School LIbrary Journal has released a list of adult books recommended for younger readers:

It was a banner literary year and so SLJ’s Adult Books for High School Students Committee decided on 30 titles, published between September 2007 and November 2008 (with reviews published in 2008), to recognize as the best for high school readers. The list includes realistic and historical novels as well as some genre-blending titles. Biography, history, and books about the environment are well represented. Outstanding graphic novels and nonfiction also appear. The committee members are from public and school libraries across the United States and Canada, working with teens in urban, rural, and suburban settings. We are convinced that these titles will appeal to high school readers and provide a bridge into the vast world of adult publishing.


The graphic novels listed include:

Bourban Island 1730
Lewis Trondheim & Olivier Appollodorus. illus. by Lewis Trondheim. First Second. Tr $17.95. ISBN 978-1-59643-258-1.

What It Is
Lynda Barry. Drawn & Quarterly. Tr $24.95. ISBN 978-1-897299-35-7.

Ronald Reagan, A Graphic Biography.
Andrew Helfer, Steve Buscellato and Joe Staton. Hill and Wang. Tr $16.95. ISBN 978-0-8090-9507-0.

Me and the Devil Blues, 1: The Unreal Life of Robert Johnson
Akira Hiramoto. Del Rey. Tr $19.95. ISBN 978-0-345-49926-4.

Incognegro.
Mat Johnson & Warren Pleese. Vertigo. Tr $19.99. ISBN 978-1-4012-1097-7.

The Museum Vaults: Excerpts from the Journal of an Expert.
Marc-Antoine Mathieu. NBM ComicsLit and the Louvre Museum. Tr $14.95. ISBN 978-1-56163-514-6.

Cairo.
G. Willow Wilson and M.K. Perker. Vertigo. Tr $24.99. ISBN 978-1-4012-1140-0.

A People’s History of American Empire.
Howard Zinn & Paul Buhle. Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt. Tr $30. ISBN 978-0-8050-7779-7.

More in the link. A note: the list has left off a number of artists names, which we’ve added in. We’ll have a word with those SLJ people next time we’re in the office.

1 COMMENT

  1. Kinda embarrassing… librarians (at least the catalogers) are pretty good at noting just about everything about a book.

    But hey… I’ll cut them some slack for something like this.

    (And go to the NBM site and read the preview for “The Museum Vaults”!)

  2. Very cool! Thanks for adding my name to the “Ronald Reagan,” listing, Heidi (though it’s misspelled), as it was not listed on the SLJ website.

    Interested readers should also note that while I drew the first 50 pages of this Graphic Novel, the great JOE STATON drew the second half.

    Congrats to my “Reagan” collaborators, and all the other great creators on the list!

  3. And also of interest to we comics-philes is that Peter David’s novel TIGERHEART also made the SLJ list. In full disclosure, it’s true that I work for the publisher of TIGERHEART, so I realize I’m perhaps not credible when I speak about the book. Even so, I do want to say that TIGERHEART is, quite possibly, the best thing Peter David has ever written, and anyone who hasn’t read it might just owe it to him/herself to do so.