OK, folks, it’s time to take out those No. 2 pencils for a little SAT practice! Complete the following analogy:

FRUITS BASKET :: SHOJO

(a) Lone Wolf and Cub :: shonen
(b) Gerard and Jacques :: seinen
(c) Inuyasha :: OEL
(d) Lady Snowblood :: yaoi
(e) Van Von Hunter :: SAT prep

If you chose e, you’ve probably heard the news that Tokyopop and Kaplan, Inc. have teamed up to create a series of SAT-prep manga. The first three in the series—Psy-Comm, Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy, and Van Von Hunter—will feature over 300 of the most common terms found in the English portion of the SAT II. To help students distinguish “ascetic” from “sybarite,” words will be highlighted, with pronunciation guides and definitions provided in the body of the manga. Those of you thinking, “Gee, I don’t remember any of those series featuring multi-syllabic words,” will be interested to learn that Kaplan re-wrote the scripts for these manga to beef up their vocabulary.

I’m of two minds about the project. On the one hand, my inner curmudgeon wants to stand on a milk crate and scream, “WHAT’S WRONG WITH READING SOME DICKENS OR SHAKESPEARE AND LEARNING VOCABULARY THAT WAY?!” (Not to mention my less Harold Bloomian reaction: “Um, Psy-Comm? Van Von Hunter?”) On the other hand, I know from my own experience as a teacher and former SAT tutor that students who acquired their vocabulary through reading tended to perform better on the exam than those who relied on rote memorization of word-lists. Kaplan’s Score-Raising Classics—which apply the same techniques to famous works of literature—have already demonstrated the pedagogical potential and commercial appeal of the approach. So why not? This seems like a legit reason for bringing manga into the curriculum. I’d be curious to hear what other people think of the approach.