Gunslinger Girl, Vol. 2
Grade 10 Up–Containing the artful blend of action and melodrama common to many popular manga series,Gunslinger Girltells the stories of little-girl assassins trained by an undercover arm of the Italian government. Their bodies are improved with prosthetics and rigorous training, while their minds are conditioned so that childish emotions and needs do not interfere with their work. However, the agency has not completely succeeded in stamping out the children's humanity, or that of their adult handlers. At one point, a slight, fair child cheerily asks for ice cream as her reward for carrying out a gruesome attack; at another a group of handlers are distressed to find that a newly conditioned recruit has forgotten a fairy tale they used to tell her. Drawn in a more spare, sober style than other manga thrillers, this is an unusually provocative tale that should keep its readers thinking as they wait for the next installment.–Lisa Goldstein, Brooklyn Public Library, NYCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.