Stuck in the Middle: 17 Comics from an Unpleasant Age (Paperback)

by Ariel Schrag (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
*Starred Review* How bad was it in junior high? Comics artists visualize the anguish in this honest, acutely perceptive compendium of cartoon black humor. Editor Schrag, who relived her high-school years in several books, including Potential (2000), adds herself to an impressive roundup of artists, including Aaron Reiner (Spiral-Bound, 2004), Lauren Weinstein (Girl Stories, 2005), and Daniel Clowes, whose comics were adapted into an Oscar-nominated movie, Ghost World . Occasionally repetitious, the comics nevertheless hit the mark in terms of emotional content, whether the subject is making friends, embarrassing parents, or suffering through a first date. Wildly disparate in style, the black, white, and gray-tone artwork ranges from Eric Enright's minimalist contribution, with figures that look like toddler toys, and Jace Smith's freewheeling, bug-eyed monster-kid comic to Joe Matt's stark, crisply drawn contribution. Kids going through adolescence will relate; so will those who have come out on the other side. Stephanie Zvirin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"[The stories] carry an immediacy, timelessness, and rawness that make them highly accessible to current teens." -- BCCB, starred review

"...it is excellent, and the variety of the art ensures that the reader never gets bored." -- New York Times

This should help those in the midst of similar social travails realize that they will someday look back and laugh. -- Publishers Weekly

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Viking Juvenile (May 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670062219
• ISBN-13: 978-0670062218
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #203,966 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Middle School May Have Made Me What I Am Today..., September 29, 2007

By	Ayun Halliday "Author of No Touch Monkey!" (Beautiful Brooklyn New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

...but only in opposition and it sure felt like hell going through it.

I bought this book to leaven the whole experience of my daughter applying to public middle schools here in Brooklyn. (The process is a little different in NYC - lots of choices, lots of stress about where you'll be accepted, and where your friends will wind up.)

I didn't buy it for my daughter.

I bought it for me. Interesting that the recommended reader age here is 9 to 12. I'd say more like 25 to 48. You need a little distance on the experience to recognize the full scope and the universality of the humiliations and terror depicted herein.

(As to the reviewer who disparaged the lack of diversity, I would both agree, and contend that this is true of almost every anthology published in our country!. Rather than harshing out on a young editor who made it possible for a lot of little-known just-starting-outers to get published, let's hope for wider nets in the future, and a high level of quality from all fortunate enough to be represented. One way to cast those nets and catch those fish is to publish more anthologies such as this, thus inspiring more outcasts to become graphic memoirists! Viva La Revolution!)

At any rate, now I have this book, like Vinnie the Tampon King's Giant Roller Coaster Period Chart & Journal Sticker Book, on the shelf, ready to whip out when the girl needs a boost. But for now, it's mine, all mine. I lived through it. I've earned it.

Lay it on your favorite adult art freak and wait for the nods of recognition. Or maybe you know a former mean cheerleader who's making ammends as part of some 12-step program. This volume will remind her in no uncertain terms to whom those ammends should be made. Or subvert the system by donating it directly to a middle school library. Just sneak it on the shelves when the librarian isn't looking. Art saves lives.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unjustly Lambasted?, August 3, 2007

By	Bart King (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

At the moment, I'm surprised to find that the two existing reader reviews for this book are quite unflattering. To be sure, one drawback of an anthology containing the work of this many comic artists is that the final result will probably be uneven. And so it is here. But I find it quite unfathomable that one critic faults the book for, essentially, being too "white." Gee, diversity is important, but do anthologies all need to be compiled by the United Nations in order to be worthwhile?

This volume's intent here is to show the dark and often funny side of the middle school. (Its subtitle is, after all, "Comics from an UNPLEASANT Age.") And on those terms, it succeeds, sometimes wincingly well. The highlights include the work of the brilliant Daniel Clowes (of Ghost World fame) and the simple, effective lines of Cole Johnson. Editor Ariel Schrag also contributes two pieces that made me squirm with her convincing depiction of the superficiality and overwhelming self-consciousness that makes the `tween years sometimes so horrible.

And she draws good, too.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Stuck in the Middle, March 1, 2009

By	D.G. (California) - See all my reviews

I do not feel this book is appropriate for middle school kids. The language is rude and inappropriate. The solutions to the problems are leading the kids down a path of continued bullying not respect for self. I have heard that some middle school kids, 6th - 8th may find it funny, my kids did not. They were uncomfortable with the subject matter and the language as well as the solutions.

High School kids may find it funny and more suited for their age.