COMICS RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MIDDLE- AND HIGH-SCHOOLERS? A reader has written to ask for recommendations of comic books for a middle school and high school library: “I, comic fan that I am, want to recommend some trade paperbacks but all I come up off the top of my head that would be appropriate for that community and that the kids would actually like are Ultimate Spider-Man and Dark Knight Returns. Would you have any other suggestions? Especially of the more literary variety and the kind that the female readership might find interesting as well?”

I know I’ve seen lists that would be helpful here, but I can’t think where I found them. Off the top of my head, Carla Speed McNeil’s Finder series comes to mind. There’s probably some vaguely sketch stuff in the first five books (as well as disturbing family-drama stuff), but definitely not more so than in many, many books I found in the children’s section of my local public library. Finder: Talisman would be especially appealing to literary-minded girls. If “burn Harry Potter!” types are going to be actually reading these comics looking for trouble, Finder is a bad choice, but otherwise, it’s great stuff and I would have loved it at that age.

Astro City.

Sandman. (Unless you think the local community would get super-sketched over its depiction of demons.)

Grant Morrison’s Animal Man, absolutely.

Depending on how freaked-out people would be by crime stories, Brian Bendis’s Goldfish might work, or his spy story Fire. You should definitely read through before recommending these though. I’m much laxer about kids’ reading than most people, I think.

Doug TenNapel’s Creature Tech was not a big hit with me, but it’s pretty good, and a lot of people like it a lot more than I do. The idea behind it–a mixture of sci-fi and man-wrestling-God story–is great, and there are many fun moments throughout.

I’ve heard good things about the Courtney Crumrin books and Leave It to Chance, but have never read them. I’d bet a lot of Will Eisner’s work would be good for the older kids–the only one I’ve read is A Life Force (and part of A Contract With God).

Maus, obviously, for the high-schoolers at least. I’d give ’em Watchmen too, but again, maybe that’s just me.

Wow, I’m really not good at this. Help me!