Screenshot: comicsplusapp.com

URL comicsplusapp.com

Grade Level PreS Up

Cost Available exclusively to schools and libraries, offering unlimited, simultaneous access to every student, patron, and staff member. Subscriptions are an annual fee, with pricing by market (school, public, and academic).

Overview Comics Plus provides digital access to thousands of digital graphic novels, manga, and picture books for readers of different ages.

Content When users first log in to Comics Plus, they are greeted with a colorful welcome screen that highlights books available in many different categories. Users have the option to browse through specific categories or search for subjects, titles, or authors. The main page is so inviting that they might choose instead to scroll through the featured titles and recent additions or peruse lists with titles like “Spooky Season” and “All the Feels.”

The search function is simple to use. If users select manga as a category and then limit those results to those for teens, they will have plenty of options, even if they choose to look at 100 titles at a time. Users can also limit results by publisher and language, and sort results by title, release date, or “most popular.”

Sometimes the search function doesn’t generate the results users would expect. For example, a search of “Rick Geary” will lead to Geary’s superb true crime YA series. But the list of results will also include many “Rick and Morty” comics and titles, such as Gear School and Gear Hero .

The meat and potatoes of Comics Plus are the comics and graphic novels, which include many popular series (Attack on Titan, “Berrybrook Middle School,” “Bone,” Chi’s Sweet Home) and publishers (Image Comics, Dark Horse, Yen Press, Papercutz, and more).

The latest version of Comics Plus now includes picture books, which will provide even more options for the youngest readers. The picture books currently available in this database were published between 2011 and 2024, so they do not include older “classic” titles. However, this database features plenty of picture books from over a dozen different publishers, with the majority of titles from Cherry Lake and ABDO. Languages available include English, Spanish, and Chinese (Simplified).

Offerings include fiction and nonfiction picture books and titles for emerging readers. Some of the titles include Immedium’s multi-volume series “The Asian Hall of Fame” by Oliver Chin, Phil Amara, and Juan Calle, which takes young readers on a tour of important Asian discoveries and contributions, such as anime, manga, and ramen. Early chapter book series include Red Comet’s “Really Bird” by Harriet Ziefert. Cherry Lake’s A Book of Bridges: Here to There and Me to You by Cheryl Keely and Celia Krampien is one of their nonfiction selections. The publication dates go up to 2024.

Users can zoom in to get a closer look at both the text and images of the graphic novel selections. Other ebook providers only allow users to increase text size, which is detrimental for enjoying graphic novels, because the text is part of the artwork.

Users should be online to browse the Comics Plus collection and to download the titles they select, but after those downloads are complete, the books will still be available to read offline. This will be especially helpful for users who don’t have unlimited internet access.

The most important feature of Comics Plus is that it offers unlimited, simultaneous access to its materials. Readers of all ages have faced the disappointment of discovering that the books they want to read are not available on their library’s shelves, because they are checked out, missing, damaged, or unavailable. Being able to offer a service in which a small reading group, an entire class, or an entire grade level can read the same book at the same time with no waiting period is an absolute game changer.

Student and Educator Resources Reader Information consists of FAQs for how Comics Plus works, how to access it, and how to find titles. It also includes the question, “How Do I Place a Hold?” (which is a trick question, because holds are unnecessary).

Additional resources are divided into broad categories—Marketing Materials, Comics in Classrooms, Programming Resources, Programming Packages, and Professional Development. They are presented in text, graphic, and video formats. Educators and librarians have access to printable posters, bookmarks, and BINGO cards. The guides cover topics like Making Classic Literature More Accessible, S.T.E.A.M. Reading Guide, and Developing Empathy with Comics & Graphic Novels. Librarians will especially appreciate the book club resources, as well as “Programming Packages” for different age groups about subjects like manga, animals, and mental health.

Verdict This is a great resource for readers of all ages who are interested in comics, graphic novels, and manga. The addition of picture books to this database is welcome, but it will be improved once more authors and publishers are added. The unlimited simultaneous use and access continues to be a game changer that makes this resource a worthwhile purchase. Using Comics Plus to support book discussions, reading groups, and lesson plans will help to justify its price.

Andrea Lipinski, New York Public Library