Stuck in the Middle: Seventeen Comics from an UNPLEASANT AGE

Editor: Ariel Schrag

First line: Rebecca Ziff and I were best friends.

Why you should read this book: Ah, junior high, middle school, the early teens: whatever you call it, it's the time period when you're most likely to feel self-conscious, most likely to lose your friends, most likely to wander about in a state of perpetual loneliness with the feeling that everybody hates you and you're growing either too fast or too slow. Seventeen self-contained comics by various artists fill this volume with all the pain, suffering, and humiliation of seventh grade, ripe with humor, young love, shocking reality, social isolation, zits, and a young girl's first period. Somewhere in this book, you'll recognize the person you used to be (and still are, deep down inside, most likely).

Why you shouldn't read this book: It still hurts too much.