Hecate stalked into the staffroom with a grim face. Carefully dropping a stack of books on a table, she put them aside to focus on some marking. The others looked mystified until Dimity leaned over.

'Whatcha got there?'

'Comics' hissed Hecate, unable to hide her disdain. 'The entire class had them in their bags, I caught some of them reading them.'

Ada observed that comics had changed since her day.

'They used to be thin booklets with closely packed illustrations and tiny narration under each one. These ones look like an entire book. Look how big the illustrations are' she marvelled.

Dimity flicked through them.

'Oh yes manga!'

'What. Is. That?'

Hecate looked horrified.

'It's a graphic novel.'

Hecate glared at her.

'It is a picture book for teenagers.'

'HB! It's not a picture book. It's Japanese.'

'Manga is Japanese for comic?'

'Comics there are more like graphic novels. There are loads of them. I love them. My sister learned to read Japanese so she could specifically read the original ones.'

'How much reading can you do with so many pictures?' Asked Hecate, scandalised.

'The illustrations tell half of the story, you get how the character feels from them, much of the descriptive words that would normally be written, are in picture form. It's not too wordy, great for students who are dyslexic or have ADHD.'

Hecate narrowed her eyes in irritation but she couldn't fault Dimity's logic. Ada looked suitably impressed and even Miss Gullet raised her eyebrows and said nothing. Dimity retuned to smugly flicking through the pages.

'Give them back, HB. The students could do with a bit of escapism.'

'Not. In. My. Class.'

'We will give them back at dinnertime' interjected Ada, peering through one with curiosity. They all picked a book to scroll through, Hecate with trepidation until the lunch break started.

The students got their manga back and Hecate and Ada got a loan, piled up on their bedside tables. Dimity was in a generous mood. Hecate couldn't point out anymore that her colleague never picked up a book. It was hardly literature as far as she was concerned but it was something. Even if the illustrations were huge and the depictions quite unrealistic. She grudgingly agreed that it was acceptable recreational reading material. Just as long as nobody got any ideas from it. She kept an eye out for a spell that screamed manga, for the rest of the school year.