. She loves Avatar! Especially Aang! I didn't realize that the book would be in comic book form. I expected it to be a regular chapter book. I really like it though because it has all the colorful pictures from the series and I think it is word for word from the series dialoge as well. The pages are colorful and the words are in white thought bubbles with arrows above each characters head and it is just the first episode. I also bought the second episode and it is the same. My daughter is just learning to read and so it is a little difficult for a beginner reader,so I help her with most of it. Or just read it to her. This whole series has proved to be a lot of fun for our whole family. I even like it, and I'm not a big anime fan.

Completelly recommended both to children and adults; just what I was looking for. My daughter does not speak English but adores Avatar and does an effort to understand the comic. Thank you very much to the authors. Mr. DiMartino, go for the Oscar!.

My son and I loved reading the avatar books, we own both volumes and are eagerly awaiting the third volume. We also own the DVDs and when we watch the series, my son remembers that we read some parts in our books. It is a great way for kids to make connections from video to print.