Are you the mom of a teen daughter? Or do you know any teen girls? Then you’ve got to see this new comic book series.

I couldn’t believe it the first time I held it. A Christian manga! With top-of-the-line artwork in full color. This is the real deal. Barbour is calling Serenity “America’s Premier Inspirational Manga,” and it’s something you won’t want to miss.

OK — moving beyond the packaging on the outside, let’s talk about what’s on the inside. Here comes Serenity. She’s described as “one obnoxious little bundle of attitude.” If trouble comes in small packages, this 98-pound girl fits that description. When you start reading it, you think, “What’s her deal? What’s she so angry about?”

At first, I was a little squeamish — Serenity’s mouth is crude — though you don’t actually see the words (only symbols). She hates everything — her new school, the boring people around her. She’s way too cool for any of them.

But a group of Christian teens in a Prayer Club decide to take on Serenity Harper as a “project” of sorts. Meaning they’re going to reach out and love her no matter what. “If you need our help or somebody to talk to, we’ll be there,” they tell her. To which Serenity responds, “Why me? WHY ME? WHY ME?”

Tension increases in the book as nothing seems to break through to her. Then the action moves from school to her home — and we see the lousy situation she has to live in. A few things start to make sense. She slams the door on her mom one night and runs out into the streets barefoot — where she somehow ends up at a church youth group meeting. How will they reach out to her?

This comic book would be a great tool for church youth leaders to use with small groups. There are so many topics that can be brought up from what the characters are experiencing. And here’s a big topic: sexual purity. Serenity falls for one of the good-looking Christian guys and decides to invite him over while her mom isn’t home. It’s a tense scene. What will happen? She dolls herself up and says all the right things. Here’s a situation that takes place thousands of times a day all around the world.

Will this guy be able to say no and get away from her? I have to tell you, the author and illustrator handled the situation amazingly well. And it’s not at all the way it happens in those unrealistic teen TV shows and movies — more than anything I’ve seen lately, here is faith in action. A teenage guy with hormones raging full force — and what does he do? You gotta see this manga!

The back of the book contains a helpful section of Bible verses that go along with scenes from the story, such as the one I described above: “Abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.” 1 Peter 2:11. (All scriptures are from the NIV.) These verses would be good lead-ins for group discussions.

Basically, this new series rocks! More books are coming in 2006: “Stepping Out” (January); “Basket Case” (March); “Rave and Rant” (May); “Snow Biz” ( July); and “You Shall Love” (September). The author of the series is Buzz Dixon, founder of Realbuzz Studios and a veteran of the comic and cartoon industry. The artist is Rutgers graduate, Min “Keiii” Kwon.

I’m going to pass my book along to a teen daughter of a friend to get her opinion, and I’ve already been telling youth leaders about it. I saw an ad for the series in a recent Christian bookstore catalog, so I’m glad to see Barbour is putting energy into marketing it. I hope it does well — it’s about the most exciting thing for teens I’ve seen in a long, long time.

If you want to hear what other people are saying about the series, Barbour’s got a great website set up at SerenityBuzz.com. You can meet the characters and see a free preview of several pages of the book. There are also reviews from other sites, like Anime News Network, Christian Comics International, Christian Fiction Review, Dynamic Animation, and plenty more.

Everybody’s talking about Serenity — don’t miss out!